On May 7, hours after the Indian Armed Forces launched Operation Sindoor to target areas in Pakistan where attacks against India were being planned, a series of unverified visuals were viral on social media. Among them is a purported video by Indian news outlet Republic. The Hindi audio in the clip suggests that an Indian fighter jet was taken down by Pakistan.
The current operation comes after tensions between India and Pakistan escalated after the April 22 Pahalgam terrorist attack in which 26 civilians were killed. In the early hours of May 7, the Indian military carried out strikes at nine terrorist infrastructure sites in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir, targeting outfits at the centre of orchestrating cross-border terrorism. According to a report by The Hindu, the terror camps targeted are allegedly linked to various banned outfits, including Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), Jaish-e-Mohammed and Hizbul Mujahideen. The Ministry of Defence said that no Pakistani military facilities were targeted in this operation and that India was taking a “measured and non-escalatory” approach. However, soon after the strikes, The Hindu reported, Pakistan army retaliated with heavy mortar shelling on forward villages along the Line of Control (LoC) in Poonch and Rajouri, in Jammu and Kashmir.
Amidst this, several social media users shared the video by Republic showing fire and damaged remains of an aircraft along with some air force personnel. The Hindi audio in the clip translates to: “An Indian Jaguar fighter jet has been shot down. The Indian jet was brought down as a result of an attack on Pakistan. India lost its Jaguar jet during the assault on Pakistan. A Pakistani jet shot down an Indian Jaguar while it was operating in the airspace. India had launched missile attacks from its jets targeting three locations in Pakistan. However, not all jets were able to strike successfully…”
X user, Dr Shama Junejo (@ShamaJunejo) shared the video and claimed that even Indian media was broadcasting that Pakistan had shot down an Indian aircraft. “Like I wrote, Pakistan’s response will be precise and proportionate in self defence,” this person wrote. At the time of writing this, her had post garnered nearly 950,000 views. (Archive)
Lo Chalo
Now even Indian Media is running the story that Pakistan has shot down Indian aircraft.
So 6 air crafts shot down
3 Rafael, 1 SU 30, 1 UAV, 1 MiG 29
Like I wrote Pakistan’s response will be precise and proportionate in self defence.
pic.twitter.com/rAlTZFMW6U— Dr Shama Junejo (@ShamaJunejo) May 7, 2025
Another X user, Defense Intelligence (@DI313_), also shared the purported video report and claimed that the news of the Indian aircraft being taken down by Pakistani forces was confirmed by the Indian media. (Archive)
Jaguar down by PAF 🇵🇰
Indian 🇮🇳 media comfirms pic.twitter.com/IRdEMhi59u
— Defense Intelligence (@DI313_) May 6, 2025
X account, Defence Pakistan (@Defence_PK99), also shared Republic’s clip and claimed, “…Indian media has confirmed the downing of the Jaguar by the Pakistan Air Force (PAF). So far, the PAF has shot down five Indian jets”. (Archive)
BREAKING: Pakistani J-10C aircraft have shot down an Indian Jaguar using the long range PL-15 missile.
Indian media has confirmed the downing of the Jaguar by the Pakistan Air Force (PAF).So far, the PAF has shot down five Indian jets. pic.twitter.com/AlROrifSTX
— Defence Pakistan (@Defence_PK99) May 6, 2025
Several other X users amplified the purported video report by Republic. Based on their handle names, bio descriptions, content they shared and the hashtags used, these accounts seemed to be amplifying a pro-Pakistan narrative online. (Archives- 1, 2, 3, 4)
The video is also viral on YouTube, as recent visuals of Pakistan gunning down Indian Jaguar jets. One can find links here, here, here and here.
Fact Check
At a glance, we were able to notice two distinct visuals in the purported Republic video coverage. On the right, a crashed fighter jet is visible, while on the left, something appears to be burning in the distance. Another visual of water being sprayed can also be seen on the left in the viral video.
We ran the screenshots showing the crashed jet through Google’s reverse image search. This led us to a Times of India report from April 8, 2025, titled, “No spinal cord injury to pilot Manish Kumar Singh in Jamnagar IAF Jaguar Crash: Pune Military Hospital doctors”. The report was about Group Captain Singh, who survived an IAF fighter jet crash in Jamnagar on April 2. Meanwhile, his co-pilot, Lieutenant Siddharth Yadav, had died in the incident. The report added that Singh was being treated for a compound fracture in his right leg and minor burns and that doctors had ruled out spinal cord injury.
As one can see in the screenshot below, the image in the article is the same as the one used in the viral Republic clip.
News outlet ABP also used the same image in its April 4 report on the crash. Here, the image was attributed to Press Trust of India.
Taking cue from this, we tried a keyword search and found Republic’s coverage of the Jamnagar IAF jet crash, in which they aired the visuals that are now viral. In the video below from April 3, a day after the crash, one can see that the visual of the fire shown in the now-viral video is the same as the one used in Republic Bharat’s April 3 reportage.
Here are screenshots:
Another video report by Times Now on the Jamnagar fighter jet crash from April also has similar visuals as the one now viral.
The visuals of water being sprayed, as seen in the viral video, were also clearly visible in media outlet Wion’s reportage of the Jamnagar crash last month.
To be sure that the Republic footage being shared after the Indian military operation was launched was edited, we looked at the channel’s coverage over the past few days. A Republic video report from May 2 had the same text or tickers seen in the now-viral clip, but the visuals or the story that the news outlet was presenting was different from the viral video. The comparisons below make it amply clear that the news channel’s original video and reportage was edited with unrelated visuals to make the false claims seem legitimate.
Thus, a video by Indian news channel Republic was edited with unrelated visuals of the Jamnagar IAF jet crash from April 2, 2025, to share bogus claims that Pakistan shot down an Indian Air Force plane as retaliatory action after India launched Operation Sindoor on May 7, 2025.
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