SOURCE: AFI
In the midst of escalating tensions between India and Pakistan, a wave of misinformation has emerged, largely driven by accounts allegedly backed by Pakistan’s Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR). Despite India’s successful interception of most Fatah-I and Fatah-II missile launches during recent military exchanges, ISPR-linked accounts have been circulating old videos of fires in India—originally caused by unrelated incidents like stubble burning or industrial accidents—as supposed “visual proof” of successful Pakistani strikes. This deliberate disinformation campaign aims to undermine India’s defense achievements and project a false narrative of Pakistani military success, even as evidence suggests otherwise.
The recent flare-up between the two nuclear-armed neighbors began after the April 22, 2025, attack in Pahalgam, Jammu & Kashmir, which killed 26 civilians, mostly tourists. India responded with Operation Sindoor on May 7, targeting alleged terror infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), resulting in 31 reported civilian deaths, according to Pakistani claims. Pakistan retaliated with Operation Bunyan ul Marsoos, launching a series of drone and missile attacks, including Fatah-I and Fatah-II ballistic missiles, targeting 26 locations across India. However, India’s advanced air defense systems, including the Barak-8, Akash, and S-400 Triumf, successfully intercepted most of these threats, notably neutralizing a Fatah-II missile aimed at Delhi over Sirsa, Haryana, on May 10. Despite these defensive successes, ISPR-backed accounts have resorted to fabricating evidence to claim otherwise.
One prominent tactic has been the use of old, unrelated videos to depict alleged Pakistani strikes inside India. For instance, a video circulating on social media, claimed by Pakistani accounts to show the aftermath of a Pakistani Air Force (PAF) strike on an Indian S-400 battery, was debunked as footage of stubble burning in Jalandhar from May 8—48 hours before the supposed strike. This was confirmed by the original video uploader, yet ISPR-linked accounts continued to push the narrative. Similarly, other videos purportedly showing Indian airbases in Udhampur and Jammu under attack were proven false through satellite imagery analysis, which showed no signs of damage. Posts on X have highlighted this trend, with users noting that ISPR bots are “busy sharing old and unrelated videos” to mislead audiences, while satellite imagery consistently contradicts their claims.
This disinformation strategy is not new for ISPR, which has a history of manipulating media to shape narratives. On May 12, the Press Information Bureau (PIB) Fact Check Unit exposed a Pakistani military briefing that used doctored footage from an Indian news channel, editing clips to falsely imply that Indian airbases had been destroyed. The full video, however, confirmed that all attacks were intercepted, and the footage actually showed a downed Pakistani missile. Additionally, on May 13, ISPR was caught manipulating a video of an Indian Ministry of Defence briefing by Wing Commander Vyomika Singh, removing key context to falsely suggest significant Indian losses while omitting India’s successful countermeasures. These actions reveal a pattern of deliberate distortion aimed at misleading both domestic and international audiences.
The motivation behind this campaign appears twofold: to bolster domestic morale in Pakistan amid military setbacks and to discredit India’s defensive capabilities on the global stage. The Fatah-I and Fatah-II missiles, with ranges of 140 km and 400 km respectively, were touted by Pakistan as precision-strike weapons capable of evading modern air defenses. Yet, their repeated interception by India’s multi-layered defense grid—combining indigenous systems like Akash and collaborative ones like Barak-8—has punctured these claims. By spreading false visuals, ISPR seeks to salvage its credibility and project an image of strength, even as ground realities, supported by satellite imagery and Indian military reports, tell a different story.
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