Alt News – Radio Free

Man who shouted ‘Allah Hu Akbar’ & ‘Death to Trump’ on UK flight is a Hindu

Prantik Ali — Thu, 31 Jul 2025 13:08:54 +0000

A video, around 24 seconds in length, is viral on social media, which shows a man onboard an airplane shouting ‘Allah Hu Akbar’, ‘Death to America’, and ‘Death to Trump.’ Towards the end of the clip, he is tackled to the ground by two co-passengers.

Several users on social media have claimed that he is a Muslim person who was on a flight to Glasgow. Some users have alleged that he is a Pakistani.

X user Tommy Robinson (@TRobinsonNewEra) shared the video with these claims. At the time of this article being written, the post has garnered more than 10 lakh views. (Archive)

Video footage of the Muslim on a flight to Glasgow screaming “allahu akbar”, threatening to bomb the plane and ranting about Trump.

He was arrested upon arrival.

No mention from the legacy media what he was doing. https://t.co/RL0xJJCfRc pic.twitter.com/3msqIXkT3A

— Tommy Robinson (@TRobinsonNewEra) July 27, 2025

X user Megh Updates also posted the video with the same claim — that the man i a Muslim. The post had around 43,000 views at the time of this article being written. Readers should note that this user frequently shares misinformation and communal propaganda on X. (Archive)

Video footage of the Muslim on a flight to Glasgow screaming “allahu akbar”, threatening to bomb the plane and ranting about Trump.

He was arrested upon arrival. A Pakistani ? pic.twitter.com/deGaMYKAgt

— Megh Updates (@MeghUpdates) July 27, 2025

Other X users, like (@ocjain4), (@Basil_TGMD) and (@Incognito_qfs) also amplified the viral claims. (Archives: 1, 2, 3)

Screenshots below:

Click to view slideshow.

Fact Check

To verify the authenticity of the viral claims, we ran a relevant keyword search on Google to find out more about the incident. A BBC report identified the person shouting the slogans in a Luton to Glasgow flight on July 27 as 41-year-old Abhay Nayak, a resident of Luton.

We found several other reports in the incident in prominent media outlets, including The Times of India, The Telegraph, Deccan Herald, and Sky News. In every report, the individual was identified as Abhay Devdas Nayak, a man of Indian origin. He has not been charged with terrorism, but has been remanded in custody, and is due in court next week, according to the reports.

Some witnesses said Nayak had claimed he wanted to “send a message” to Trump he latter was visiting Scotland. the US President was on a trip to Scotland from July 27 to 29.

Click to view slideshow.

In conclusion, the video has been amplified with the suggestion that a Muslim man was threatening to bomb a plane, while shouting ‘Allah Hu Akbar’. On investigating, Alt News found that the man was a Hindu resident of Luton, named Abhay Nayak.

The post Man who shouted ‘Allah Hu Akbar’ & ‘Death to Trump’ on UK flight is a Hindu appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Prantik Ali.

Incident of cheating in PWD exam in Chhattisgarh given false communal narrative

Pawan Kumar — Tue, 29 Jul 2025 12:25:17 +0000

A video purportedly from Chhattisgarh’s Bilaspur is being widely circulated with claims that a woman in a burqa was caught with devices used for cheating during the entrance exam for Public Works Department (PWD) jobs.

The first part of the video shows a girl wearing a black headscarf in an auto rickshaw with a tablet, mobile phone, walkie-talkie and two bags. Some people are seen recording a video of her and accuse her of cheating in the PWD exam at the Ramdalai Exam Centre. Towards the end of the video, the same people show a mic and camera taped to a black garment, claiming it was used for cheating.

X user Ocean Jain shared the video and claimed, “A girl wearing a burqa/hijab has a camera and mic taped on her head outside a government job exam centre in Chhattisgarh, while a girl sitting on a rickshaw with a tablet and walkie-talkie is getting ready to go inside for the exam. Meanwhile, Hindu candidates were made to remove even their kalawa, janeu, and mangalsutra. Now do you understand why they create so much ruckus over the hijab?”

छत्तीसगढ़ में एक सरकारी नौकरी परीक्षा केंद्र के बाहर बुर्का/हिजाब पहने आई एक लड़की के सिर पर कैमरा और माइक टेप किया गया है ।
साथ ही टैबलेट और वॉकी-टॉकी के साथ रिक्शे पर बैठी एक लड़की अंदर परीक्षा देने जाने की तैयारी में है ।

जबकि हिंदू उम्मीदवारों से कलावा, जनेऊ, मंगलसूत्र तक… pic.twitter.com/7JWUsqcMh1

— Ocean Jain (@ocjain4) July 14, 2025

Other X users, such as Sunanda Roy, Megh Updates, Frontal Force, Saffron Chargers, Pakistan Untold, Hindu Post, along with journalist Rakesh Krishna Sinha as well as X handles @JIX5A, @Vini__007, @Warlock_Shubh, @TeamJhaat__, @TheTreeni and @TimesAlgebraIND also amplified the video with similar claims.

Click to view slideshow.

BJP worker Priti Gandhi and X handles @SouleFacts, @jpsin1, and @erbmjha also shared the video with similar captions. These X accounts are followed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Click to view slideshow.

Meanwhile, some social media users shared the video, claiming it was during PWD recruitment exams in Uttarakhand. These users wrote that the insistence on wearing hijabs was so that they could hide devices in these scarves and cheat. They demanded a ban on hijabs and burqas in the country.

Click to view slideshow.

Fact Check

Alt News performed a keyword search of the viral claim, which led us to a report published by Dainik Bhaskar on July 14, 2025, with this video. According to the report, during the PWD sub-engineer recruitment exam held in the Sarkanda police station area of the Bilaspur district of Chhattisgarh on July 13, a female candidate named Anusurya had a spy camera and earphones hidden in her undergarments inside the Ram Dulare Swami Atmanand School examination centre. Her sister Anuradha, sitting in an auto rickshaw parked at a short distance from the school, was giving her answers to the questions with the help of a walkie-talkie and wireless mic.

News outlets Patrika and ABP News also reported the same on the incident. The NSUI (National Student Union of India) leaders caught them red-handed and made a video, which is now going viral on social media.

According to the report, both sisters were arrested after a case of cheating was registered against them. Also, there is no mention of hijabs in the reports. However, the name of the candidate who cheated (Anusurya) and her sister (Anuradha) make it clear that they were from the Hindu community.

To sum up, the viral video shows Anuradha, the sister of an applicant who was caught sharing answers outside an examination centre in Bilaspur. Anusurya, the candidate writing the exam, had a spy camera and device hidden in her innerwear. These devices are seen towards the end of the viral clip. The applicant and her sister both have Hindu names; the communal claims are, thus, baseless.

The post Incident of cheating in PWD exam in Chhattisgarh given false communal narrative appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Pawan Kumar.

Video of wife ‘cheating’ on husband viral with communal claims that lover hid Muslim identity is actually scripted

Pawan Kumar — Tue, 29 Jul 2025 12:18:22 +0000

A video in which a woman is allegedly caught cheating by her husband is viral on social media with communal claims. Social media users claim that a married Muslim man lured the woman, a Hindu, by hiding his identity and marital status.

In the viral clip, the husband along with two policemen, catch the wife with the lover. The husband informs the cops that the two have been conspiring to kill him and shows them evidence. The man tells the police that his name is Gaurav, but while checking his phone and investigating, they discover that his name is actually Salim and that he is married. The wife seems unaware of this.

On July 15, 2025, X user @KreatelyMedia, which has spread misinformation in the past, shared this video and wrote, “Gaurav turned out to be Salim”.

गौरव निकला सलीम pic.twitter.com/wIayCHjTRd

— Kreately.in (@KreatelyMedia) July 15, 2025

A YouTube channel called The Star Network News shared the video on July 16, 2025. The video’s Hindi title roughly translates to: “Husband catches wife with lover, wife threatens to kill, Gaurav turned out to be a married man named Salim”. It is worth noting that this is not the official Star Network account, but the channel uses the Star News logo.

Numerous other X users shared the video and claimed that Salim had changed his name and was living with a married woman named Gaurav.

Click to view slideshow.

Facebook users, including a page titled Bundel Khand Live, also shared the video. Apart from this, this footage was also shared on Instagram with similar claims.

Click to view slideshow.

Fact Check

Upon taking a closer look at the viral video, Alt News noticed that one of the men posing as a policeman is actually a content creator named Deepak Sharma, who makes entertainment videos. We have previously written about scripted videos made by Sharma, featuring him, that have been shared with false claims.

We found the source video posted on the Facebook page and YouTube channel of “Monty Deepak Sharma” as well as the Facebook page “Actor Monty Sharma”. The original video is about 10 minutes long. It is worth noting that the creator has not added any disclaimer here that this is a scripted video.

Upon further investigation, we also found a video of the same skit shot from a different angle on Deepak Sharma’s Instagram account “Monty Deepak Sharma” and a Facebook page named “Actor Monty Sharma“.

In this, a disclaimer appears at the 00:03-minute mark in the video. It states that this is a work of fiction and made for entertainment purposes. However, the disclaimer appears for less than a second, which means the audience will barely be able to read it or notice it.

The actors seen in the viral video also appear in many other scripted videos.

In other words, the viral video is scripted and the saga of Gaurav or Salim’s so-called affair is fictional. Several social media users fell for the misleading nature of the content, which does not carry apt disclaimers, making it . seem like a real incident. Alt News has seen several instances in the past wherein scripted videos have been misused to target a particular community.

The post Video of wife ‘cheating’ on husband viral with communal claims that lover hid Muslim identity is actually scripted appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Pawan Kumar.

Video of Chinese solar power plant viral as BJP govt’s feat in Gujarat

Oishani Bhattacharya — Tue, 29 Jul 2025 10:59:37 +0000

A 19-second clip showing a floating solar panel plant apparently from Gujarat is viral on social media. Several users on social media have praised the BJP government in Gujarat for setting up the same.

X user இந்துத்துவம் (@VVR_Krish) shared the above-mentioned clip on July 23 with a caption in Tamil which hailed the development under ‘Gujarat Model’ and praised the BJP government in the state.

This post has received around 3.5 Lakh views and has been retweeted more than 200 times. (Archive)

வளர்ச்சி நோக்கி குஜராத் மாடல்!!

குஜராத்தில் பாஜக அரசு ஏற்ப்படுத்தி இருக்கும் Floating Solar plant…!!

வருடம் தோறும் மின் கட்டணத்தை உயர்த்தினால் அது திராவிட மாடல்..! pic.twitter.com/8nlEc1ywBc

— இந்துத்துவம் (@VVR_Krish) July 23, 2025

In another case, Instagram user @sundar jani posted the same video on June 19, claiming that the clip showed a solar power plant in Bhuj in Gujarat.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by sundar jani (@surendar_bishnoi_0129)

Fact Check

To verify the authenticity of this claim, we broke down the viral clip into multiple keyframes and ran a reverse image search on some of them. This led us to an Instagram post from June 16, which featured the viral clip. This post was made by the page @shanghai_views, and the caption mentioned, “Solar panels meet the sea, rice paddies climb the mountains —China’s innovative farming & energy solutions are changing the game!”

This indicates that the viral clip showing the solar plant is actually footage from China.

We found another Instagram post made by the Chinese media outlet China Youth Daily on July 7, which also featured the same viral clip and the caption accompanying the video indicated that the clip was from China.

Further, while checking if any official Chinese sources had shared this video, we came across a Facebook post from Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning dated July 3, 2025. She mentioned in the caption, “From city grids to coastal waters, China is tapping the sun to power a greener future”.

We also checked if there were any news reports about a floating solar power plant in Gujarat, and found a 2023 report by the Times of India about floating solar panels being installed on the Narmada Canal. We looked for the visuals of the plant and found a video on CNBC Bajar’s YouTube channel, posted in September 2024. The visuals are not in any way similar to those seen in the viral clip.

Below is a comparison where it can be clearly seen that while the floating solar power plant in Gujarat is over a canal, the one in China is clearly on a larger water body and is of much bigger scale.

The post Video of Chinese solar power plant viral as BJP govt’s feat in Gujarat appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Oishani Bhattacharya.

‘Poor should remain poor’: Bengal BJP shares clipped video distorting context of Mamata’s 2024 Martyrs’ Day remarks

Prantik Ali — Fri, 25 Jul 2025 15:44:36 +0000

A couple of days after Trinamool Congress’s annual July 21 Martyrs’ Day rally in Kolkata, Bengal BJP’s official X handle shared a video claiming that West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee had said that the poor should remain poor.

The clip, around 8 seconds in length, shows Banerjee saying. “Ami chai apnara gorib thakun – maaney ja ache ghore, sheta kheye beche thakun” (Translation: I want you to remain poor, that is, be satisfied with whatever you have).

The tweet by the official X handle of BJP’s Bengal unit (@BJP4Bengal) said, “Mamata Banerjee wants to keep the people of Bengal trapped in poverty. She has no vision left for the state’s future. The time has come to uproot the Bangla-Birodhi TMC government.” (Archive)

Mamata Banerjee wants to keep the people of Bengal trapped in poverty. She has no vision left for the state’s future. The time has come to uproot the Bangla-Birodhi TMC government.#BanglaBirodhiMamata pic.twitter.com/Ks0PlGcXJP

— BJP West Bengal (@BJP4Bengal) July 23, 2025

Several BJP-supporting X handles like Befitting Facts (@BefittingFacts), Keya Ghosh (@keyakahe), @vinushareddyb, @SouleFacts amplified the claim. (Archives: 1, 2, 3, 4)

Screenshots below:

Click to view slideshow.

Fact Check

To begin with, we compared the video to photos of this year’s July 21 event taken from Mamata Banerjee’s official Facebook page, and found that the video was not from this year’s Shaheed Diwas programme. The difference in the saree worn by the CM confirms this. Besides, this year, there was no rain during the meeting, while the video shows Banerjee speaking amidst steady rain.

Thereafter, we broke down the viral video into keyframes. A reverse image search on one of them led us to the original video on Trinamool Congress’s YouTube channel, which is from last year’s rally.

At the 2:57:54-hour mark in the video, Banerjee issues a warning to her party leaders and workers against engaging in corrupt means to amass wealth. She says: “Ami all municipality, Panchayat, MLA, MP der shokolke bolbo, ekhon theke kono obhijog jeno karur biruddhe dol na paay. Jodi kono obhijog karur biruddhe paay, amra kintu upojukto action nebo. Eta mathay rakhben. Ami chai apnara gorib thakun. – maaney ja ache ghore, sheta kheye beche thakun.”(Translation: I am saying this to all municipality (members), Panchayat (members), MLAs, and MPs, that the party should not receive any complaints against any of you. If there is a complaint, we will take necessary actions. Keep this in mind. If you are poor, remain poor, that is, be content with whatever you have).

The lines in bold have been left out of the viral video to distort the context of what the Bengal CM said.

To sum up, it is evident that Mamata Banerjee had made the “remain poor” remarks in a different context. At last year’s Martyrs’ Day rally, she had warning her party members against indulging in corruption, which prompted her to say that they should remain content with whatever little they had. The 8-second video shared by Bengal BJP is clipped and it distorts the contest of the statement made by the chief minister.

The post ‘Poor should remain poor’: Bengal BJP shares clipped video distorting context of Mamata’s 2024 Martyrs’ Day remarks appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Prantik Ali.

Assamese film shoot video falsely shared as gangrape-murder in Jharkhand

Abhishek Kumar — Fri, 25 Jul 2025 11:04:12 +0000

A video in which a woman is seen lying in the bushes with a crowd gathered around her is doing the rounds on social media. A group of policemen are also seen at the scene. It is claimed that the woman, supposedly a resident of Jharkhand, was raped by six men and then killed, after which the body was thrown in the bushes.

An Instagram user made this claim while sharing the footage and called it an incident from Jharkhand.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by lines (@heart_touching_lines_ss)

Numerous other users also shared this video on Instagram with the same claim.

Click to view slideshow.

Fact Check

A reverse image search using frames taken from the viral video led us to the source video on the Instagram profile of Mg Prodip Panging Taye, a user from Assam. The caption of this post states that this is a behind-the-scenes video from the shooting of a forthcoming film titled Lujeg.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Mg Prodip Panging (@__prodip__panging__)

We looked for further details about the film on YouTube, and came across a related video uploaded by a YouTube channel named Biraz And Raz on May 16, 2025. In these visuals, the woman whose video is widespread on social media is seen wearing the same clothes. It shows the preparations carried out before the shooting of the rape scene. It is clear from this that the viral video is not of the actual incident, but of a film shoot.

Hence, it is clear that many social media users falsely shared visuals from a film shoot with the false claim that the woman seen in the video was had been raped and killed in Jharkhand.

The post Assamese film shoot video falsely shared as gangrape-murder in Jharkhand appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Abhishek Kumar.

Muslim family murdered by Bajrang Dal in UP? Video from Pakistan viral with false claim

Pawan Kumar — Fri, 25 Jul 2025 07:29:26 +0000

Trigger Warning: Disturbing Details, Mention of Dead Bodies

The story uses only screenshots and not the actual video in question in view of the extremely graphic nature of the footage.

A video is being widely shared on WhatsApp in which the bodies of seven children and a middle-aged woman can be seen lying on the floor of a room soaked in blood. A living person is also seen lying near the body of a child on a cot. Women can be heard wailing. It is being claimed that in some area of Uttar Pradesh, members of RSS and Bajrang Dal entered Muslim homes and slaughtered people.

