Pakistan, March 17 -- If Bollywood scriptwriters ever runs short of plot ideas, they need only turn to India's propaganda playbook for inspiration. Take the recent killing of Mufti Shahmir, a Pakistani religious scholar shot dead inside a mosque during Ramadan. According to a growing chorus of Indian social media accounts, Mufti Shahmir wasn't just a preacher, he was a jet-setting "Iran-based businessman" who orchestrated the arrest of Kulbhushan Jadhav, India's beloved spy.

In a single stroke, Mufti Shahmir a man known locally for his sermons on community harmony has been posthumously promoted to international espionage villain. Forget Bollywood; this is geopolitical fan fiction at its finest. By the logic of these claims, Mufti Shahmir...