As news of Operation Sindoor broke on May 7, a 21-second video featuring several men and hijab-clad women running helter-skelter amid some debris was widely shared on social media claiming that the footage shows the aftermath of Indian air strikes.
A fortnight after a terrorist attack in Pahalgam had killed 26 people, Indian Armed Forces in the early hours of May 7 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.
An X-user, Janardan Mishra (@janardanspeaks), shared the video clip with a caption, which can be roughly translated as, “He who has entered your house and dug your grave is Modiji, sitting on the throne in Delhi.” The caption is suggestive of the condition of the people seen in the video to be from Pakistan. (Archive)
घर में घुसकर मारा है कब्र तुम्हारी खोदी है
दिल्ली की गद्दी पर बैठा बाप तुम्हारा मोदी है। pic.twitter.com/zas1Usfn1v— Janardan Mishra (@janardanspeaks) May 7, 2025
The post has garnered over 6,46,600 views.
X user Deepak Sharma (@SonOfBharat7), who amplifies misinformation and propaganda on a regular basis, also shared the video praising Indian Army for their display of valour. In the tweet, Sharma quipped that India first suspended water supply to Pakistan and then “set it on fire.” He further claimed that Pakistanis was now praying to Allah to save them — especially from Prime Minister Modi.
वाह्ह्हह्ह्ह्ह.. अनामिका जी 🔥
सिंदूर को बारूद बनाकर आतंकों की खान में,,
रोक के पानी आग लगा दी पापी पाकिस्तान में..या अल्ला बचा ले.. या अल्ला मूडी से बचा ले#OperationSindoor #IndiaPakistanWar pic.twitter.com/0l8zhebNAR
— Deepak Sharma (@SonOfBharat7) May 7, 2025
The tweet has been viewed over 4 Lakh times.
On Facebook, a user named Ayesha SDhar shared the same video and claimed that it showed the condition of Pakistan’s Bahawalpur in the morning after the air strike. (Archive)
‘অপারেশন সিন্দুর’ 🔥🔥
এটা নতুন ভারত 🇮🇳🚩 সকালের চিত্র পাকিস্তানের ভাওয়ালপুর এর
#highlightseveryone #Pakistan 😂Posted by Ayesha SDhar on Tuesday 6 May 2025
The post has received around 10,000 views.
Similarly, various YouTube channels, including RSS vlogs, ind vs pak, Baba Tv, and others have shared the video with similar claims.
Fact Check
Upon close examination of the video, we located a watermark reading “Nour Alzaharna”.
Taking cue from this, we conducted a keyword search on Instagram and identified Nour Alzaharna’s account, where the same video was originally uploaded on April 4, 2025.
In the caption of the video, Nour wrote, “Please be with us, we are dying every second. We need your support.”
View this post on Instagram
According to the profile bio, Nour is from Gaza, and the video footage featured the destruction caused by Israeli strikes in Gaza.
To ascertain this further, we performed another keyword search and came across an Al Jazeera news report dated April 4 with the headline, “More than 30 people killed by Israel as Gaza supplies run out”. The report contained a video from the same location with people running in all direction in utter confusion.
To sum up, the video in question depicts an unknown location Gaza following an Israeli strike on April 4. The video has no connection with India, Pakistan, or Operation Sindoor. The social media claims surrounding the clip are false.
Independent journalism that speaks truth to power and is free of corporate and political control is possible only when people start contributing towards the same. Please consider donating towards this endeavour to fight fake news and misinformation.