Alt News has received at least 30 requests on its WhatsApp helpline (+917600011160) to verify the footage and the accompanying claim. In some cases, an audio clip is also viral along with the video where it is claimed that, “Bajrang Dal workers are killing Muslims in UP’s Manshurpur area. They have killed everyone, young or old, of the entire family. Before that, 50 people were killed in Adampur, Rasoolpur, Budanpur and Mamoonpur. There is mourning in homes and people have lost their sleep.”

X User Urooj Fatima shared the viral video and linked it to a theft incident taking place in Amroha district of UP.

Fact Check

A reverse image search of the frames of the viral video led us to a website named livegore.com on April 11, 2024. It was reported that in a gruesome incident in Pakistan’s Punjab province, a poverty-stricken man killed his wife and seven children with an axe because he could not feed them.

Apart from this, X user Mahjabeen shared a video on April 12, 2024, and wrote that a tragic incident happened in Alipur, where a man killed his wife and seven children with an axe.

On performing a keyword search based on the above information, we found news reports from paliwalwani.com and NDTV World. According to the reports, Sajjad Khokhar, a labourer in Alipur in Pakistan’s Muzaffargarh district, killed his 42-year-old wife and his seven children, including four daughters and three sons aged between eight months and 10 years. Sajjad had reportedly confessed to his crime and was arrested.

In the reports, police are quoted as saying that the accused said that he had killed his family because he could not feed his children. It was also told that the accused was ‘mentally disturbed’ due to financial constraints and often quarreled with his wife.

During our investigation, we also found a tweet by UP police from July 21, 2025, in which they termed as misleading the claim that ‘Bajrang Dal men were entering homes Muslims and killing them’.

UP police also said that the video was of an incident in Muzaffargarh, Pakistan, in the year 2024. Three individuals had been arrested for spreading rumours.

Zero Tolerance Against Crime –

जनपद मुजफ्फरनगर में, पाकिस्तान के मुजफ्फरगढ़ में वर्ष 2024 में घटित घटना के वीडियो, जिसमें एक व्यक्ति ने अपनी पत्नी व अपने 07 बच्चों की कुल्हाड़ी से काटकर हत्या कर दी थी, को भ्रामक रूप से मुरादाबाद का बताकर इस कथन के साथ विभिन्न व्हाट्सएप ग्रुपों… pic.twitter.com/9hwWgQsHij

— UP POLICE (@Uppolice) July 21, 2025

So, to sum up, the viral video is from Pakistan where a man suffering from a financial crisis reportedly killed his entire family in April, 2024. The claims of this being an incident from UP and Bajrang Dal workers being involved are also entirely false.

The post Muslim family murdered by Bajrang Dal in UP? Video from Pakistan viral with false claim appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Pawan Kumar.

Viral photos show Assam couple from 2017, not Muslim man from UP marrying his daughter-in-law after son’s death

Pawan Kumar — Fri, 25 Jul 2025 07:26:41 +0000

Photographs of an old man with a younger woman are circulating on social media with communal claims that the man in the image, a Muslim named Mohammad Shakeel, married his daughter-in-law less than a week after his son passed away. Calling it an ‘unbelievable secular reality,’ social media users claimed that the incident is from Deoria, Uttar Pradesh.

On July 12, X user @SouleFacts shared the images—one showing the two wearing garlands and another of them posing—and wrote that instead of mourning his son, who died five days ago, Shakeel chose to marry his daughter-in-law.

X users @SanataniMuslim_, @Vini__007, @Uday_Yadavji, @Warlock_Shubh and others shared the images with similar claims. The images and claims were also viral on Facebook.

Click to view slideshow.

It is worth noting that the same pictures were viral between 2019 and 2021 as well. At the time, the photographs were shared by several Bangladesh-based news outlets, such as Dhaka Post, Bangla TV, amadershomoy.com, news24bd.tv and dailynewstimesbd.com. These outlets had reported that Noor Islam (45) of Cheprajhar village in the Atwari Upazila of Panchagarh district, Bangladesh, married his 22-year-old daughter-in-law, Belal Hossai.

Click to view slideshow.

Fact Check

Alt News did a reverse image search of the viral images, which led us to a news report in Dainik Bhaskar’s Divya Marathi from November 8, 2017. According to the report, the man in the picture is Rajesh Kumar Himatsingka, a 70-year-old businessman from Assam, who was the managing director of Himatsingka Auto Enterprises Ltd. since 1987.

The report featured the same images that were doing the rounds on social media recently. The report said that Himatsingka was lonely after the death of his wife and remarried. The woman was much younger than him.

The Malayalam edition of The Times of India and Swadesh News also published a report on the same incident in 2017, along with the viral images. These articles also mention that Himatsingka faced much criticism online for marrying the woman, who was 45 years younger than him.

In May 2018, News18 Assam (North East) reported that Himatsingka was hospitalised after he tried to kill himself owing to a property-related dispute.

Thus, we were certain that the images were not of a Muslim man named Mohammad Shakeel from Uttar Pradesh but of someone named Rajesh Kumar Himatsingka.

However, a keyword search with Shakeel’s name and the viral claim led us to a case from the Bansangli village in Rampur, Uttar Pradesh, from June 2025. According to reports by NDTV India and Times of India, a 55-year-old man named Shakeel allegedly eloped with his son’s fiancée and married her.

To sum up, the man and woman seen in the viral images are Rajesh Kumar Himatsingka and his younger wife from Assam, not Mohammad Shakeel. The images have been online since 2017 and werencirculated before with different claims. A man named Md Shakeel from Uttar Pradesh did marry his son’s fiancee, according to some media reports, but they are not the ones seen in the viral photos. Also, claims that Shakeel married his daughter-in-law five days after his son passed away are baseless.

The post Viral photos show Assam couple from 2017, not Muslim man from UP marrying his daughter-in-law after son’s death appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Pawan Kumar.

Dhaka tragedy: AI images circulated by media as actual footage of jet crash into Uttara school

Ankita Mahalanobish — Thu, 24 Jul 2025 11:56:17 +0000

While reporting on the aviation disaster in Dhaka in which a military jet crashed into a school building killing at least 31 people, some media outlets used photos of an aircraft engulfed in flames stranded in the middle of what appears to be a playground. Some others carried a photograph of the wreckage of a large aircraft near a partially damaged L-shaped building.

An F7 jet of Bangladesh Air Force crashed into the Milestone School and College, in Uttara, Dhaka minutes after taking off for a training exercise on July 21. Among the deceased, at least 17 were children.

Image I

This image, showing the wreckage of an aircraft in the middle of a playground with one end of it covered in a blaze was used, among others, by The Mirror, a British media outlet, in its report on the tragedy in Dhaka. The caption says, “A massive explosion saw flames and smoke pouring from the aircraft.” Credit for the photo was given to X handle @MdNasir1123365. The photo also shows an ambulance, some emergency workers and some onlookers. The article was later updated and the image removed.

Daily Star, another United Kingdom-based media outlet, used the same image. Here, the caption read, “Monday’s disaster saw multiple fatalities”, and the credit for the image was given to the same X user, @MdNasir1123365.

Image II

This image is similar to the earlier one. It shows an aircraft up in flames in the middle of a field, with thick black smoke billowing into the sky. Some buildings can be seen in the background and emergency workers and onlookers are also present near the plane.

OpIndia Gujarat shared a news update about the crash from its X handle, where they used this image. (Archive)

હવે એક શાળામાં પર ક્રેશલેન્ડ થયું એરફોર્સ પ્લેન…: બાંગ્લાદેશના ઢાકાનો વિડીયો વાયરલ, 1નું મોત

Dhaka Plane Crash | Bangladesh Air Forcehttps://t.co/gY3rJnEqbO pic.twitter.com/BXcdGcxy5p

— ઑપઇન્ડિયા (@OpIndia_G) July 21, 2025

Several other media outlets like Sylhet Times News (Bangladesh-based), Life News (China-based), and Biziday (Romania-based), used the same photograph. This image, too, had been shared by the X user, @MdNasir1123365.

Click to view slideshow.

Image III

The third image shows a large plane in front of a partly damaged two-storeyed L-shaped building. The aircraft bears the number 417A, along with markings like BGI and the Bangladesh Air Force logo. The front of the aircraft appears to be intact.

Republic, Punjab Kesari, and State Times used this picture in their report covering the tragedy.

Click to view slideshow.

Fact Check

There are several inconsistencies in all the three images mentioned above, which raise doubts about their authenticity.

To begin with, we noticed that the emergency vehicle seen in Image I above had some illegiblee words written on it (See below). This is one of the common anomalies found in AI-generated content. The unusual clarity of all the three images, too, raises questions about their authenticity. Also, the condition of the aircraft post-impact does not align with the severity of the accident.

In fact, none of the images matches the footage of the accident available in public domain. According to news reports, the fighter jet F7 rammed into a two-storeyed building of the Milestone School and College in Dhaka, 10 km from the air base from where the flight had taken off. However, the photographs mentioned above either show an aircraft in the middle of a field or stranded next to a building. Moreover, each of the three photos shows a different aircraft.

To find out more, we went through reports published by Reuters and BBC, which showed the remains of the aircraft and the building into which it had crashed. The aircraft, as seen in the Reuters photo below, had been damaged almost beyond recognition. These are in stark contrast to the images carried by the media outlets mentioned above.

Next, we noted that the Reuters report and other local reports had mentioned that the ill-fated military aircraft was a F7 BGI, bearing tail number 701. We checked photos of these Chinese-made jets and matched them with the viral images. It is clear from the comparisons below that none of the three photos carried by the media houses mentioned earlier in the story shows an F7 BGI. Hence, these are not actual photos of the accident.

Click to view slideshow.

To corroborate our findings further, we contacted a fact-checker from Dhaka, Bangladesh, and a photojournalist who had covered the crash. The former, Shohanur Rahman, told Alt News that these pictures did not depict the real incident. The latter, AP photojournalist Mahmud Hossain Opu, confirmed the same. “The images appear to be AI-generated and not from the actual aircraft crash in Bangladesh,” he told Alt News.

We also used a few AI image detection tools to check the authenticity of the photos, and all of them showed a high probability of the images being AI-generated.

Click to view slideshow.

Therefore, we can conclude that multiple media outlets used AI-generated images and passed them off as actual photographs of the July 21 plane crash in Dhaka.

The post Dhaka tragedy: AI images circulated by media as actual footage of jet crash into Uttara school appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Ankita Mahalanobish.

Screenshots from scripted video shared with claims that 72-year-old man married 21-year old woman

Pawan Kumar — Wed, 23 Jul 2025 12:35:21 +0000

A set of photographs of an elderly man and a young woman dressed in wedding attire and wearing garlands is viral on social media. Those sharing these images claimed that a 72-year-old man married a 21-year-old girl. While some claimed that the incident is from Delhi and the adopted young girl had been living and working at the old man’s house since childhood, others said that this happened in Chhattisgarh and the two are actually father and daughter.

On July 4, a website named UP Aaj Tak shared the image and said that the “shocking incident” was from Delhi’s Lakshmi Nagar area. The accompanying text said that 72-year-old Bharat Singh had adopted a young girl 17 years ago, but after she grew up, he “took advantage of her helplessness and married her.” Readers must note that this site is not related to the Hindi news outlet Aaj Tak.

Bhim Army and Azad Samaj Party (Kanshi Ram) supporter Gulshan Kumar made a similar claim on Instagram. Meanwhile, on X, Minu Meena, Mriganka Singh, Mandeep Rajbhar and Asjad Ali shared the images with similar claims. On Facebook, Arman Mirza, Tania Lal and Speed News were among those amplifying such claims.

Click to view slideshow.

Some social media users, however, shared the same pictures and claimed that a Chhattisgarh resident, Ramkhiladi Mahato, married his daughter to “save her honour”. Instagram users Suresh Pachwala, Aryan Yadav, Ramkesh Meena, Mahendra Suman, along with Facebook users Manraj Jagsara and Akash Jareda also promoted the image with the same claim.

Click to view slideshow.

Alt News also received multiple requests on its WhatsApp helpline number [+91 76000 11160] to verify the viral image. According to one of the requests, the incident took place in Uttar Pradesh. The message said that 65-year-old Rambabu married his daughter to save his family’s honour because young boys in the neighborhood were eyeing her.

Fact Check

A reverse image search of the viral photos led us to a video from a Facebook page named Vikas Singh on October 26, 2024. The photos are screengrabs taken from this video. We watched the full seven-minute long video, in which the girl pretends to marry the old man to help him reclaim his own house.

We found several clues that indicate this is not a real incident but a scripted video. For one, the Facebook page describes Vikas Singh as a digital creator who makes scripted videos in which he features too.

Secondly, the page had uploaded several similar scripted videos in which the same actors seen in the viral image were also featured.

We found several such scripted videos on Vikas Singh’s Instagram page and YouTube channel.

Lastly, Alt News also managed to reach out to Vikas Singh to get clarity on the viral photos and claims. He rubbished the viral claims and confirmed that the video was scripted and made by him. He also identified the woman in the video and the viral images as Gurpreet Kaur, adding that she and her family were quite upset with the false claims.

Singh also told Alt News that the old man in the viral images and video was Amar, who was no longer alive. He passed away recently. He also shared a picture of the old man’s death and the link to the scripted video. On July 6, 2025, he had posted about this on Facebook.

Singh also clarified the rumours in an Instagram post.

To sum up, the viral pictures circulating on social media are actually screenshots from a scripted video made by a digital content creator; they do not depict a real incident. Social media claims that this “shocking incident” is from Delhi, Uttar Pradesh or Chhattisgarh are baseless.

The post Screenshots from scripted video shared with claims that 72-year-old man married 21-year old woman appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Pawan Kumar.

ECI and Patna admin’s rebuttal of Ajit Anjum’s SIR ‘exposé’ has several loopholes

Abhishek Kumar — Tue, 22 Jul 2025 16:26:27 +0000

With the Election Commission’s special intensive revision (SIR) of voter list underway in poll-bound Bihar, several reports have emerged highlighting irregularities and flaws in the said exercise. Employees at multiple levels are reportedly under significant pressure to expedite the process. The Block Development Officer (BDO) of Barsoi block in Katihar district recently submitted his resignation to the district magistrate alleging mental harassment by the sub-divisional officer. The BDO also accused the officer of pressuring him to work 24 hours a day.

In a related development, senior journalist Ajit Anjum released a video report from a block office in the Phulwari assembly constituency of Patna, showing a BLO engaged in an SIR work. In his report, Anjum alleged that BLOs were forging signatures on voter forms.

Subsequently, the Patna district administration ‘fact-checked’ Anjum’s claims, calling them misleading and baseless. The Election Commission also shared this fact-check on X.

Claim I by Patna District Administration

In a press note, the Patna district administration stated that it had taken cognisance of the matter flagged by Anjum, and the district election officer-cum-district magistrate, Patna, had constituted a district-level investigation committee under the chairmanship of the deputy development commissioner, Patna. During the investigation, it was discovered that all the BLOs present in the video had been preparing a list of deceased/shifted voters of the respective assembly constituency. In addition, the press note claimed that the investigation confirmed that the enumeration form of deceased/shifteds voters was being verified by the BLO by writing ‘Death’ or ‘Shifted’ along with putting his signature.

The district administration also shared two such documents in which the signature of BLO Rani Kumari with the words ‘Death’ and ‘Shifted’ can be seen on the back of the voter enumeration form.

What We Found

Upon taking a closer look at the video uploaded by journalist Ajit Anjum on his YouTube channel, we observed that the BLO was not signing as herself. In fact, the male BLO was signing in the name of Shanti Devi. Furthermore, the female BLO was signing in the name of Chandra Prakash Sah. Therefore, the claim of the Patna administration that the BLO was verifying the enumeration form of dead/shifted voters by writing ‘Death’ or ‘Shifted’ and signing the forms seems to be misleading.

Claim II

After the first claim was proven wrong, the Patna district administration issued a new statement. In this response, they cited the death certificate of the deceased Chandra Prakash Sah and stated that it had also verified the information about the voter named Shanti Devi being deceased. It claimed that the BLO had verified that both of these individuals were dead by writing ‘Death’ on their forms and putting their names (the deceased person’s) in the signature column.

What We Found

It is worth noting that in the first document issued, the Patna district administration showed that in the deceased/shifted voters’ enumeration form, the BLO’s signature was below the ‘Death’ or ‘Shifted’ remark. However, in the second statement issued by the district administration, it was claimed that the BLO verified that both the individuals in question were deceased by marking ‘Death’ and writing the deceased person’s name (read signature) in place of the voter’s signature. Two different formats for filling the enumeration forms of deceased voters in the same block seems suspicious and creates confusion. The two different statements by the administration seem to be hastily prepared, and are contradictory.

Along with this glaring discrepancy in the two statements, the other question that this response by Patna district administration raises is whether there is any legally accepted procedure where the signature of a deceased individual can be replaced by someone else writing the deceased person’s name in the signature box. In addition, it raises the question of whether a deceased person can even have a signature. Indian law considers the use of a signature of another individual in place of the concerned person in a document as forgery and treats it as a crime.

Claim III

In both its first and subsequent press notes, the Patna district administration claimed that all the BLOs seen in journalist Ajit Anjum’s video were preparing the list of deceased/shifted voters of their respective polling stations.

