Footage does not show Pakistani jets shot down by Indian army; videos by gamers, predating Op Sindoor go viral

Soon after India launched Operation Sindoor in the early hours of May 7, unverified visuals of missiles and aircraft were viral on social media with claims that these depicted the Indian or Pakistani forces in action. Among these are two videos that reportedly show Indian defence forces shooting down fighter jets from Pakistan.

The Indian armed forces have called the military strikes in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) “focused, measured and non-escalatory” and said that no Pakistani military facilities were targeted. They added that the operation was undertaken to target nine sites where terrorist activities against India were being planned. The action comes a fortnight after the dastardly terror attack in Kashmir’s Pahalgam, where terrorists, allegedly associated with the banned Pakistan-based outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba, killed 26 civilians. Since the operation’s launch, however, there has been a spurt of misinformation and unrelated visuals on social media, manipulating perceptions of what unfolded in the strikes.

Video 1:

One such viral clip shows a C-RAM (Counter Rocket, Artillery, and Mortar) device and some jets flying. In the video, the C-RAM appears to destabilise the jets.

X user Manish Kasyap Son Of Bihar (@ManishKasyapsob) shared this clip on May 7 with a caption in Hindi that translates to: “This Pakistani F17 jet came and was shot down by the Indian Army. #OperationSindoor”. The post has received over 410,000 views and has been reshared over 300 times. (Archive)

ये पाकिस्तानी F17 जेट आया वो भारतीय सेना ने मार गिराया 🔥 #OperationSindoor pic.twitter.com/OskkdoWe5i

— Manish Kasyap Son Of Bihar (@ManishKasyapsob) May 7, 2025

Another X user, Deepak Sharma (@SonOfBharat7), also shared the same clip on May 7, claiming it shows the Indian Army shooting down Pakistani jets. At the time of writing this, the post had over 1 million views and was been reshared by more than 2,800 users. (Archive)

Alt News has written about misinformation and communal content shared by this user.

Another X account, DreamThatWorks (@dreamthatworks), shared the same clip on May 7, claiming that the Indian forces shot down a Pakistani JF-17 thunder jet. The post has received over 3 million views and was reshared 1,200 times. (Archive)

Several others on X also shared the viral clip with the same claim.

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Video 2:

A similar video that was also widely circulated amid Operation Sindoor showed jets flying and bullets being fired at them with a C-RAM device.

X user Nehra Ji (@nehraji77) shared this clip on May 7 and wrote in the caption, “Footage of Pakistani jets being shot down. Have fun!” This post has received over 670,00 views and has been reshared over 1,700 times. (Archive)

पाकिस्तानी फाइटर जेट मार गिराने का फूटेज

आनंद ले 👇😀

#operation_sindoor #OperationSindoor pic.twitter.com/KoWIYYAeCX

— Nehra Ji (@nehraji77) May 7, 2025

Another X user, Sumit Tiwari (@thesumittewari), who identifies as a journalist in their bio, shared the same clip on May 7 with the caption, “Pakistan is being treated like a toy”. The post has been viewed 442,000 times and was reshared over 600 times. (Archive)

खिलौना की तरह रेला है पाकिस्तान को pic.twitter.com/3kyVPomx88

— Sumit Tiwari (@thesumittewari) May 7, 2025

Many others also shared this on X, claiming that it showed Pakistani jets being shot down by India. Below are a few instances.

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Fact Check

Video 1:

To verify the first video, we broke it down into key frames and ran a reverse image search on a few. This led us to an Instagram reel featuring the same video.

We noticed that the page @alone65.1 had posted this on March 30, over a month before tensions escalated between the two countries.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Cloud260 (@alone65.1)

We found that this page had posted other videos with very similar visuals. One of these, also posted on March 30 before the now-viral clip, also showed a C-RAM firing at jets. In another video (here), one can see jets flying while bullets are fired at them. Sounds of shelling and cries of people can be heard in the background.

In the comments, one user indicated that the footage was from a video game.

On looking further, we found another post by the page shared on March 30 with its older username and bio. At the time, the page was categorised as a “Gamer” and its bio read, “Gaming is life”. It also included the hashtags #GG (short for “Good Game”) and #GameOn — both of which still appear in the current bio.

These findings suggest that the visuals uploaded here are from a video game. We also found several similar clips on YouTube where users had uploaded videos of games, such as Arma-3, that show a similarly realistic simulation with C-RAM and fighter jets.

Regardless, the date the now-viral clip appears on this page (March 30) predates the escalation of tension between India and Pakistan and is hence unrelated to Operation Sindoor.

Video 2:

We also broke down the second viral clip into several key frames and ran a reverse image search on some of them. This led us to a Facebook post with the same video posted on April 19 by a page called ‘Coffin Gaming’.

The post was titled: “S-401 Air Defense Targeted FPV Drone! Ep 115”.

We checked the bio of the page, and it has been categorised as “Gaming video creator”. Several such videos could be found on the page, and the captions seem to mention episodes of these videos.

Thus, we were able to establish that the second clip too not only predates the recent Indian operation but is a gaming video showing strikes.