A 37-second-long clip with visuals of fire and smoke and the sound of gunfire went viral on social media on May 7 within hours of the news break about India’s Operation Sindoor targeting terrorist bases in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir. Users shared the video with the claim that it showed Pakistan retaliating against India. While some claimed it showed Pakistan shooting down two Indian fighter jets, others stated that it was the Pakistani Army blowing up an Indian brigade headquarters.
A fortnight after a terrorist attack in Pahalgam had killed 26 people, Indian Armed Forces hit nine sites containing terrorist infrastructure in Pakistan and PoK from where attacks against India had been planned and directed. The Union ministry of defence described the action as “focused, measured and non-escalatory in nature”, with no Pakistani military facilities having been targeted.
A Lebanese news outlet, Cedar News, published a report on May 7, with a screengrab of the viral clip claiming it showed Pakistani forces shooting down a Rafale and an Indian helicopter. The same was tweeted by their official X handle. (Archive 1, 2)
VIDEO: Pakistani forces shot down the Rafale and the Indian helicopter https://t.co/ZDqRJ4Q3ff pic.twitter.com/HzUh3pOOrg
— Cedar News (@cedar_news) May 6, 2025
Another X user, Sulaiman Ahmed (@ShaykhSulaiman), shared the same clip on May 7, claiming that it showed Pakistan blowing up Indian brigade headquarters. So far, the tweet has received over 5.6 Lakh views and has been retweeted over 1,900 times. (Archive)
Breaking: Pakistan army blew up the Indian Brigade headquarters pic.twitter.com/PEzBAEPnLN
— Sulaiman Ahmed (@ShaykhSulaiman) May 6, 2025
X user Irfan Hashmi (@IrfanHashmiUK), who identifies himself as a journalist, shared the same clip on May 7, saying, “Pakistan Zindabad”. The tweet has received more than 4.5 Lakh views and has been retweeted over 100 times. (Archive)
Several users also shared the viral video, claiming it shows visuals of Pakistan’s retaliation against India. Below are a few instances.
Fact Check
To verify this claim, we broke down the viral clip into multiple key frames and ran a reverse image search on a few of them. This led us to multiple tweets shared on April 27 carrying the same video. While some users claimed it showed the Indian Army’s retaliation in the Leepa Valley in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, others alleged it depicted the Pakistani Army opening fire along the Line of Control (LoC) and destroying Indian Army bases.
These suggest that the video is unrelated to Pakistan’s retaliation against ‘Operation Sindoor’. It has been being shared since at least April 27.
We also noticed that under @VIKRAMPRATAPSIN’s post several users had commented that the video is not recent.
On further probing, we found a YouTube video posted on April 2 by a channel named ‘Cool Swag’ where at the 25-second mark, the initial part of the viral clip appears. This confirms that the clip predates the Pahalgam terrorist attack and is therefore entirely unrelated to the current situation.
While it is possible that the video could be even older, Alt News was unable to trace its original source.
At the time of this fact check being published, there were no reports about any Indian Army establishment being attacked following Operation Sindoor. On the other hand, there were some reports about some Indian jets having crashed in Kashmir.
However, our findings clearly establish that the viral clip, which is at least a month old if not more, is being shared with false claims. The video is entirely unrelated to the ongoing conflict following the Pahalgam terror attack.
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