The Patna district administration also released a video of a female BLO speaking on the matter. In the footage, she can be heard saying that she was making a list of dead/shifted voters from the block.

What We Found

Another name appears in journalist Ajit Anjum’s video, that of Sanjay Kumar, son of Ramayan Yadav. It is seen in the video that Sanjay Kumar’s signature was being done on his form by the female BLO.

Alt News verified Sanjay Yadav’s details on the Election Commission website and found his name in the voter roll released by the body.

(For privacy reasons, we have redacted the address details of Sanjay Kumar and his father.)

Apart from this, journalist Meera Rajput from a YouTube channel named National Pillar and journalist Jyotish Chauhan from a YouTube channel named NUBT NEWS reached the scene and reported that Sanjay Kumar was, in fact, not deceased. They also shared a picture of Kumar and his father Ramayan Yadav with us.

Journalist Meera Rajput, who reached the scene to conduct a ground report, also shared with us the voter ID and Aadhaar cards of Sanjay Kumar and his father Ramayan Yadav. Kumar’s photo on his voter ID card and his EPIC number match the one seen in Ajit Anjum’s video. In addition to this, Alt News also independently verified that Sanjay Kumar is a resident of the same place, and has not shifted somewhere else.

To sum up, the claim made by the Patna district administration in its press note and alleged investigation stating all the BLOs present in journalist Ajit Anjum’s video were preparing the list of dead/shifted voters of their respective polling booths and adding their own signatures does not seem to be completely factual. This is because neither is Sanjay Kumar dead, nor has he shifted, whereas in the video it can be seen that BLO is signing Sanjay Kumar’s enumeration form on his behalf.

Change in Status of Sanjay Kumar’s Enumeration Form

On the night of July 18, Anjum posted some pictures raising questions on the Patna district administration. These pictures included the enumeration form of a voter named Sanjay Kumar on the BLO’s table and a screenshot of the status of his form, which showed that it had been submitted.

मेरी रिपोर्ट का खंडन करने वाले पटना DM के दावे की हकीकत जानिए.
DM के हिसाब से मेरे वीडियो में दिख रही BLO डेड वोटर की लिस्ट बना रही हैं . अब उसी वीडियो के शुरुआती हिस्से से कुछ स्क्रीन शॉट दे रहा हूं. संजय कुमार नाम से महिला BLO दस्तखत कर रही हैं . बगल में वोटर लिस्ट है .संजय… https://t.co/uDHV49c4lc pic.twitter.com/RbguJxiJ2h

— Ajit Anjum (@ajitanjum) July 18, 2025

Alt News checked the status of Sanjay Kumar’s enumeration form through EPIC on July 18 itself. The result was as follows, “Your enumeration form has been submitted. Your name will appear in the draft electoral list to be published on 01.08.2025. If you have not yet submitted your document, please contact your BLO.”

When we checked the status of Sanjay Kumar’s enumeration form again through the same EPIC number before publishing this report, we noticed the status has now changed. The result shows, “Please contact your BLO”. This also confirms that after Kumar’s case was pointed out on social media, the district administration changed the status of the enumeration form of the said voter. The difference in the status of Sanjay Kumar’s enumeration form before and after can be seen in the graphic given below.

The post ECI and Patna admin’s rebuttal of Ajit Anjum’s SIR ‘exposé’ has several loopholes appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Abhishek Kumar.

UAE’s ‘new policy’ for Golden Visas leaves Indian media red-faced: How it all started

Ankita Mahalanobish — Tue, 22 Jul 2025 16:08:34 +0000

In the first week of July, several media outlets misreported that the United Arab Emirates (UAE) was introducing a new nomination-based Golden Visa. According to these reports, Indians could enjoy long-term residency in the UAE by paying a fee of AED 100,000 or Rs 23 lakh.

The Golden Visa programme was launched in 2019 and allows foreigners the right to live and work in the UAE for long periods (five or 10 years) with renewal options. Designed for investors, entrepreneurs, and highly skilled individuals, this visa requires sizeable investments into the country. In 2022, the UAE reduced the minimum property investment requirement to AED 2 million, broadening access to more applicants.

On July 7, 2025, multiple media outlets, including PTI, Indian Express, The Hindu, Times of India, Republic, India Today, Business Standard, Hindustan Times, Outlook Business, Moneycontrol, Zee Business, Times of Oman, CNBCTV18, Moneylife, Mint, India TV News, Gulf News and others, published reports on this new policy. The reports claimed the UAE government launched a new nomination-based Golden Visa and India and Bangladesh were selected for the first phase of ‘testing’ this visa. The report alleged that a UAE-based consultancy, the Rayad group, was “chosen to test the initial nomination-based golden visa in India”.

What unfolded the next day was embarrassing.

On July 8, 2025, the UAE government’s federal authority for identity, citizenship, customs, and port security (ICP) refuted these media reports. Calling it a “rumour,” the ICP clarified that there is no new policy that confers citizenship upon paying a fee. The government also urged “individuals wishing to visit, live, or invest in the UAE not to respond to inaccurate rumours and false news” and advised referring only to “official sources” for such procedures.

UAE’s ambassador to India, Dr Abdulnasser Jamal Hussain Mohammed Alshaali, also shared this clarification on his Instagram account on July 8.

So how did so many media outlets get it wrong? Where did this “rumour” originate from, and could it have been avoided?

Tracing the Trail

The first report on this was by news wire agency Press Trust of India (PTI) on July 6, subsequently republished by other outlets. While the report claimed that the UAE government had launched the new visa, it attributed much of the information in it to a single source—Rayad Kamal Ayub, the managing director (MD) of Rayad Group, a consultancy firm that also handles immigration applications. The visa allows family sponsorship, domestic staff, and business freedom, and, unlike property-based visas, it remains valid permanently, Rayad Kamal Ayub was quoted as saying.

These reports, citing the Rayad group’s MD, said that applicants for the nomination-based Golden Visa would undergo thorough background checks, including for money laundering and criminal history. They would also undergo social media screening carried out by the Rayad group. The ‘assessment’ would evaluate the applicants’ potential contributions to sectors such as culture, trade, or startups. However, it said, after these thorough screenings, the UAE government would take the final call.

Citing “beneficiaries and people involved in the process”, PTI reported that the new nomination-based visa policy would allow some Indians to enjoy the UAE’s Golden Visa for life by paying a fee of AED 1,00,000 (roughly Rs 23.3 lakh).

However, it wasn’t clear who the people involved in the process were. While these reports all hinted that the UAE government was introducing the new policy, there was no mention of an official statement by the concerned UAE ministry, nor were any government officials quoted. It seemed like the report was published based on the Rayad group’s claims without any verification from official authorities.

A quick keyword search on Google confirmed this. We located a press release that likely sparked the ‘news’ reports.

However, this release, issued by VFS Global—an agency that handles passport and visa applications—was deleted. We found an archived version of this. The PDF can be accessed here.

View Fullscreen

Several points from this release have been mentioned in the PTI report. PTI’s report, however, went into more detail but quoted unnamed beneficiaries and the Rayad group’s MD. Conversations with a Dubai-based journalist revealed that while VFS Global is a well-known visa and passport agency, the Rayad group isn’t. Their website too does not give much detail about the company, its founders or others in the leadership besides the MD. The copyright on the website indicates that it was made recently, and we also found some language-related issues and typos in it. All in all, besides its tie-up with VFS Global, there’s little on the Rayad group that makes it a credible source of information.

On July 9, the group took “full responsibility” for the confusion and told the Khaleej Times that “the initiative in question was part of an exploratory collaboration between the Rayad group and licensed partners specialising in immigration services.” It also said that the effort was aimed at assessing the feasibility of providing advisory support for Golden Visa applications to eligible individuals.

“We take full responsibility and remain committed to ensuring that all future communications are clear, accurate, and fully aligned with the UAE’s stringent regulatory framework,” it added

Further, it said that public comments made by Rayad group’s MD “were misplaced and have contributed to the misinterpretation of our role and the nature of the initiative in question. These statements did not accurately reflect our intent, our scope of services, or the limitations of our authority in relation to the UAE Golden Visa programme. To reiterate with full clarity: no guaranteed visa, fixed-price programme, or lifetime UAE residency product currently exists, and the Rayad group does not offer, support, participate, or endorse any such arrangement.”

“Due to the confusion caused, the Rayad group is discontinuing private advisory services for Golden Visas,” the publication reported citing the the group’s statement.

Meanwhile, VFS Global group released a separate statement to Khaleej Times on Wednesday, clarifying that its role was “strictly limited to informing interested individuals about the services.”

The company explained that it had entered into a non-exclusive referral agreement with Rayad group, under which it was authorised solely to receive enquiries from individuals interested in the UAE Golden Visa scheme.

“Our involvement was limited to sharing information about Rayad group’s services and referring interested individuals to them,” the statement read. “It was solely Rayad group’s responsibility to assess these profiles and forward them to the relevant UAE authorities for eligibility determination.”

Could This Have Been Avoided?

Yes. By simply verifying or cross-checking with official authorities or waiting for a government statement on it. A press release of an initiative by a not-so-credible business entity about whom little is known was published by credible Indian news agencies without making additional checks. Worse, even those who did not publish this initially republished based on other outlets’ reports.

Also, at first glance or mention, the visa policy should have set some alarm bells ringing because with the growing influx of Indians migrating to UAE, the offer sounded too good to be true. It does not pass a basic logical evaluation test.

The widespread misreporting shows a striking lack of due diligence by media outlets, many of which have still not corrected these stories or issued clarifications.

The post UAE’s ‘new policy’ for Golden Visas leaves Indian media red-faced: How it all started appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Ankita Mahalanobish.

Viral images of Ajay Devgn and Shahid Afridi are from 2024 legends’ cricket tournament

Ankita Mahalanobish — Tue, 22 Jul 2025 11:15:55 +0000

Even as a veterans’ cricket match scheduled on Sunday between India and Pakistan in the World Championship of Legends (WCL) was cancelled, images of actor Ajay Devgn engaged in a seemingly light-hearted conversation with former Pakistani cricketer Shahid Afridi went viral on social media with the Bollywood actor facing a lot of flak. Devgn is one of the main promoters of the tournament. The match was cancelled in view of “current geopolitical situation and prevailing tensions between India and Pakistan”.

X handle Voice of Hindus (@Warlock_Shubh) posted the picture on July 20, 2025, slamming Devgn for talking to “terrorist Shahid Afridi”. (Archive)

You can’t trust on any Bollywood celebrities, Now Ajay Devgan is talking with Pakistani terrorist Shahid Afridi.

Any words for these celebrities! pic.twitter.com/QACPFZ6t7g

— Voice of Hindus (@Warlock_Shubh) July 20, 2025

The post has garnered over 2 Lakh views.

Another verified user, Roshan Rai, shared the same set of photos, and wondered why ‘sanghis’ were silent on “IT Cell Fav Ajay Devgan enjoying” with Afridi.

Devesh Pandey (@iamdevvoffical), who claims to be a journalist, shared the images on X and called for boycotting Devgn’s new movie.

Several other X-users have made similar claims while sharing the images. A few of them can be seen in the gallery below. Many of them are verified users.

Click to view slideshow.

Fact Check

A simple keyword search on X led us to several posts from July 2024.

Click to view slideshow.

X handle Saif Ali Moon, for example, uploaded one of the now-viral images on July 6, 2024 and used #WCL2024 in the caption.

ajay devgn is meeting shahid khan afridi in Birmingham England before the start of play between pak vs ind #WCL2024 #WCL #PakistanCricket #PakvsInd #PAKCvsINDC #INDCvsPAKC pic.twitter.com/mazJoSJGVC

— SAIF ALI MOON (@cric_info_saif) July 6, 2024

To corroborate this further, we looked for news reports from July 2024 covering the match. We found several reports confirming the brief interaction between Ajay Devgn and Shahid Afridi before the India-Pakistan match in WCL 2024.

The News International, a Pakistani media outlet, reported on July 7, 2024, that videos and pictures of Ajay Devgn and Shahid Afridi having a pleasant conversation prior to the match at Edgbaston Stadium were heavily shared on social media. Fans had shown excitement over a “rare occurrence” of camaraderie between prominent figures of “neighbouring countries in one frame”.

The report has a video embedded in it, which has the same visuals that are currently viral. A comparison is shown below for a better understanding.

On July 6, 2024, ANI also reported that Ajay Devgn had been seen having a brief interaction with former Pakistani cricketer Shahid Afridi.

To sum up, the images of Ajay Devgn and Shahid Afridi that are currently viral on social media date back to July 2024, during the WCL match in Birmingham, England, between India and Pakistan.

The post Viral images of Ajay Devgn and Shahid Afridi are from 2024 legends’ cricket tournament appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Ankita Mahalanobish.

Alt News finds Punjab police’s X account shared & deleted contentious post alluding to George Floyd’s killing; police deny

Oishani Bhattacharya — Sat, 19 Jul 2025 15:34:41 +0000

The Punjab Police has drawn flak on social media over a controversial post allegedly shared on its X account (@PunjabPoliceInd). The post (reportedly made on July 18, 2025) had an animated image of a light-skinned cop with the Indian tricolour over his face pinning down a dark-skinned man with the Pakistani flag. The police officer’s knee is seen on the neck of the man on the ground. The caption reads, “If you are caught with this flag, be prepared to suffer the consequences”. Social media users shared screenshots of the post, claiming the Punjab Police deleted it after it came under fire:

While sharing similar screenshots, many X users expressed anger that an Indian law enforcement authority was endorsing something so controversial and brutal to intimidate. The image bears an uncanny resemblance to George Floyd’s death in police custody in Minneapolis, United States.

On May 20, 2020, 46-year-old African-American George Floyd, unarmed and handcuffed, was pinned to the ground by three officers for using a counterfeit $20 bill to buy cigarettes at a convenience store. One of the officers, Derek Chauvin, a White man, pressed his knee on Floyd’s neck for over nine minutes, resulting in his death. Floyd’s killing triggered large-scale protests against racial injustice and police brutality against Black people in the United States. These protests snowballed into the Black Lives Matter movement. After the incident, four former Minneapolis police officers were found guilty of charges including murder and aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter.

On July 18, X user Joy (@Joydas) posted the screenshot and wrote: “This is an actual tweet by Punjab Police India. They chose an image which depicts the worst racism and police brutality in the US to score a point…” (Archive)

This is an actual tweet by Punjab Police India. They chose an image which depicts the worst racism and police brutality in US to score a point. This image was viral worldwide to represent Police Atrocity but Punjab Police thought this is what they stand for pic.twitter.com/o8pBtliDPJ

— Joy (@Joydas) July 17, 2025

Meanwhile, some users, whose X posts show a clear alignment with the Right-wing, made light of it and praised the Punjab police.

Another X user ,@BeingPolitical1, whose profile activity shows that they often promote pro-Right content, shared the same screenshot with a caption saying that the Punjab police has given “woke” people and Leftists something to rant about. (Archive)

This user has been called out by Alt News for spreading misinformation several times in the past.

Kal pure din Woke, leftist aur LKFC ko rr krne ka content de diya hai punjab police ne pic.twitter.com/lctpsncRgX

— Being Political (@BeingPolitical1) July 17, 2025

We also came across a post from X account Gianna Floyd (@GFloyddd12), which is also the name of George Floyd’s daughter. This account had posted the viral screenshot with the caption, “Appalled to see this vile post from the official handle of the Indian police. It’s deeply disrespecting to my late father, his family, and the millions of Americans who stood in solidarity with him. The Floyd family is at loss for words”.

However, Alt News found little evidence to support that this account is actually related to George Floyd’s family. The account was created in December 2024 and there are only three posts—all made on July 18. Besides the above X post, the other was a tribute to George Floyd by a now 17-year-old Keedon Bryant and the most recent post thanked Pakistani handles for being supportive about “her father”. We also noticed that the user @GFloyddd12 follows no one but is followed by 183, many of these followers seemed to be Pakistan-based accounts.

Many other X users also shared the screenshot of the post, claiming that the Punjab police shared and later deleted the controversial post.

Click to view slideshow.

So, did the Punjab Police share this?

‘Post Deleted’

To confirm whether @PunjabPoliceInd actually made this post, we first checked all posts made by the account between July 16 and 18. According to the viral screenshot, the post was made at 1:36 am on July 18, 2025. There were 12 posts shared by the page within that timeframe, but none of them included the viral graphic.

This meant that either no such post was made or that it was made and later deleted.

To check if any such post was deleted, we looked at all replies to @PunjabPoliceInd posts between 1:30 am and 2:00 am on July 18, since most accounts that reshared or responded to the alleged post had done so in this time frame.

Note that even if an X post is deleted, replies to it are visible unless users delete these responses themselves.

We noticed that within this window, several users had commented on one deleted post by the Punjab Police. Majority of the comments mentioned Pakistan, while some mentioned George Floyd. Many social media users had expressed displeasure with the content of the post. This allowed us to find the URL of the deleted X post, but since it was not archived before deleting, we could not immediately check whether this was the contentious post.

Click to view slideshow.

While looking at those who replied and shared screenshots, we came across X user Gul Khan (@ilaqaghair), who had also shared a screen recording accessing the post by the Punjab Police’s X account when it was live. In the video, the user can be seen clicking on the @PunjabPoliceInd handle directly from the post, which leads to their official handle.

