Viral claim that ‘European research survey’ labelled India biggest source of terrorism in Asia is baseless, made up

Claims that a European research survey has declared India the largest source of terrorism in Asia are viral on social media.

X account @NavCom24 shared this claim on February 21 with a picture of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi with a tricolour in the background.

The post reached over 104,000 users. 

Note that this X account is currently withheld in Indias. 

Another X account, @GlobalEyeInfo or The Global Eye, which describes itself as an “independent News Agency on X” shared the same viral claim. However, like the previous user, this account too did not mention which European body had conducted this research. (Archive)

BREAKING: 🇮🇳 India declared the largest source of terrorism in Asia by a European research survey. pic.twitter.com/3QOs7xzY1E

— The Global Eye (@GlobalEyeInfo) February 21, 2025

The same day, X user @TamzidSalehin, shared a similar assertion, calling it “Breaking” news, alongside a morphed picture of PM Modi with red demonic eyes. (Archive)

🚨BREAKING: India has been declared the largest source of terrorism in Asia by a European research survey. pic.twitter.com/LGDMGymmh8

— Tamzid (@TamzidSalehin) February 21, 2025

Many other accounts too posted similar claims.

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Note that most of the accounts mentioned here have content that is either pro-Pakistan or pro-Bangladesh and often anti-India.

Fact Check

Alt News conducted multiple keyword searches but found no report or any credible evidence supporting such claims. 

On February 19, wire agency Press Trust of India had published a report citing India’s permanent representative to the UN Ambassador Parvathaneni Harish as saying: “Pakistan is the global epicentre of terrorism harboring more than 20 UN-listed terrorist entities and providing state support to cross-border terrorism.”

The ambassador goes on to say that it is very ironical that Pakistan praises itself for being at the forefront of the fight against terrorism whereas India has been a victim of terror acts perpetrated by the country through Jaish-e-Mohammed and Harkat Ul Mujahidin among others.

While investigating these claims, we came across the 2024 Global Terrorism Index (GTI) report by the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP) published in february last year. 

The IEP report, which looks at global trends and the overall impact of terrorism, ranked Pakistan at the fourth place among 163 countries for the year 2023. India is ranked fourteenth. 

These rankings are based on GTI scores, which considers not only deaths but also incidents, hostages and injuries from terrorism in a particular year weighted over a five-year period.

According the 2024 report, Pakistan had moved up three places to fourth on the Index, “its worst
place since 2016.” The neighbouring country, along with Nigeria and Somalia, has been among those most consistently hit by terrorism since 2011. The report did not say much about India

To sum up, claims that India has been labelled the largest source of terrorism in Asia by a European research survey are bogus and unsubstantiated. There has been no recent ‘European research survey’ that says this nor has any credible European survey agency made such assertions.