Here is the screen recording for you. The first tweet isn’t made up, they posted it from the official Punjab Police India account, but later deleted it. https://t.co/XCUoefArPT pic.twitter.com/t2naTBIm79

— Gul Khan (@ilaqaghair) July 18, 2025

Alt News reached out to @ilaqaghair to verify the authenticity of the screen recording. We also accessed the video’s metadata and were able to ascertain that the video was recorded on the user’s device.

We asked them to capture another video showing the metadata of the screen recording, which has been added below. At the 00:14-minute mark, the date and time are visible: July 18, 12:22 pm Gulf Standard Time (GST)—1:52 pm IST.

Alt News also contacted X user @Joydas, who had posted a screenshot of the Punjab Police post on July 18 at 2:03 am. He shared several screenshots of this post captured at different times from the Punjab Police’s timeline. One of the screenshots showed the Punjab Police responding with a red cross emoji to a user who had commented under the viral graphic using the Pakistani flag emoji. We also examined the metadata of these screenshots and were able to verify that the screenshots were genuine and that such a post was made.

These findings indicate that the Punjab Police account posted the graphic with references to George Floyd’s murder and deleted it later. We found many quote-shares of the deleted post.

Click to view slideshow.

Police Deny Sharing Post

Alt News reached out to the Punjab Police to verify whether such a post was made and deleted. A source close to the state police’s social media team denied making any such post on X. However, this person, who requested anonymity, was unable to give us information on the X post deleted on July 18.

We then reached out to Amit Prasad, the Additional Director General of Police (counter intelligence), who is the nodal officer for the Punjab Police’s social media. Prasad also said they made no such post. “Why would we do such a thing?” he said. On being told that there are several screenshots and that we have procured a verified screen recording that shows otherwise, he said that they are examining the issue. While he reiterated that the post was not made by the police, he made no mention of the X account being hacked or compromised.

Violent AI-Generated Imagery

While investigating the screenshot, we noticed a ‘Grok’ watermark in the bottom-right corner. So, the image was created using X’s AI tools.

To investigate further, we tagged Grok under one of the screenshots and asked if the graphic was generated by it. The X chatbot responded with: “The watermark indicates the image was generated using my AI image tools, accessible to users on X Premium. Anyone could have prompted it — I didn’t create or provide it to Punjab Police, and I don’t endorse its insensitive use.”

Grok’s terms prohibit generating content on illegal, harmful, or abusive activities, including—critically harming or promoting critical harm to human life, including pro-terrorist activities; violating copyright, trademark, or other intellectual property law; violating a person’s privacy or their right to publicity; the sexualization or exploitation of children; espionage, hacking, defrauding, defamation, scamming, spamming, or phishing.

So, while Grok’s response aligns with its content policies, its AI tool seems to be capable of generating violent and controversial imagery resembling real incidents if prompted, potentially contradicting its own guidelines.

Based on these findings, Alt News was able to confirm that the contentious post was shared by the Punjab Police’s X handle and later deleted. We also now know that the imagery was generated using Grok’s AI tools. However, the police’s denial and the odd timing of the post raise questions on whether the account was compromised or the post was made erroneously. No statement has been issued by the state police so far.

The post Alt News finds Punjab police’s X account shared & deleted contentious post alluding to George Floyd’s killing; police deny appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Oishani Bhattacharya.

Claim that India has invented a ‘self-sustaining’ generator that runs for 700 years without power/ fuel is fabricated

Prantik Ali — Fri, 18 Jul 2025 09:01:56 +0000

On social media as well as messaging platform WhatsApp, many shared a video of a ‘self-sustaining’ magnetic power generator with claims that it can run for 700 years without any power supply or fuel. Hailing this as one of the biggest achievements of the Narendra Modi-led BJP government, those sharing this claim also said that the invention has thrown global superpowers, such as the US, China, and Russia, into disarray.

X user @mRupeshVerma posted the video with the viral claim on July 8, 2025, highlighting remarkable inventions under Modi’s tenure as Prime Minister. (Archive)

#विपक्ष_की_बौखलाहट
यह है मोदी सरकार के 11 वर्ष के कार्यकाल की एक और सबसे महत्वपूर्ण उपलब्धि अब आप अपने जीवन मे कभी भी अंधेरा नही देख सकेंगे अब कभी लाइट बंद नही होगी और ना ही लाइट जायेगी मोदीजी है तो सबकुछ मुमकिन है pic.twitter.com/dHDrxLEdvM

— RV || The Engineer || 𝕏 (@mRupeshVerma) July 8, 2025

The video was also viral on Facebook with similar claims. Screenshots below:

Click to view slideshow.

Alt News also received multiple requests on its WhatsApp helpline (+91 76000 11160) to verify the video and the claims.

Click to view slideshow.

Fact Check

To check the authenticity of the claims, we ran a keyword search to look for any verified media reports on the invention, but found none.

Thereafter, we ran a reverse image search on one of the key frames from the viral video, which led us to this YouTube video, uploaded in March 2007.

According to the caption, the video demonstrates the ‘Searl effect’.

Taking cue from this, we ran a relevant keyword search and found that the device seen in the video, developed by John Searl, is a Searl Effect Generator (SEG). It uses rotating magnets arranged in a ring to generate energy by harnessing electrostatic charges from the atmosphere. This was developed in the 1940s.

Notably, this invention was critiqued for its use of ‘fraudulent science’. Many allege that the SEG’s magnetic phenomenon has not been constructively demonstrated or tested.

Thus, claims that India invented a magnetic generator under the Modi government are baseless and fabricated. No credible media outlets have reported this. Besides, the device shown in the video shared with the viral claim is a Searl Effect Generator (SEG), a controversial invention by John Searl in the mid-20th century.

The post Claim that India has invented a ‘self-sustaining’ generator that runs for 700 years without power/ fuel is fabricated appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Prantik Ali.

After Cong leader Pappu Yadav stopped from entering Rahul Gandhi, Tejashwi’s car in Bihar, old video of him crying viral

Prantik Ali — Thu, 17 Jul 2025 14:51:40 +0000

A video of Lok Sabha member Rajesh Ranjan, also known as Pappu Yadav, breaking into tears is being widely shared on social media. In the video, a crying Yadav, sitting in a car, says, “Humpe hamla kiya gaya hai” (I have been attacked). At this point, a reporter asks what happened, to which Yadav replies, “Sir ye ladne ke liye jaa rahe thhe. Jis tareeke se maara main bata nahi sakta…” (These people were going there to fight. The way they have beaten, I can’t describe it.).

The video went viral after many claimed that Congress leaders Pappu Yadav and Kanhaiya Kumar were snubbed at a rally in Bihar on July 9. The two were reportedly stopped by security personnel from joining Rahul Gandhi and Tejashwi Yadav in his vehicle. Yadav later clarified that it was not an ‘insult’ but part of security protocols.

X user @Bitt2DA posted the viral clip on July 9. (Archive)

पप्पू यादव की आँखों में आँसू क्यों है ??

किसने इसकी बेइज्जती की है ? कोई बताएगा pic.twitter.com/MbXLASHUIg

— Hardik Bhavsar (@Bitt2DA) July 9, 2025

The video was also shared by X user @ajeetbharti. At the time this article was written, the post had gathered more than 375,000 views. (Archive)

किस तरीके से ‘मारा’ कि बता नहीं सकते! बाघ का करेजा का ये हाल है बिहार में? pic.twitter.com/a5DZ7F6guZ

— Ajeet Bharti (@ajeetbharti) July 9, 2025

The video was also shared by BJP spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla. (Archive)

Bahut Bura hua Vro https://t.co/d29UJaigbU

— Shehzad Jai Hind (Modi Ka Parivar) (@Shehzad_Ind) July 9, 2025

Several other users on X, such as @krazyxuser, @voice_of_hindu2 and @PNRai1, among others, also shared the video with similar comments. (Archives: 1, 2, 3)

Click to view slideshow.

Fact Check

To verify the authenticity of the narratives amplified on social media, we broke down the viral video into key frames and did a reverse image search on some of them. This led us to an article published by Zee News on September 6, 2018.

On September 6, 2018, Congress leader Pappu Yadav was attacked by Bharat Bandh supporters in the Sadar area of Khabra village, in Muzaffarpur, Bihar. He alleged that a group of demonstrators stopped his car, questioned him and the others in his vehicle, enquiring about their caste, and then went on to abuse and physically assault them. At the time, too, the video of Yadav in tears over the incident was viral.

Yadav had also posted about the incident on X in 2018. The translated text reads: “During the #SaveWomenMarch in Madhubani, our convoy was attacked by goons in the name of #BharatBandh, and workers were brutally beaten while being asked about their caste. Is there any governance in Bihar, or not!”

#महाजंगलराज का नंगा नाच#नारी_बचाओ_पदयात्रा में मधुबनी जाने के दौरान हमारे काफिले पर #BharatBandh के नाम पर गुंडों ने हमला किया,कार्यकर्ताओं को बुरी तरह जाति पूछ-पूछकर पीटा है। आखिर बिहार में कोई शासन-प्रशासन है, या, नहीं!CM @NitishKumar आप किस कुम्भकर्णी नींद में सोये हैं।

— Pappu Yadav (@pappuyadavjapl) September 6, 2018

Several news articles from that time by NDTV, ABP News, Aaj Tak, The Telegraph, and others also corroborated the incident.

Click to view slideshow.

We also found a longer version from which the now-viral clip was extracted. It was uploaded on September 6, 2018.

In this video, Pappu Yadav says that he was abused by the attackers, who may have even killed him if the guards weren’t around. He also claims that his phone calls to the police and chief minister went unanswered. After that, he breaks down in front of the cameras. The portion that is now viral begins around the 0:31-minute mark.

Thus, the video showing Pappu Yadav in tears while speaking to reporters is not recent, but from 2018.

The post After Cong leader Pappu Yadav stopped from entering Rahul Gandhi, Tejashwi’s car in Bihar, old video of him crying viral appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Prantik Ali.

Man seen with Rahul Gandhi in viral selfie is not the judge who granted him bail but a lawyer

Oishani Bhattacharya — Wed, 16 Jul 2025 13:33:22 +0000

On July 15, 2025, a special magistrate court for members of Parliament (MPs) and Legislative Assemblies (MLAs) in Lucknow granted bail to Congress leader and MP Rahul Gandhi in a 2022 defamation case. Soon after this, a photo of him with a man in a black robe and white shirt with a collar—worn by those associated with the legal fraternity—began circulating on social media. The image was shared with claims that the judge who granted Gandhi bail was taking a selfie with him. While some raised concerns about fairness and whether judges should endorse politicians or fraternise with them, others (supporting the Congress) claimed that the judge took a selfie with Gandhi because he was convinced of his innocence.

Gandhi was booked for his comments about the Indian army during the Bharat Jodo Yatra in 2022 that were allegedly derogatory. After missing the last five hearings in the case, he surrendered in the court of the Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate, Alok Verma, who approved his bail. The Congress MP was also told to furnish two personal bail bonds of Rs 20,000 each and provide two sureties of the same amount for being absent in previous hearings.

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) IT cell head, Amit Malviya, who has spread misinformation on several occasions in the past, was among those who shared the image on social media, claiming the man in black robes seen in the image was a judge. In his post on X, Malviya wrote, “This is the judge who is supposed to be hearing the case against Rahul Gandhi for insulting our Army and brave soldiers. He should immediately recuse himself.” Malviya later deleted his post.

National media panellist of the Congress, Surendra Rajput (@ssrajputINC), also posted the same image with a caption in Hindi that translates to: “This lone selfie of Shri Rahul Gandhi @RahulGandhi is enough to answer the countless allegations against him. Even the judge would only take a selfie if he truly believed in Rahul Ji’s innocence.” (Archive)

However, Rajput later updated the caption and removed the word “Judge”.

Several other X users such as @ravibhadoria, @MrSinha_, @JaipurDialogues, @arvindgunasekar, @ActivistSandeep, Congress spokesperson @priyanka81_INC, advocate and former AICC member @ashokbasoya, Congress Amroha district social media chairman @Afsarali190, journalist @arvindchotia, Congress UP state co-ordinator @akram_premiar, @AvkushSingh (who has often amplified pro-BJP content on X), were among those who posted the aforementioned image saying that it shows Gandhi with the judge who granted him bail in the defamation case. We also noticed that journalist Rohini Singh had reshared one of these posts.

Click to view slideshow.

Fact Check

The same day, we found a post with the same image shared by X user @Delhiite_ claiming that the individual in the image with Gandhi is an advocate, not a judge, and that his name is Syed Mahmood Hasan.

He is a lawyer/Advocate not a Judge.
His name is Syed Mahmood Hasan. pic.twitter.com/JYQQoMjdX3

— زماں (@Delhiite_) July 15, 2025

We then did a Google search for Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate Alok Verma, who was the judge in the MP/MLA special magistrate court in Lucknow that granted the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha bail. We found his details and image on the Allahabad High Court’s website. As is clear from the screenshot of the web page attached below, Justice Verma is not the man seen in the viral photo with Gandhi.

Taking a cue from @Delhiite_’s post, we looked for a Syed Mahmood Hasan to verify whether he was the one in the photo with Gandhi.

We found Hasan’s X account, where his bio reads: “Syed Mahmood Hasan (Advocate), civil court, Lucknow high court, Lucknow bench, Lucknow”. However, the last post by Hasan on X was from May 25, 2020, wishing his followers for Eid.. The post also included a screenshot where he had shared his contact information.

Alt News reached out to Hasan, who confirmed that he was no judge but an advocate.

We also verified that the number we called was actually Hasan’s by double-checking his contact information on his advocate profile on the website soolegal.com. The last four digits of his contact number on the website matched the number we contacted.

Hasan’s pictures on his X profile also match the man seen with Rahul Gandhi in the viral image.

Additionally, if he were a judge, then there would be a record of judgments he passed. However, all records found under Syed Mahmood Hasan pointed to him being an advocate/lawyer.

We also came across a Facebook post made by Hasan where he clarified that he is not a judge, but an advocate.

Thus, claims that LoP Rahul Gandhi clicked a selfie with a judge are completely false. The man in the viral image is Syed Mahmood Hasan, an advocate.

The post Man seen with Rahul Gandhi in viral selfie is not the judge who granted him bail but a lawyer appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Oishani Bhattacharya.

Glass shards on Kanwar Yatra route: Delhi Police rubbishes sabotage, communal conspiracy claims

Oishani Bhattacharya — Wed, 16 Jul 2025 12:36:56 +0000

Glass shards strewn on a stretch of road in Dilshad Garden area in Delhi’s Shahdara district through which Kanwariyas were to travel on foot — footage of this took the social media space recently by storm with some BJP leaders and Right-wing handles smelling a conspiracy in this to disrupt a Hindu religious festival.

The Kanwar Yatra is an annual pilgrimage undertaken by devotees of the Hindu deity Shiva in the month of Sawan, during which they walk barefoot to the Ganges carrying pitchers, fill them with water and visit a temple to pour the holy water on a Shiva lingam. The entire journey often takes several days.

Delhi Lieutenant Governor Vinai Kumar Saxena shard his concern over this on X and stated an FIR had been filed and the Delhi Police crime branch was looking into the matter. He also noted that “the road was cleaned within 2 hours by PWD.”

BJP Delhi vice president and cabinet minister Kapil Mishra, who has often been found making hateful and communal remarks against the Muslim community, posted about this on X claiming “some mischievous elements scattered glass pieces along the Kanwar Yatra route for nearly a kilometre.” (Archive)

दिल्ली के शाहदरा में कुछ शरारती तत्वों में कंवर यात्रा के मार्ग पर कांच के टुकड़े लगभग एक किलोमीटर तक के मार्ग पर बिखेर दिए

PWD और निगम के कर्मचारी मार्ग को साफ कर रहें हैं

स्थानीय विधायक संजय गोयल जी वहां मौजूद हैं

CM @gupta_rekha जी ने स्वयं घटना का संज्ञान लिया है

PWD…

— Kapil Mishra (@KapilMishra_IND) July 12, 2025

PTI reported that BJP Delhi president Virendra Sachdeva had said that the glass shards scattered on the road was a “pre-planned conspiracy” to disrupt communal harmony and that it appeared to be the work of “anti-social elements”. (Archive)

X user Raushan Sinha (@MrSinha_), who as been found amplifying misinformation and communal propaganda several times in the past. shared the viral clip on July 13 with a caption that indicated that someone had done this deliberately to disrupt the journey of the Kanwars. The mention of “Brotherhood, anyone?” in the tweet hints at the alleged involvement of members of the Muslim community, as the term “bhaichara” is frequently used by the Right Wing to mock secular beliefs. At the time of writing this report, the post has over 72,000 views and has been retweeted over 3,000 times. (Archive)

In Delhi, broken glass shards were found scattered along the Kanwar route.

A local Hindu leader claims this has been happening for the past two days…

Hindu devotees walk barefoot during the Kanwar Yatra…

Bhaichara, anyone..?? pic.twitter.com/ZQCQA35pHN

— Mr Sinha (@MrSinha_) July 13, 2025

Several other users on social media, such as @KumaarSaagar, @ssaratht and propaganda handles such as @SudarshanNewsDL, @OpIndia_com, made the same claim — that the glass shards had been deliberately scattered across the route of the Kanwariyas to sabotage their pilgrimage. Below are a few instances. (Archives 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6)

Click to view slideshow.

Fact Check

To verify the facts, we ran a relevant keyword search and found several relevant news reports. According to a report by the Hindu published on July 14, Delhi police had already made an arrest in this case based on an FIR filed by a junior PWD engineer at the Seemapuri police station on July 13. The person detained is an e-rickshaw driver who was seen on CCTV crossing the same route and carrying glass panels on his vehicle.

The report quoted a police officer saying that the driver was transporting 19 glass panels in his e-rickshaw from Shalimar Garden, Uttar Pradesh, to north-east Delhi’s Seelampur. The glasses fell and broke while he was on the way.

On X, ANI directly addressed Kapil Sharma’s tweet and posted a response by Delhi Police, which said that glass panels had broken when an e-rickshaw was carrying 19 of them from Shalimar Garden to Seelampur. The driver, identified as Kusum Pal, had been detained.

Delhi Minister Kapil Mishra posted on ‘X’ that broken glass pieces were found on a road in Dilshad Garden on the Kanwar Yatra route.

Delhi Police say, “A case was registered on July 12 based on a complaint by a junior engineer (JE) of the Public Works Department (PWD). The…

— ANI (@ANI) July 13, 2025

Alt News reached out to a senior police officer at Seemapuri police station to confirm whether their investigation had revealed any angle of sabotage or conspiracy, and the police officer categorically denied the same. “There is no communal or sabotage angle in this case. The glass panels accidentally fell and broke into pieces while he (the driver) was transporting them,” the police officer said.

We also came across a news report by the Indian Express which, too, had identified the e-rickshaw driver as Kusum Pal.

Hence, the assertion that the glass shards found on the road in Delhi’s Shahdara were deliberately scattered to cause harm to the Kanwariyas or that it was a communal conspiracy is completely false.

The post Glass shards on Kanwar Yatra route: Delhi Police rubbishes sabotage, communal conspiracy claims appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Oishani Bhattacharya.

‘Overstepping threshold of freedom of speech’: Cartoonist under fire over edited toon gets interim relief

Oishani Bhattacharya — Wed, 16 Jul 2025 08:17:50 +0000

On July 15, the Supreme Court granted Indore-based cartoonist Hemant Malviya interim relief from arrest. The top court’s direction comes a day after it reproached the cartoonist over an “inflammatory” caricature by him of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). Malviya had approached SC after the Madhya Pradesh High Court denied him anticipatory bail in the case.

The relief came after Malviya submitted an apology and deleted his social media post featuring the toon.

Malviya has been charged after a cartoon by him on COVID-19 vaccines featuring PM Modi and the BJP’s parent organisation, RSS, was edited by a social media user with allegedly objectionable commentary on the caste census. Malviya had reshared the post on May 1, 2025, after which a case against him was registered at Indore’s Lasudiya police station by an RSS worker under several sections of the Bhartiya Nyaya Sanhita.

The First Information Report (FIR) names him under sections 196 (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc.), 299 (deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings), 302 (uttering words, etc., with deliberate intent to wound religious feelings of any person), 352 (intentional insult with intent to provoke a breach of the peace), 353(3) (with intent to incite, or which is likely to incite, any class or community of persons to commit any offence against any other class or community) of the Bhartiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and section 67A of the Information Technology Act, 2000—punishment for publishing or transmitting material containing sexually explicit acts in electronic form. Except BNS section 352, the others are non-bailable offences.

The ‘Inflammatory’ Edited Cartoon

The cartoon that has landed Malviya in trouble shows a man dressed in a white shirt and khaki shorts, similar to the RSS uniform, pulling down his shorts and a bearded elderly man, bearing resemblance to PM Modi, gives him an injection on his backside.

The Hindi text on the toon translates to, “Oh, incarnation of Lord Shiva! Here’s my backside is here, give me such a strong dose of caste census that I forget all about Pahalgam, Waqf board”.

But here’s the twist. Malviya sketched the two characters in 2021 in an entirely different context. The Hindi text with references to Hindu god Shiva, the Pahalgam massacre, the Waqf amendments or the caste census were not part of his creation.

According to popular political cartoonist Manjul (@MANJULtoons), whose satirical, tongue-in-cheek political sketches have also been flagged by Indian law enforcement authorities on X, the toon that has landed Hemant Malviya in trouble wasn’t exactly created by him.

“He created the sketch in 2021 in a different context, and someone else altered the text and posted it in the comments, and the same was brought to Hemant’s notice by a friend. Hemant found it funny, so he simply reposted that image,” Manjul told Alt News.

Hemant Malviya’s original cartoon, posted on Facebook on January 6, 2021, actually carried very different text next to the sketch. In English, it translates to: “Hey, why are you scared? Serum’s Poonawalla has said that the vaccine is basically water. You won’t die due to side effects of water”.

Published when the government had approved COVID-19 vaccines while the pandemic was raging, the cartoon pertains to a comment made by Serum Institute of India’s CEO, Adar Poonawalla. In a TV interview on January 3, 2021, Poonawalla had said that there were only three vaccines with proven efficacy—Pfizer, Moderna and Oxford-AstraZeneca’s— and the rest were “safe, like water”. The Serum Institute of India makes Covishield, based on the Oxford-AstraZeneca formula. Many believed that Poonawalla was targeting Covaxin, manufactured by rival Bharat Biotech.

Notably, this toon had Malviya’s signature, which was removed from the recently edited version that landed him in trouble.

Alt News also accessed screenshots of Facebook comments where users shared the original cartoon with edited text, referring to Pahalgam, Waqf amendment and the caste census and attributing it to a “Shiva avatar”. We were unable to determine the exact date of the comment, but it was likely posted on or the day after April 30, considering that’s when the government announced the inclusion of caste in the upcoming decennial Census.

Who is to Blame?

On May 1, 2025, Malviya reposted the edited cartoon (made by someone else and shared in his post’s comments), adding, “Everyone is free to use my cartoons with their name and commentary. My work is for the people, by the people and dedicated to the people. Whoever wrote this did a good job…”

So, while little is known about what action was taken against whoever edited Malviya’s work with their own text and interpretation, several serious offences have been slapped against the cartoonist for endorsing the edited cartoon. Note that this edited version of Malviya’s cartoon was publicly available even before he reposted it on Facebook.

Sources close to Malviya said that he was just tagged in a Facebook comment and reshared it. Thousands of his cartoons are on social media often reused by readers with their own captions, they said. They added that he was an amateur cartoonist, following in the footsteps of his father who was among the first cartoonists in Indore. The character in khaki shorts had been Malviya’s ‘common man’ figure since 2017. They added that this wasn’t the first time Malviya’s work came under fire.

In 2022, Malviya was summoned to the Kankhal police station in Haridwar after an associate of Yoga guru Baba Ramdev filed a report against his friend, who had shared his sketch featuring Ramdev and PM Modi.

‘Misuse of Freedom of Speech and Expression’

Interestingly, while denying him anticipatory bail on July 3, Justice Subodh Abhyankar of MP HC, who was hearing the case said that Malviya “clearly overstepped the threshold of freedom of speech and expression, and does not appear to know his limits”.

“In the considered opinion of this court, on the face of it, the conduct of the applicant in depicting the RSS, which is a Hindu organisation, along with the Prime Minister of this country in the aforesaid caricature, couplled with his endorsement of a rather demeaning remark, dragging unnecessarily the name of lord Shiva in the comments tagged to it, is nothing but the sheer misuse of the freedom of speech and expression as enshrined under Art.19(1)(a) of the Constitution, and falls under the definition of offence as contended by the complainant,” the order reads [sic].

It added, “In the considered opinion of this Court, the post becomes more unsettling when the aforesaid derogatory lines involving Lord Shiva are also added to it… the applicant ought to have used his discretion while drawing the aforesaid caricature, and he has clearly overstepped the threshold of freedom of speech and expression, and does not appear to know his limits.”

Malviya then moved the Supreme Court. On July 14, a two-judge bench of Justices Sudhanshu Dhulia and Joymalya Bagchi took up his plea and asked his counsel, Vrinda Grover, if he was willing to delete the post. Agreeing to this, the counsel sought interim protection since the matter pertained to personal liberty and did not amount to an offence. She also argued that Malviya was over 50 and should be granted relief, to which the bench replied, “Still no maturity. We agree that it is inflammatory”.

The following day, a two-judge bench of Justices Sudhanshu Dhulia and Aravind Kumar granted the cartoonist interim relief after he submitted an apology and directed both parties to complete the pleading till the next date, August 15. During the hearing, Justice Dhulia remarked, “One of these posts is very, very offensive. What is happening today, this is all kinds of statements are being made. The language they use. There are some among the lawyer community also doing this”. He was reviewing social media posts made by Malviya, submitted by Additional Solicitor General, KM Nataraj.

Ire Against Satirists

The case against Malviya comes amid a seemingly growing intolerance for satire and political cartoons against the ruling party, its allies and associates. Historically, editorial cartoons have both attracted and evaded censorship owing to their cryptic nature, but serve as a powerful, critical tool to look at political regimes and current affairs, holding a mirror to society.

A prominent case was the arrest of cartoonist Aseem Trivedi, who was booked under sedition charges for his sketches, which allegedly mocked the Indian constitution. Trivedi was arrested on September 8, 2012, under sedition charges for displaying sketches by him during the Anna Hazare movement in November 2011. The case was registered based on an FIR filed by Amit Katarnayea, a legal advisor for a Mumbai-based NGO, in December 2011, who said that the cartoons displayed by Trivedi were “derogatory” and depicted the National Emblem and the Parliament in a bad light. In protest, Trivedi refused to get himself a lawyer or even apply for bail. Later, the charges against the cartoonist were dropped after Advocate General Darius Khambata told the court that on taking a “closer look, it can be seen that there is clearly no case under section 124(a) of the Indian Penal Code for sedition”.

In 2021, editorial cartoonist Manjul, who has been actively talking about the case against Malviya on X, also received notices from X for his satirical, tongue-in-cheek political sketches, which had been flagged by Indian law enforcement authorities.

In February this year, the government at the Centre blocked Tamil news outlet Vikatan’s website for a political cartoon after BJP leader Annamalai lodged a complaint with the Union ministry of information & broadcasting and the Press Council of India, claiming that the cartoon was offensive. The cartoon showed PM Modi, shackled in chains, sitting next to US President Donald Trump. However, on March 6, a single-judge bench of Justice D Bharatha Chakravarthy of the Madras High Court directed the I&B ministry to unblock Vikatan’s website once the ‘offensive’ cartoon was temporarily taken down. Justice Chakravarthy said, “…It is evident that the only issue in dispute is the offending caricature, and the entire website need not be blocked. The journal can remain accessible to the public and its subscribers. Therefore, the petitioner shall remove the offending page containing the cartoon, and the website shall be made operational immediately thereupon”.

Recently, comedian Kunal Kamra also came under fire for his satirical comedy that allegedly mocked Maharashtra deputy chief minister Eknath Shinde for switching sides. In 2022, Shinde, along with several other Sena MPs, left the party and allied with the BJP, throwing the then-coalition government into crisis and eventually leading to its downfall. Kamra was issued threats by Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation workers, while Shinde’s supporters also vandalised the venue where he performed months ago.

The post ‘Overstepping threshold of freedom of speech’: Cartoonist under fire over edited toon gets interim relief appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Oishani Bhattacharya.

‘Involved with a Muslim man?’ Radhika Yadav’s killing by father sparks flurry of misleading communal claims

Shinjinee Majumder — Tue, 15 Jul 2025 14:57:46 +0000

On July 10, 2025, 25-year-old Radhika Yadav was allegedly shot dead by her father, Deepak Yadav, in her own home in Gurugram. Yadav shot at her three times with his licensed revolver. The case has drawn national attention over the brutality of the alleged crime. However, following the incident, several social media users claimed that the ‘real reason’ behind Radhika’s death was her involvement with a Muslim man.

In 2024, Radhika, a promising state-level tennis player, featured in a music video alongside a Muslim singer. Many X accounts were quick to point this out with speculative claims that Radhika’s father killed her because he was unhappy that his daughter starred in a video with a Muslim. Some conjectured that her ‘relationship’ with a Muslim man made her father unhappy.

Among those who made such statements was X account @HPhobiaWatch. On July 11, a day after she was killed, the user posted, “Radhika father killed her because he was angry over she making reels with insta influencer Inamul Haq”. The user insinuated that Deepak Yadav should have killed the Muslim man instead. (Archive)

Radhika father killed her because he was angry over she making reels with insta influencer Inamul Haq

Still what purpose it will serve? Itna hi gussa tha to bulle ko jaake udaate. Usko koi aur mil jayegi reel banaane ke liye aur ye jail me sadegapic.twitter.com/XsGJI0lqvF https://t.co/tG2fiQkUGu

— Hindutva Knight (@HPhobiaWatch) July 11, 2025

Media outlet News24 also claimed that Radhika’s father was unhappy that she appeared in a video produced by a Zeeshan Ahmed. (Archive)

राधिका मर्डर केस : म्यूजिक वीडियो से गुस्से में था पिता

◆ ज़ीशान अहमद द्वारा प्रोड्यूस वीडियो में राधिका आई थी नजर #RadhikaYadav | Tennis Player Dead in Gurugram | Radhika Yadav pic.twitter.com/vsh6qKioX8

— News24 (@news24tvchannel) July 11, 2025

Another X user, @iiamkrshn, posted a ‘meme’ showing Deepak Yadav’s picture with the text “Bulle se shadi karke vaise hi marne wali thi, Pahle hi maar dia toh kya galat kiaa”. (“She was going to die anyway after marrying a Muslim, what’s wrong with killing her first?”)

Note that ‘Bulla’ is an alternative term to refer to Muslims in place of the derogatory slur ‘Mulla‘, which is more prone to getting flagged under X’s community guidelines. (Archive)

Chad Deepak Yadav pic.twitter.com/74zwiy6cY7

— कृष्णा (@iiamkrshn) July 11, 2025

X account @KreatelyMedia and @SaffronSunanda, both of which have been flagged by Alt News for misinformation and posts inciting communal hatred several times (see here and here), also shared similar claims. (Archives 1, 2)

Click to view slideshow.

X user @dudeitsokay urged his followers to be like Deepak Yadav, who, the user claims, ‘did the right thing’ after he found out his daughter was ‘nachaniya‘ (dancer) and a ‘honda sherni‘. The latter term is possibly a crude distortion of Hindu sherni or lioness and could refer to women who seemingly conform to Hinduism but are actually secular and indulge in interfaith relationships. (Archive)

> be deepak yadav
> provided education to his daughter
> gave her freedom & evrything
> found out she was a nachaniya + honda sherni
> did the right thing pic.twitter.com/KEBZ67USqC

— Idc. (@dudeitsokay) July 11, 2025

Several other X accounts shared similar claims that the reason for Radhika’s killing was her involvement with a Muslim. (Archives 1, 2, 3, 4, 5)

Click to view slideshow.

Fact Check

Several news outlets reported that Deepak Yadav disapproved of Radhika’s tennis training career and could not stand his daughter’s success “as she gradually climbed the ranks internationally in the doubles category”.

The Gurugram police said that Radhika used to train aspirants by booking tennis courts at different places, which her father objected to. According to an Indian Express report, she was coaching many high-profile clients. During questioning, the father claimed that locals taunted him for being dependent on his daughter whenever he stepped out. It was later revealed that Deepak was financially well off with good rental income from various properties and was not dependent on his daughter’s earnings. However, he was upset with the taunts.

Another Indian Express report, citing the police, said that a dispute over this issue led Yadav to shoot his daughter. “He had asked her several times to stop running her academy,” a police spokesperson was quoted as saying.

Taking cue from the viral claims, Alt News found the full music video in which Radhika featured on Facebook. It was released by a production company called Little Lion Films on June 20, 2024, and the song was titled Karwaan, sung by Inaam Ul Haq. We also found Inaam Ul Haq’s Facebook profile, where he posted a statement clarifying the misleading rumours.

“…Yes, I had worked with Radhika. I had shared my music with her the Karwaan song, two Krishna bhajans, and Saware. Just like I’ve shared my songs with so many other artists — men, women, Hindu, Muslim, everyone. That’s the truth. That’s the only truth. But today, people are twisting that. They’re turning music into motive. They’re calling it love jihad. They’re giving it angles and meanings that break my soul… But today… it’s my own people who are questioning me without knowing anything about me,” the Facebook post read.

Even now… it still feels like I’m living in a dream.
Like all of this is just a nightmare.
That I’ll suddenly wake up……

Posted by Inam Ul Haq on Saturday 12 July 2025

In an interview with media outlet News18 India, Haq said that when he shared the final video with Radhika, she said her father loved the song. He also said that the shoot of the music video happened in the presence of Radhika’s mother. He said Radhika had deactivated her Instagram account after the song was released because she was busy with work.

On Instagram, too, Haq maintained that he had “only done a music video with her”, like he had with many others.

On July 13, Radhika’s friend Himaanshika Singh Rajput also addressed the viral claims regarding this being a case of ‘love jihad’ and said, “It was a normal music video that she had shot a year or 1.5 years ago, and her father himself used to drop her at the shoot location. She had done many other shoots too, but all that stopped because her parents were worried about judgment from others. There was always societal pressure, and her parents were very orthodox…”, Himaanshika said in a video.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by NDTV (@ndtv)

According to a report by the Hindustan Times, the police are looking into the music video in which Radhika Yadav had played a part, but so far, they have found no link between the murder and the clip. In a video statement, Gurugram police’s public relations officer, Sandeep Kumar, said that the claims related to the music video were “rumours” and that nothing of this sort has been confirmed in the ongoing probe so far.

Alt News also reached out to the Station House Officer (SHO) of Sector 56 police station in Gurugram (where the case is registered) for further clarification on these claims. The SHO, Vinod Kumar, rubbished the communal claims that Radhika’s ‘involvement’ with a Muslim man was the reason for her killing. “Nothing of this sort is true… What is going on in their house, they would know. Others have no business saying such nonsense. No such thing (communal angle) has come to the fore. Whatever has come forth has been filed, and we have informed the PRO…” Kumar told Alt News.

Thus, the murder of tennis player Radhika Yadav has been given a misleading communal spin by several social media users. These users claimed that Deepak Yadav was unhappy with his daughter’s involvement with a Muslim man and therefore killed her. Some of them also went to the extent of justifying his actions. However, Alt News found these were unsubstantiated theories. So far, no such communal narrative has emerged in police investigation.

The post ‘Involved with a Muslim man?’ Radhika Yadav’s killing by father sparks flurry of misleading communal claims appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Shinjinee Majumder.

Man stoned to death in Dhaka streets: Indian media misidentifies victim as Hindu

Ankita Mahalanobish — Tue, 15 Jul 2025 14:43:19 +0000

This story uses only screenshots and not the actual video in view of the graphic nature of the footage.

Multiple Indian media outlets, including PTI, NDTV, Republic, India Today, News 24, Live Hindustan, News24 NDTV World, Dainik Bhaskar, and WION reported on a disturbing video showing the lynching of a man in Bangladesh, identifying the victim as a Hindu trader named Lal Chand Sohag.

In the disturbing footage of the said incident, an individual is seen assaulting the victim with a stone slab, while another person is seen stomping and jumping over the body. All this takes place in broad daylight with a crowd of onlookers present. According to reports, the gruesome incident took place on July 9 in Rojoni Ghosh Lane near Mitford hospital in the old Dhaka. The barbarity of the attack, captured on video, triggered massive outrage in the neighbouring country with students from several universities staging protests in Dhaka.

On July 13, Republic published an article headlined, “Shocking! Hindu scrap dealer lynched with concrete slabs in Bangladesh; attackers dance on his body after death.” The report identified the victim as Lal Chand Sohag, a scrap vendor. Citing a report by Prothom Alo, it noted that the victim’s sister had filed a murder case with Kotwali police on Thursday.

India Today ran a PTI wire story stating that a Hindu trader was bludgeoned to death with a concrete slab, and that the attackers danced on his body after confirming he was dead.

Similar claims were made by several other Indian outlets. Screenshots of these reports are available in the gallery below.

It is worth noting that NDTV has since deleted both its tweet and the original article. Meanwhile, NDTV World, PTI, and WION have updated their reports, removing the term “Hindu” from the description of the deceased.

The claim that the victim was a Hindu was also amplified by social media users. Raushan Sinha (@MrSinha_), a far-Right influencer, shared the purported video on July 13 on X, claiming that “Atrocities against Hindus continue in Bangladesh”, as a Hindu trader was lynched by Islamists in broad daylight.

Voice of Bangladeshi Hindus (VHindus71) shared the video on X, urging world leaders to save Bangladeshi citizens from the “Jammat-backed government of Mohammed Yunus”.

Another X-account, MeghUpdates (@MeghUpdates), shared the video claiming that Islamists had killed and danced over the corpse of a Hindu trader in Bangladesh.

Sinha later deleted his post, whereas the post by the other two handles are still live.

Fact Check

A simple keyword search led us to several Bangladeshi news reports that identified the slain to be a 39-year-old scrap dealer, Mohammed Sohag, alias Lal Chand. This indicates that the victim is not a Hindu.

According to a report by Prothom Alo from July 12, Sohag was brutally beaten up and bludgeoned with bricks and stones before he was killed. After the assault, his clothes were stripped, and a few assailants were seen jumping over his corpse. Investigators and local sources indicated that the killing was a result of an extortion-related dispute.

The report names Lal Chand’s sister as Manjuara Begum, who filed the FIR with Kotwali police, naming 19 individuals as accused and listing an additional 15 to 20 unidentified suspects in connection with the lynching.

The Dhaka Metropolitan Police, in a press release issued on July 11 evening, confirmed the arrests of two suspects — Mahmudul and Tariq — in the capital, whereas the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) detained two suspects from near the Ibn Sina Hospital in Keraniganj, involved in the murder of Md Sohag.

Alt News also located a fact-check report by a Bangladeshi government page, Chief Advisor’s Press Wing Facts. The page debunked the communal narratives shared by the Indian media outlets and clearly mentioned that the deceased man was named Mohammed Sohag, also known as Lal Chand, and he was a Muslim businessman. He was the son of Md Aiyub Ali and Aleya Begum. He was married to Lucky Begum and had a son named Sohan.

On Friday, Sohag was laid to rest beside his mother’s grave in his ancestral village of Bandargachhia, Ward 7, Dhalua Union, Barguna Sadar Upazila, following the funeral prayers (Salat al-Janazah).

Indian media outlets including NDTV, India Today, WION have falsely identified businessman Lal Chand, also known as…

Posted by CA Press Wing Facts on Sunday 13 July 2025

To sum up, the Indian media falsely reported that the man who was stoned to death on the streets of Dhaka was a Hindu trader. The slain man is a Muslim businessman named Mohammed Sohag, who was allegedly killed for not paying extortion money. There is no communal angle to the murder.

The post Man stoned to death in Dhaka streets: Indian media misidentifies victim as Hindu appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Ankita Mahalanobish.

Don’t go to Kashmir & Muslim majority areas, says Bengal LoP Suvendu amid new state BJP chief’s minority outreach

Shinjinee Majumder — Tue, 15 Jul 2025 10:21:58 +0000

BJP leader and West Bengal Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari on July 10 urged Bengalis not to visit Kashmir owing to the northern state’s majority Muslim population. Adhikari’s comments came in response to Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah’s invitation to the people of West Bengal to visit Kashmir while speaking at the inauguration of a travel and tourism fair in Kolkata on the same day.

Adhikari said, “Koi Bangali Kashmir nahi jayega. Jahan Musalman abaadi zyada hai, main party affiliation mein nahi bolta hu, mai BJP ke MLA (hokar) nahi (bolta hu)… main jiss tareekein se Bitan Adhikary ji ka wife, Samir Guha ji ka wife ka aasun dekha na… mai unko sujhaav de diya. Bhai jahaan musalmaan abaadi hai, usmein mat jao… Kashmir jana hai toh Jammu jao. Kashmir jaana hai toh Jammu mein jao, jahaan musalmaan abaadi zyada hai, mat jao. Mat jao. Apne kapda khulke, aur sindoor dekh ke chunchun ke maara hai. Humara Himachal Pradesh hai jaiye na, Devbhoomi hai. Uttarakhand jaiyena, Jaiye Orissa jaiye…Pura desh ghumna chahiye humlogo ko… lekin Bangal mein mai personal mera mai ek sensible citizen hu, mai airport mein Bitan Adhikari ji ka wife aur Sameer Guha ji ka wife jo mujhe bataya aplogo ka saamne, aur unka jitna bhi aansu dekha hai na… Main Bangali logon (ko) bata raha hu, aap musalmaan jahaan hai zyada, mat jaiye. Jaan pehle. Apne jaan ko raksha kijiye, chhota chhota bachha ko rakhsa kijiye. Didi behen ko raksha (kijiye)…”

(Translation: No Bengali will go to Kashmir. I am not saying this from my party affiliation or as a BJP MLA… The way I saw the tears of Bitan Adhikari’s wife, Samir Guha’s wife… I suggested to them. Don’t go where there is a majority Muslim population… If you want to go to Kashmir, go to Jammu… If you want to go to Kashmir, go to Jammu, but don’t go to a place where there is a majority of Muslims. Don’t go. (They) took off clothes, and checked the vermilion (on the women’s foreheads), and killed selectively. We have Himachal Pradesh, go there, it is our Devbhoomi. Go to Uttarakhand, go to Odisha… We should travel the whole country.. I am a sensible citizen… I saw Bitan Adhikari’s wife and Sameer Guha’s wife at the airport, whatever they told me in front of you people… I have seen their tears. I am telling the Bengali people — do not go to a place which has a majority Muslim population. Life first. Protect your life, protect your children. Protect your sisters.)

#WATCH | Kolkata | On J&K CM Omar Abdullah inviting people of West Bengal to visit J&K, WB LoP and BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari says, “… No Bengali will visit Kashmir. I am saying this out of party affiliation, don’t visit places where Muslims are in the majority. Go to Jammu if… pic.twitter.com/Fn0IZ3KEQK

— ANI (@ANI) July 10, 2025

Hours before Adhikari’s comments, Abdullah had assured potential tourists from West Bengal that the J&K government had taken sufficient security-related steps after the terrorist attack in Pahalgam. He also urged people to trust those who had been to Kashmir after the attack rather than believing “those sitting outside and making judgments without even knowing the place.” It is worth noting that on an average, 25-30% of Kashmir tourists are reportedly from Bengal.

In his remarks, Adhikari used the attack in Pahalgam to ‘warn’ Bengalis against visiting Muslim majority areas. Adhikari had met the families of two victims of the attack, Bitan Adhikari and Sameer Guha — both of whom were Bengali. The implications of Adhikari’s remarks are layered. In a statement after India’s retaliatory Operation Sindoor, Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri had said that the terrorists “didn’t just want to traumatise victims and families to ‘send a message’, but targeted the economy in Jammu Kashmir, and attempted to provoke ‘communal discord’ in India, which failed.”

However, when the Leader of Opposition of West Bengal, a state that provides a significant fraction of tourism to Kashmir, urges the residents of his state to refrain from visiting due to the majority of Muslims, it furthers the communal narrative while also implicitly calling for an economic boycott of Muslims. This clearly amounts to religious discrimination and hate speech.

New Bengal BJP Chief’s ‘Muslim Outreach’

Interestingly, Adhikari’s comments come days after newly elected Bengal BJP president Samik Bhattacharya spoke about the BJP’s outreach to the minority community in West Bengal. “Even if the Muslims do not vote for us, our development must and will reach their homes,” Bhattacharya said in an interview with India Today’s Insight. Before this, in a seeming departure from the party’s erstwhile political stance, Bhattacharya stated that his party was not against Muslims, and envisaged a West Bengal where Muharram and Durga puja immersion could be held side by side without communal clashes. This remark came at the very event where he was formally introduced as the state unit chief and in the presence of Adhikari.

In stark contrast to this, Adhikari has clearly said in the past the Bengal BJP MLAs had been elected by Hindus, while the Mamata Banerjee government was “a govt of Mollahs”. Addressing media persons outside the state assembly on February 17, 2025, Adhikari had said, “I, along with Agnimitra Pal, Biswanath Karak, and Bankim Ghosh, take pride in the fact that we won with Hindu votes — not with Muslim votes. BJP MLAs and MPs hold their positions today because of Hindu and ST votes… this government — a government of Mollahs, a government for Muslims… has targeted me. The chief minister is an appeaser of Muslims, an enemy of Hindus, leading a government that is nothing less than Muslim League 2.0…”

Again, in July 2024, while claiming that Muslims of West Bengal had not voted for the BJP in the Lok Sabha election, Adhikari called for putting an end to the party’s slogan of ‘Sabka Saath Sabka Vikaas’. Speaking to journalists after the party’s first working committee meeting following the poll results, he also called for doing away with BJP’s ‘minority morchas’.

When asked to comment on Suvendu’s remarks on Kashmir, Bhattacharya said, “I don’t know in what context our Leader of Opposition is saying this. The stone pelting in Kashmir has stopped, and after the Pahalgam incident, there is panic in the minds of the people. I don’t know under what situation he (Adhikari) has said this now, and I haven’t heard (what he said). Maybe he said it because he thinks Himachal Pradesh is more beautiful. There is no dispute in the party about this (the remarks).”

Bhattacharya has also called Adhikari’s controversial remarks on Sabka Saath Sabka Vikas a ‘personal stance’. One wonders whether it is the new state unit chief’s minority outreach agenda that made Suvendu sound the disclaimer on July 10 that he was not speaking from party affiliation.

Adhikari, once Mamata Banerjee’s protege, beat Banerjee from the Nandigram seat in the 2021 assembly polls by a margin of 1,956 votes. According to the 2011 census, Nandigram has a Muslim population of 40.32%, second to the Hindu population of 59.37%.

The post Don’t go to Kashmir & Muslim majority areas, says Bengal LoP Suvendu amid new state BJP chief’s minority outreach appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Shinjinee Majumder.

Violence in the name of cows: The ‘animal welfare’ groups that beat up truck drivers in India

Pooja Chaudhuri — Tue, 15 Jul 2025 09:54:03 +0000

This story was originally published on Bellingcat and has been republished by Alt News as part of an editorial collaboration between the two organisations.

They describe themselves as “cow protectors” or “gau rakshaks” in Hindi. On social media, they often post about carrying out charitable work such as operating ambulances for sick or injured cows, feeding stray animals and distributing food to people.

But in the dark of the night, their work takes on a more violent edge. Multiple photos and videos show members of “cow protection” groups chasing, shooting at and beating up truck drivers they claim are “smuggling” cows for slaughter.

Stills from videos of a car chase (left), shooting at a truck (centre) and assaulting truck drivers (right). Source: Instagram/ @shivadahiya92, @gau_raksha_dalmathura and @parveenvashisth1414/

Cows are considered sacred in Hinduism, the dominant religion in India. Many states in the country prohibit the slaughter of cows and have strict laws on the transportation, sale and purchase of cattle. These laws have become more stringent since the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came into power in 2014.

The vigilantes attacking truck drivers tend to be closely aligned with hardline Hindu nationalist organisations, and a majority of their victims are Muslims. And while they claim to be doing this for the sake of the cows, in some of the videos, the animals can also be seen injured from vehicles overturning during aggressive chases.

Elaine Pearson, Asia director at Human Rights Watch, told Bellingcat that cow protection has become part of the political agenda of leaders of the BJP and, in some cases, they have backed the alleged actions of the suspects “while the police have failed to take action against them”.

Alt News and Bellingcat found videos on social media showing violent assaults by members of five self-described animal welfare groups, mainly operating in the states of Uttar Pradesh and Haryana, where incidents involving cow-related violence have frequently been reported.

(Editor’s note: We are not sharing links to these videos to avoid amplifying content depicting violent attacks seemingly targeting minority groups. However, if you are a journalist or researcher interested in obtaining this dataset, please email inquiries@bellingcat.com.)

Some of the leaders of these vigilante groups, when we reached out to them, claimed that they were working closely with the local police. One even received an award for “cow and social service” from a cabinet minister, alongside police officers. Senior police officers from the districts that these groups operate in did not answer questions about alleged police support for the cow vigilantes when we could reach them.

While these groups most likely only represent a small fraction of the “cow vigilantes” in India, who have been reported on by the media and human rights groups in the country for years, our investigation sheds more light on how they informally work together to carry out mob violence against truck drivers.

Akhil Bharatiya Gau Seva Samiti (ABGS)

In a video uploaded in February this year, several men in cars are seen chasing a truck down a highway at night. A man from one of the cars pulls out a shotgun and fires at the truck. Police sirens can be heard in the background but law enforcement does not appear to interfere.

Still from the video of cars chasing a truck. Source: akhil_bharatiya_gauseva_samiti / Instagram

Akhil Bharatiya Gau Seva Samiti (ABGS), which uploaded the car chase video, is a trust – a non-profit organisation (NPO) formed to promote charitable activities. It was established in 2022, according to the Indian government’s non-profit database. ABGS is based in Vrindavan, Mathura district in the state of Uttar Pradesh.

While its day job may seem to be “animal welfare”, videos of its members terrorising truck drivers at night are routine and oftentimes, promoted by the trust itself.

ABGS’s president Bharat Gautam shared a post in November 2024 that shows a smashed-up car, with a sign for “Akhil Bhrataiya Gau Seva Samiti” on top of it, after what he described in Hindi as a “heavy encounter with cow smugglers”.

Bharat Gautam’s Instagram post describing a car chase that damaged an ABGS car; “Akhil Bhrataiya Gau Seva Samiti” written on the car in Hindi highlighted in red. Source: Instagram/ @team_bharat_gautam

Alt News spoke to Gautam, who said that cows are “not an animal”, but a mother figure in Hinduism.

Gautam claimed that his team works closely with Vrindavan police to save cows from being slaughtered for meat. “We either pass on the information we receive [about trucks transporting cattle] to the police and they accompany us in our pursuit or we patrol areas we know are frequented by cow smugglers,” he said, adding that the police register cases against the drivers based on complaints filed by his team once the vehicle is caught. Multiple calls by Alt News to the Vrindavan police station’s general line, as well as to the direct lines of senior police officials from the district, to request for comment on ABGS’s claims went unanswered.

“We help the administration but they can’t do everything so it’s also our duty to protect our religion, our mother,” said Gautam.

However, videos shared by his team reveal that the cows they claim to rescue are also frequently injured during their car chases. For example, a video from February last year shows a pick-up truck that had overturned apparently as a result of being pursued, causing the cattle inside to fall onto the road. The video shows three men sitting on the ground, looking gravely injured, and several people hitting them while posing for photos. Meanwhile, the cows can be seen sprawled on the side of the road, also apparently injured.

Click to view slideshow.

Gautam’s team operates in Uttar Pradesh, which is one of at least 20 out of 28 states in India that either partially or completely bans the slaughter of cows and the sale of beef. When Alt News asked Gautam about his team’s use of violence, he shifted the blame onto the truck drivers. “Cow smugglers collide with our cars … shoot at us,” he said.

ABGS’s headquarters are located in Vrindavan city’s Venkatesh Temple. When Alt News contacted the temple, they claimed to have no connection with the group. “We only rent out a space,” a temple staff member said.

Gautam told Alt News that the temple does offer some support to his team, including manpower and financial assistance. But he maintained that most of their work was self-funded and denied receiving any government aid or donations, despite the trust having appealed for donations on social media.

His “cow protection” activities have also won him recognition from the Uttar Pradesh government. In January last year, he received an award for “cow and social service” from a cabinet minister in the state. For this, he was congratulated in the presence of the district magistrate of Mathura city, who is responsible for maintaining law and order in the district, and Mathura police.

Bharat Gautam posing with the police with his award. Blurring by Bellingcat. Source: Facebook/ @bharat.gautam.3388

Multiple calls made to senior police officers in Mathura district went either unanswered or the officers did not comment when asked about the Mathura police’s relationship with Gautam and whether they supported cow vigilantism.

Team Sonu Hindu Palwal

While ABGS’s vigilante activities have been particularly visible on social media, our investigations found it is part of a network of local groups based in Uttar Pradesh and Haryana. In a video uploaded on June 27, Gautam says that cow vigilantes have been working under the guidance of one “Sonu Hindu Palwal” the past five years.

In March, videos shared by ABGS and several related cow vigilante groups show cars chasing a truck, and two men being brutally beaten and kicked.

Bellingcat geolocated the incident to a location outside a police station in Beri in the state of Haryana based on the trees, lamp posts and a temple seen in one of these videos, posted by a member of “Team Sonu Hindu Palwal”.

Click to view slideshow.

Left: Screenshot from Instagram video by the account robin_singh_chattha, with Sonu shown in black; Right: Location on Google Maps in Beri, Haryana

This location matches reports of an attack that took place in Beri on March 9, where eight men were arrested after a police officer on the scene filed a complaint. The officer’s complaint stated that the mob shouted “we will not leave you Muslims alive today” while beating up the two men from the truck.

A man who goes only by one name, Sonu – his official name listed on court documents – was among the eight arrested. He operates a team named after himself called “Team Sonu Hindu Palwal”. Palwal is the district in Haryana state where his team primarily operates.

Sonu told Bellingcat that he is the Palwal district president of Gau Raksha Dal (GRD) – literally “cow protection” unit – an NPO established in 2012. The GRD is one of the largest cow protection networks in India, and its leader told Human Rights Watch in 2017 that the network’s volunteers have a presence in nearly every state.

When asked about the incident in Beri, Sonu said that while they were chasing the truck drivers, the truck collided with another car, and the passengers of that car beat up the truck drivers. “We were blamed”, he said – even though videos of the assault were shared by members of his own team.

Bellingcat also showed Sonu several videos posted by cow vigilante groups including Team Bharat Gautam that either tagged Team Sonu Hindu or mentioned them in their captions. These videos showed men surrounded by members of the cow vigilante groups, who were hitting them or otherwise treating them roughly. Sonu was personally seen posing for a group photo in one of these videos, even though he wasn’t shown assaulting anyone. When shown these videos, Sonu denied that his team beat people up.

The cow vigilante leader did not directly respond to our questions about what he thought about violence committed by members of his team, but said: “Do whatever you want. Our job is to save cows and we will continue to do so.”

The day after his arrest in Beri, videos of Sonu’s supporters celebrating his release began circulating on Instagram. He and others from his team were paraded in a car with garlands around their necks and a procession followed them while dancing to “Hindutva pop”, a genre of music associated with the Hindu far-Right which carries lyrics with anti-Muslim rhetoric.

Still from a video of celebrations after the release of Sonu (centre with garlands around the neck). Blurring by Bellingcat. Source: Instagram/robin_singh_chattha

The men beaten up by Sonu and his team in March were arrested after a counter-complaint under animal cruelty and cow protection laws was filed against them.

When Alt News called the police station’s number, the police personnel who answered did not seem to know whether the two men seen being attacked in the video were still in jail. One of them said that the case has been transferred to the crime unit but was unable to provide any details of the investigating officers.

However, bail orders for the two men who were beaten up, which Bellingcat found on the district court website of Palwal, indicated that they each spent at least two months in custody before being released on bail.

Alt News spoke to Sonu who said that his team is tipped off by “informants” whenever cows are being transported, receiving details such as the vehicle’s route and licence plate number.

According to Sonu, the rescued cows are taken to shelters, while the people transporting them are handed over to the police. He said that the police sometimes show up after a vehicle is intercepted, but at other times the police are with the gau rakshaks during these incidents.

Alt News’s questions to the Additional Superintendent of Police, Palwal about Sonu’s claim that the police accompanies his team in their pursuits of truck drivers went unanswered.

Bellingcat also found links between Team Sonu and a Mumbai-registered charitable trust, through a photo Sonu posted showing a large truck which he described as an “ambulance for sick or injured cows in Palwal”. There is a Google Pay number shown on the vehicle for receiving donations.

A photo of a large truck, described as an ambulance for cows, with a Google Pay number for donations (blurred by Bellingcat). Source: Facebook/ @Sonu Hindu

The signage on the ambulance says the service is “courtesy of” an organisation called “Shri Mahesh Chand Dalmia Charitable Trust”, which appears to be a misspelling of “Shri Mahesh Chandra Dalmia Charitable Trust”, a registered trust based in Mumbai.

Sonu told Alt News that Shri Mahesh Chandra Dalmia Charitable Trust supported his team’s ambulance after local priests in Vrindavan introduced the organisation to his work.

According to the government’s NPO database, the trust works in the sectors of “Education & Literacy, Any Other, Health & Family Welfare”. The trustee, or person who manages the trust, is listed as Satyadeo Banka.

Banka is regularly tagged on Facebook in videos of Team Sonu’s attacks on truck drivers. His posts on the platform also frequently promote ideas in line with Hindutva, a nationalist ideology that advocates for establishing India as a Hindu nation-state.

Satyadeo Bank’s post on a Facebook group

We attempted to contact Banka on social media but did not receive any response. Alt News contacted the trust’s president, Rahul Dalmia, on the phone and emailed him about his organisation’s relationship with Team Sonu Hindu Palwal, asking whether he was aware of the group’s violent activities and Banka being tagged in their “cow protection” videos. Dalmia declined to be quoted when asked about the trust’s work over the phone, and did not respond, as of the time of publication, to further questions over email about whether the trust supported cow vigilantes in any way

Live For Nation

In 2021, Sonu congratulated someone he referred to as “LFN’s Parveen” for joining the Haryana government’s cow protection force, in a post on Facebook. LFN is the abbreviation of “Live For Nation”, a registered NPO in Haryana’s Faridabad which aims to “save cows”. This group was also involved in a car chase last year that resulted in the death of a 20-year-old man.

On Aug. 23, 2024, Aryan Mishra, 20, was out with his friends on a drive when five cow vigilantes – all LFN members – allegedly “mistook” them to be cattle smugglers and began chasing their car before firing at them. Mishra was killed in the incident.

One of the accused who was arrested, Anil Kaushik, reportedly told Mishra’s father that he thought the boy was Muslim and regretted killing a Brahmin, the highest ranking caste in the Hindu caste system. Kaushik identified himself as a member of Haryana government’s special cow protection task force, which Parveen is also a part of.

In a Facebook post, Sonu (right, in yellow) congratulated Parveen Vashisth (second from left, indicated by the arrow in the original post) for becoming a member of Haryana govt’s cow protection task force. Govind Singh, the leader of Gau Seva Mission – another group linked to cow vigilantism – is also in the same picture (left). Source: Facebook/ @Sonu Hindu

His full name is Parveen Vashisth and his Facebook bio says that he is a member of the Haryana government’s “special cow protection task force”. Vashisth also names the task force while sharing videos on Instagram of cow vigilantes from Team Sonu Hindu chasing trucks.

Alt News reached out to the “Haryana Gau Seva Aayog”, the government body responsible for overseeing the task force. Its chairman, Sharwan Garg, said that anyone can engage in cow protection work independently, provided they stay “within the limits of the law and coordinate with the authorities”.

However, Vashisth’s videos on Instagram showing Team Sonu Hindu chasing after trucks, shooting at them and assaulting drivers appear to show that these “limits” are often breached.

Gau Seva Mission

Another organisation that claims to work for cow welfare and operates in the same network uploaded a video on Jan. 9, 2025, showing vigilantes capturing a man they claimed was a “cow smuggler”. In multiple videos, the man looks gravely injured and bloody. His vehicle is also badly damaged.

Click to view slideshow.

The organisation, “Gau Seva Mission”, is based in Vrindavan, like ABGS. Its leader, Govind Singh, is frequently tagged in videos of attacks on alleged “cow smugglers” along with Bharat Gautam, Sonu and Parveen Vashisth.

Singh told Alt News that he is a veterinary doctor by profession and bears most of Gau Seva Mission’s expenses through his private work.

Gau Seva Mission appears to be known to the Uttar Pradesh government. In November last year, Singh uploaded photos and videos of the chairperson of the Uttar Pradesh government’s cow service commission visiting his office.

Singh told Alt News he used to be a member of the GRD – the NPO that Sonu is a member of – but left the organisation to start his own group, although he did not say when this was. One of Singh’s Facebook posts from three years ago gives the helpline number of GRD’s Vrindavan branch – the same number is now the helpline number of Gau Seva Mission. Its office also used to be at the same address as the office of the Vrindavan branch of GRD at least until March 2022, according to older images of the location on Singh’s Facebook account.

Gau Vansh Sewa Dham

Another organisation that claims to be involved in animal welfare but whose leader has been involved in cow-related violence is “Gau Vansh Sewa Dham”, in Haryana’s Faridabad. It is run by Shiva Dahiya, who told Alt News that the group runs a hospital for cows.

Videos of injured cows being treated are all over the Facebook page of the organisation, and Gau Vansh Sewa Dham makes regular appeals for donations to support their rescue and relief efforts. Dahiya said that the money for his organisation’s work is raised from the community.

Posts on Instagram that tag Dahiya show him seemingly participating in or being present at the scene of vigilante attacks targeting those transporting cattle. For example, one post from February shows him holding tire puncture spikes to stop a truck. In another, he is seen pulling an injured man, who was slumped over, up by his hair so his face was visible as a group of vigilantes – also including Sonu – posed for a picture with several captured men.

Shiva Dahiya (extreme right) and Sonu (sitting down) posing with men that were shown being assaulted by cow vigilantes in a video posted on social media. Blurring by Bellingcat. Source: team_bharat_gautam / Instagram

However, when Alt News asked if the car chases ever got violent, Dahiya said, “We don’t want to do any wrong by our hands”. And when asked if he had ever done anything wrong, he replied, “By the grace of God, never.”

Dahiya denied there was any violence committed by “cow protectors”.

“We never beat anyone,” he told Alt News.

(Shalaka Shinde contributed research to this piece.)

(Story featured image from Canva.)

The post Violence in the name of cows: The ‘animal welfare’ groups that beat up truck drivers in India appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Pooja Chaudhuri.

Viral video of Jaishankar ‘admitting’ that India lost 3 Rafales in clash with Pakistan is digitally manipulated

Prantik Ali — Tue, 15 Jul 2025 08:35:48 +0000

A video of India’s Union minister of external affairs (EAM) S Jaishankar admitting that India lost three Rafale fighter jets during the India-Pakistan conflict in May 2025 is viral on social media. The 22-second-long clip shows Jaishankar seated on a chair, mic in hand, addressing a gathering. “…the Pakistanis did attack us massively that night. We had already lost three Rafales to Pakistan two days ago, so it was very unfair of them to attack, but they did it anyway. We responded very quickly thereafter…” he is heard saying.

X user @iUdhoke shared the viral video on July 3 and said that the EAM finally admitted to the loss of multiple fighter jets to Pakistan. (Archive)

India’s EAM Jaishankar has finally admitted the loss of multiple fighter jets to Pakistan, including three Rafales.

“It was very unfair of Pakistan to target Indian jets” said Dr Jaishankar. pic.twitter.com/Wkl4faLyoK

— ਜਸਪਿੰਦਰ ਕੌਰ ਉਦੋਕੇ (@iUdhoke) July 3, 2025

Another X user, @TacticalTribun, also posted the video with similar claims. However, the post was later deleted. (Archive)

Another user, @MSBaig12, also shared the viral video with similar claims. (Archive)

The video was also widely shared on Facebook. Screenshots below:

Click to view slideshow.

Fact Check

We were doubtful about the video’s authenticity because Indian military officials have so far not given any numbers regarding the number of fighter jets lost in the conflict after India launched Operation Sindoor on May 7. While they neither confirmed nor denied the loss of Rafale jets, they did not give out any specific information. Also, the loss of three Rafale jets is a major blow to the country and its defence forces. If the EAM had made such a statement, it would have received much national and global attention and coverage by news outlets, which was not the case.

To verify the authenticity of the viral video, we broke it down into several key frames. A reverse image search on one of them led us to a video uploaded by Newsweek on July 1. We went through the entire video to check if Jaishankar had indeed made the admission.

At the 43:05-minute mark, Jaishankar can be heard saying “…the Pakistanis did attack us massively that night. We responded very quickly thereafter. And the next morning, Mr Rubio called me up and said that the Pakistanis were ready to talk.” Jaishankar was referring to the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio. Notably, he made no mention of India losing Rafale jets to Pakistan’s offensive.

Then, we went through the viral clip thoroughly to check if it was manipulated. We noticed that the lip movements were not in sync with the audio at times, confirming that the viral video was manipulated with audio likely overlaid. The manipulated clip adds the sentence: “We had already lost three Rafales to Pakistan two days ago, so it was very unfair of them to attack; but they did it anyway.”

To sum up, the viral video of S Jaishankar, where he says that India lost three Rafale jets to Pakistan, in the recent clashes following the Pahalgam terror attack, is digitally altered. The EAM did not make any such statement.

The post Viral video of Jaishankar ‘admitting’ that India lost 3 Rafales in clash with Pakistan is digitally manipulated appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Prantik Ali.

Did Sonia, Rahul Gandhi ‘disrespect’ ex-PM Manmohan Singh in meetings with foreign leaders?

Abhishek Kumar — Sat, 12 Jul 2025 12:24:31 +0000

Old pictures showing former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress leaders Sonia and Rahul Gandhi meeting heads of other countries’ foreign representatives have resurfaced on social media. The pictures show Sonia and Rahul Gandhi seated next to foreign leaders while ex-PM Manmohan Singh sits on the side. A collage of such pictures is being shared with suggestive claims that the Gandhi family disrespected the former Indian PM for 10 years. Several social media users also called it a “mockery of Indian democracy”.

X user ‘Squint Neon’ (@TheSquind) made similar claims while sharing these images, calling it an insult to the then-PM Manmohan Singh. (Archived link)

Another X user, Lolflix (@Lolflix), also shared the pictures with the caption, “Guess who was India’s Prime Minister?” (Archived link)

X user Rishi Bagree (@rishibagree), who often shares posts promoting the BJP, also shared the pictures. “The man in the blue turban was India’s Prime Minister for 10 years,” this person wrote in the caption. (Archived link)

Fact Check

There were a total of four images in the posts by social media users. We looked at each separately.

Image 1: Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe with Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi

A reverse image search of this picture led us to a post by news agency ANI from April 26, 2017. The accompanying caption said that Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe met former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi in New Delhi.

Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe met former PM Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi in Delhi pic.twitter.com/N5x7OzEeku

— ANI (@ANI) April 26, 2017

Note that the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance was elected to power for a five-year term in 2004 and then again in 2009. So, Manmohan Singh served two terms as Prime Minister—between 2004 and 2014. In other words, this picture is from after Manmohan Singh’s term as PM. At the time, Sonia Gandhi was the Congress president.

Image 2: Sri Lankan PM Wickremesinghe with Manmohan Singh, Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi

A reverse search of this image led us to an article on The New Indian Express site from November 24, 2017. The report says that Sonia Gandhi and other Congress leaders met Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe. The report added that she was accompanied by former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi and the party’s deputy leader in the Rajya Sabha, Anand Sharma.

Thus, this picture is not from Manmohan Singh’s time as Prime Minister. At the time, Sonia Gandhi was the president of Congress.

Image 3: South African President Cyril Ramaphosa with Rahul Gandhi and Manmohan Singh

We found the third picture in a National Herald report from January 26, 2019. The image was credited to senior Congress leader Anand Sharma. The report says that Congress president Rahul Gandhi and former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh met South African President Ramaphosa.

Anand Sharma’s X post from 2019 said that a Congress delegation led by then president Rahul Gandhi and former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh met Ramaphosa. In 2019, Manmohan Singh was neither the PM nor heading the Congress. At the time, Rahul Gandhi was the president of the Opposition party.

Image 4: Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina with Sonia Gandhi, Anand Sharma and Manmohan Singh

After a reverse image search, we found the same image used in a WION report from October 5, 2019. The report states that Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina met Congress President Sonia Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and other party leaders, including Anand Sharma and former PM Manmohan Singh. At this time, Sonia Gandhi was the interim Congress president.

Thus, photos of meetings between foreign delegates and Congress leaders have resurfaced with misleading claims that Manmohan Singh was ignored by Sonia and Rahul Gandhi. These images were after Manmohan Singh’s tenure as PM and were led, on the Congress’s side, by whoever was the party president. Singh was not meeting them as the Indian PM but as a Congress leader.

Since these meetings were between foreign leaders and the Opposition party, Rahul and Sonia Gandhi were seated in the centre as they were the Congress presidents at the time.

The post Did Sonia, Rahul Gandhi ‘disrespect’ ex-PM Manmohan Singh in meetings with foreign leaders? appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Abhishek Kumar.

Prayagraj arson: Old, unrelated videos shared as ‘deserving treatment’ meted out to Chandrashekhar Azad supporters

Pawan Kumar — Sat, 12 Jul 2025 07:30:40 +0000

Azad Samaj Party chief Chandrashekhar Azad was on June 29 detained in Prayagraj Circuit House in Uttar Pradesh while on his way to meet two families — one in Isota village in Karchana police station area of Prayagraj district where an individual from the scheduled caste community had been allegedly murdered on April 13, and another in Kokhraj police station area of Kaushambi district where a minor girl had been allegedly kidnapped and gangraped some time between April 24 and 27.

In protest against the detention, supporters of Azad Samaj Party and Bhim Army — both founded by Azad — started a protest in Bhadewara market area in Karchana town, which soon turned violent. As many as 85 people were arrested for stone-pelting, arson and damaging public property.

Against this backdrop, two videos went viral on social media in which police personnel can be seen walking with some men. In the first video, the hands and heads of these men are bandaged and they are limping. The other video shows a group of youths with shaved heads. Users are sharing this video and claiming that the rioting supporters of Chandrashekhar Azad received the treatment they deserved from UP Police.

Video I

X user Megh Updates, who has been found sharing misinformation and communal propaganda on several occasions, shared the video and wrote, “Chandrashekhar Ravan’s supporters who rioted in Prayaggraj are getting the treatment they deserve from Yogi’s UP police.”

Chandrashekhar Ravan supporters who RIOTED in Prayagraj are getting the TREATMENT they truly deserve from Yogi’s UP Police pic.twitter.com/QLj6EKL2Tb

— Megh Updates (@MeghUpdates) July 2, 2025

X users Naveen Kumar Jindal, Bhiku Mhatre, Apoorva Singh, Om Prakash Pandey, Vini, Rajesh Singh along with other handles like @TheBahubali_IND, @FrontalForce, and @Incognito_qfs also shared the footage with similar claims.

Click to view slideshow.

Fact Check

A reverse image search with frames taken from the viral video led us to the source video posted on a Facebook page named Khabar Padampur and Gramin on June 5, 2025. The post mentions that four members of an extortion gang were nabbed red-handed in Sri Ganganagar in Rajasthan. The group was demanding a sum of Rs 5 lakh from a businessman while posing as gangsters. The businessman’s accountant and his nephew were also found to be involved in the conspiracy.

A Facebook user named NAYAK YODHA also posted this video on June 6, claiming it to be from Sri Ganganagar.

श्रीगंगानगर में रंगदारी गैंग पकड़ी गई, 4 बदमाश रंगे हाथों गिरफ्तार!
गैंगस्टरों के नाम पर व्यापारी से मांगी जा रही थी 5 लाख की रंगदारी
पुलिस ने लग्जरी फॉर्च्यूनर गाड़ी में आए बदमाशों को किया गिरफ्तार
व्यापारी का मुनीम और उसका भतीजा भी निकले साजिश में शामिल
पुलिस ने रकम बरामद की, अन्य आरोपियों की तलाश जारी
डीआईजी गौरव यादव के निर्देश में बड़ी कार्रवाई
श्रीगंगानगर पुलिस की बड़ी कामयाबी – शहर में अपराधियों में हड़कंप!
#highlightseveryonefollowers2025 #hilights #CrimeNews

Posted by खबर पदमपुर एवं ग्रामीण on Thursday 5 June 2025

Apart from this, Alt News also found a tweet by Ganganagar Police from June 5, containing a newspaper cutting related to this case. The four accused seen in the video were also seen in the newspaper clipping. The report states that four miscreants had been caught red-handed under a well-planned operation while extorting a reputed businessman from Sri Ganganagar and threatening to kill him. A ransom amount of Rs 5 lakh was recovered from the accused. The arrested miscreants included a employee of the businessman, and his nephew.

pic.twitter.com/8Xcqc35SF9

— Ganganagar Police (@sgnrpolice) June 5, 2025

News18 Rajasthan also covered the incident.

To sum up, the viral video is not related in any way to the Prayagraj violence or the men accused of rioting.

Video II

The second video, as mentioned earlier, shows some men with tonsured heads being paraded publicly by police.

X user Ocean Jain shared the video and wrote, “Look at what Baba’s police did to the hooligans of Prayagraj”. Alt News has fact-checked this user several times in the past.

प्रयागराज के हुड़दंगियों का बाबा की पुलिस ने क्या हाल कर दिया है, अब सबका इंजन सेट है pic.twitter.com/w7QHXcY5UK

— Ocean Jain (@ocjain4) July 3, 2025

Several other X users, including Deepak Sharma, Sunanda Roy, Megh Updates and @FrontalForce also shared the footage and made similar claims while linking it to the Prayagraj violence.

Click to view slideshow.

Fact Check

We noticed ‘@VIRENDRASINGH6513’ written on the frame of the viral video. On searching the username, we found an Instagram profile named ‘Virendra Singh’ where we found the original video posted on June 2. According to the information provided with the post, Baran Police in Rajasthan had arrested 12 people for planning to loot a petrol pump.

NDTV Rajasthan covered the incident and reported that the Baran Police in Rajasthan arrested 12 accused planning to loot petrol pumps in two different police station areas, shaved their heads, and paraded them in a crowded market to teach them a lesson.

In addition, we came across two tweets by the official handle of the Baran Police which mentioned that weapons were also seized from the accused.

Apart from this, the official X handle of the Prayagraj Police Commissionerate also denied the viral claim calling it misleading. They clarified that the video was from Baran.

To sum up, the second viral video is also not related to the Prayagraj violence. It is from Baran district of Rajasthan where 12 people were arrested in early June for allegedly planning to loot a petrol pump in two different police station areas.

The post Prayagraj arson: Old, unrelated videos shared as ‘deserving treatment’ meted out to Chandrashekhar Azad supporters appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Pawan Kumar.

Dozens arrested in Odisha after 2 Dalit men tortured on false charges of cow smuggling

Pawan Kumar — Fri, 11 Jul 2025 10:46:59 +0000

Incidents of violence by so-called cow protection groups affiliated to Hindutva outfits have been on the rise in several north Indian states. Now, one such incident has come to light from the Ganjam district of Odisha where two Dalit men were brutally tortured on false charges of cow smuggling. They were allegedly beaten up, half tonsured, and forced to eat grass and drink sewer water.

According to a report by the Indian Express, victims Bulu Nayak (52) and Babul Nayak (43), residents of Singipur village in Sanakhemundi Tehsil in Ganjam District, had bought a cow and two calves from Haripur to be given as dowry in a family wedding. While they were taking the cattle to their village in a tempo rickshaw, a group of locals stopped them.

The group accused them of illegally transporting the cows, and snatched their mobile phones and money. They allegedly demanded Rs 30,000 to release the animals. When the duo refused, the group tied their hands and legs and brutally assaulted them. Next, they were taken to a local salon where parts of their heads were shaved. They were then made to walk on their knees for about two kilometres to Jahada village where they were allegedly forced to eat grass and drink water from a drain.

The incident took place in broad daylight on June 22, 2025 at Kharigumma village under Dharakot block in Ganjam district. Both the victims somehow managed to escape from the spot and were provided first aid at a local hospital, after which they lodged a complaint with the Dharakote Police.

After photos and videos of the incident went viral on social media, several social media users, including social activists and politicians, started sharing the visuals and demanding the arrest of the accused and that appropriate action be taken against them.

On June 23, the official X handle of the Ganjam SP reported that eight accused had been arrested and one minor boy apprehended after a case had been registered under the relevant sections of the BNS and SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.

A case has been registered under relevant sections of BNS and SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.

During investigation, 8 accused persons have been arrested and one CICL apprehended. All were forwarded to the Hon’ble court. (2/2) pic.twitter.com/LxUFlKkrSX

— SP Ganjam (@sp_ganjam) June 24, 2025

On June 26, the police reported that the main accused in the incident had been arrested A local news portal carried the names of the accused arrested in the case in a report dated June 25. They were identified as Sibashankar Mohanty, Satya Sahu, Bainath Bisoi, Om Gowda, Ganapati Palei, Santosh Dakua, Shankar Das, and Narayan Dakua and a minor.

Another report published on July 3 stated that a total of 16 people had been arrested in the case so far.

Alarming Increase in Cow-Vigilantism Violence

It is pertinent to note that cases of violence related to cow-vigilantism have skyrocketed in the recent past. From 2016 to 2020, lynching or mob violence following suspected cow slaughter or trade has claimed at least 50 lives, according to a report by ACLED, an independent non-profit organisation that tracks and analyses data on violent conflict and protest across all countries and regions.

ACLED recorded a sharp increase in the number of incidents of political violence related to the protection of cows in India in 2018. Compared to 2016, incidents of political violence related to cow protection increased by more than 40% in 2017 and almost doubled in 2018, with this increase in violence coinciding with the establishment of BJP-led governments in several states, including Uttar Pradesh, Assam and Jharkhand.

The report further revealed that more than 80% of reported incidents of cow protection-related violence were carried out against civilians. The victims of these attacks were usually those involved in the cattle trade and individuals belonging to minority groups, including Muslims, Dalits or Adivasi communities.

The post Dozens arrested in Odisha after 2 Dalit men tortured on false charges of cow smuggling appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Pawan Kumar.

Police brutality video from Jaunpur, UP, falsely viral as Tamil Nadu incident

Abhishek Kumar — Fri, 11 Jul 2025 10:37:50 +0000

Following the alleged custodial death of a temple security guard in Tamil Nadu, a video depicting an alleged incident of police brutality has been gathering traction on social media. In the footage, two men can be seen restraining a man while a policeman beats him up with a belt. Users are sharing this video and claiming that the incident is from Tamil Nadu.

A user named Arjun tweeted the viral clip with the same claim, adding that the police department should be renamed as the brutality department of Tamil Nadu government. (Archived link)

A user named Selvakumar also made a similar claim while sharing the video. (Archived link)

Another user named Kumaran tweeted the video and wrote that people were being beaten up and tortured by the police in the name of interrogation. Kumaran used the hashtag ‘DMKFailsTN’ linking this video to Tamil Nadu. He later deleted this tweet.

Fact Check

Alt News performed a reverse image search using frames taken from the viral video. This led us to a report by UP Tak dated April 25, 2025 related to this video. The video report states that this case is from Mungra Badshahpur police station of Jaunpur in Uttar Pradesh, where SHO Vinod Mishra had assaulted a man with a belt.

The report states that the young man had given some money to the police officer for some work, but when it was not done, the young man went to ask for his money back. At this time, the SHO beat him up with a belt while some policemen pinned him against a pillar. Speaking on this matter, SSP Rural, Shailendra Singh stated that they had taken cognizance of the matter, and launched a departmental inquiry to investigate what had transpired. Along with this, he mentioned that the SHO had been shunted with immediate effect. This makes it evident that the viral video is not from Tamil Nadu, but from Uttar Pradesh.

A report by India TV from April 24, 2025, also states that the incident is from Jaunpur in Uttar Pradesh and identifies the individual beating up the man in the video as Mungra Badshahpur police station-in-charge Vinod Mishra. This report, too, makes the point that the victim had given money to Mishra for some work, but when the work was not done, the youth asked for the money back from him, which was when the station in-charge started thrashing him.

Amar Ujala, too, reported on the incident of alleged police brutality. However, their report said it was a matter of domestic dispute in a family residing in Hemapur-Tarhathi area in Mungra Badshahpur Block in Jaunpur District. One of the parties involved in the dispute had allegedly given Rs. 26,000 to police, upon which police picked up the youth seen in the video from his house, tied him to a pillar in the police station and beat hm up severely. Although Alt News cannot confirm these allegations, it is clear that this video is not from Tamil Nadu, but from an incident in Uttar Pradesh.

To sum up, several users shared a video of a man being brutally beaten up by policemen inside a police station in Jaunpur, Uttar Pradesh, with the false claim that it was an incident from Tamil Nadu.

The post Police brutality video from Jaunpur, UP, falsely viral as Tamil Nadu incident appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Abhishek Kumar.

No, Pakistan Zindabad slogans were not raised at Muharram rally in Deoria, Uttar Pradesh

Pawan Kumar — Fri, 11 Jul 2025 10:19:58 +0000

Social media users recently shared a video claiming that slogans of ‘Pakistan Zindabad’ were raised by Muslims participating in a Muharram procession in Uttar Pradesh. The viral posts also contain derogatory words against the Muslim community.

X user Deepak Sharma, who regularly shares disinformation and promotes communal propaganda, shared the video tagging the Deoria Police and wrote, “Do you hear what I am hearing? This crowd raising slogans of ‘Pakistan Zindabad’ is not in Pakistan but in India, that too in India’s Uttar Pradesh. Betrayal is in their blood.”

पाकिस्तान जिंदाबाद

जी हाँ ये पाकिस्तान जिंदाबाद क़े नारे लगाती ये भीड़ पाकिस्तान में नहीं भारत में है और भारत क़े
भी उत्तर प्रदेश में है

खून में ही गद्दारी इन BSD वाले लोगों क़े…

Hello @DeoriaPolice
क्या आप वो सुन पा रहे हैं जो मैं सुन रहा हूँ ?

इन्हे ऐसा सबक सिखाएं कि… pic.twitter.com/IDKdnM7jW3

— Deepak Sharma (@SonOfBharat7) July 7, 2025

Right-wing X user Sandeep Mishra and several others on other platforms like Instagram and Facebook shared the same footage with claims that ‘Pakistan Zindabad’ slogans had been raised during a Muharram procession.

Click to view slideshow.

Fact Check

Alt News found that the official X handle of the Deoria Police had tweeted about this and refuted the claim about ‘Pakistan Zindabad’ slogans being raised. According to police, in the video recorded during a Muharram procession by the Five Star Club, slogans of ‘Five Star Zindabad’, and not ‘Pakistan Zindabad’ could be heard.

The police also mentioned that the procession was carried out peacefully in police presence.

मोहर्रम त्यौहार के दिनांक 06/07.07.2025 के जुलूस के दौरान सोशल मीडिया पर एक भ्रामक तरीके से प्रसारित किए जा रहे वीडियो के सम्बन्ध में देवरिया पुलिस का खण्डन।#UPPolice @diggorakhpur @AdgGkr @dgpup @UPPViralCheck pic.twitter.com/7uo0AajvLe

— DEORIA POLICE (@DeoriaPolice) July 7, 2025

Alt News examined the video by playing it in slow motion. On listening carefully to the slogans being raised in the procession, it became clear that the chants were not that of ‘Pakistan Zindabad’, but ‘Five Star Zindabad’. However, due to the background noise, the slogans are not that clear.

Apart from this, we noticed that many people participating in the procession wore green T-shirts with ‘5 STAR CLUB’ and ‘5 star’ printed on them.

Upon further investigation, we also came across the Instagram page of 5 star club. Many videos taken during Muharram can be found on this page. Apart from these, in a post by Instagram user Israfil Ansari, too, members of the 5 Star Club can be seen participating in Muharram observation wearing the same green T-shirts in the presence of police personnel.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Smart Israfil Ansari (@smart_israfil_2000)

To sum it up, slogans of “Five Star Zindabad” were raised in the video in question. However, some users falsely claimed that Muslims were raising ‘Pakistan Zindabad’ slogans during Muharram.

The post No, Pakistan Zindabad slogans were not raised at Muharram rally in Deoria, Uttar Pradesh appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Pawan Kumar.

Video of Hindu woman kneeling at Rath Yatra in Puri viral with false claims that she was offering namaz

Ankita Mahalanobish — Fri, 11 Jul 2025 06:52:15 +0000

A video showing a female police volunteer pulling away a woman kneeling underneath a large wooden chariot is viral on social media with communal claims that she was offering namaz or Islamic prayers during the annual Rath Yatra in Puri, Odisha. While the clip does not clearly show namaz being offered, someone in the background can be heard asking, “Namaz porche naki?” (Are they offering the namaz?)

The Rath Yatra or Chariot festival is a major Hindu festival in which thousands of devotees of the Hindu god Jagannath (believed to be a form of another deity, Krishna) come to Puri. In Hindu mythology, the deity travels in a chariot to visit his aunt along with his siblings and offers blessings to all on the way. The city usually witnesses a massive surge in visitors around this time. A glimpse of this scale is also visible in the viral video.

Social media users claim the video shows two individuals offering namaz under the holy chariot of Jagannath, and this is done to deliberately disrespect the religious sentiments of Hindus and malign the sanctity of the festival.

On July 2, X user BALA (@erbmjha) shared the footage, calling it blasphemous. They also tagged the Odisha police, demanding her arrest.

Blasphemy during Rath Yatra!!

Woman caught doing Namaz under the Jagannath Rath in Puri.

Enough of testing the patience of Hindus. Why isn’t she arrested yet @odisha_police ? pic.twitter.com/oBwhP5p15u

— BALA (@erbmjha) July 2, 2025

At the time of writing this, the post had over 164,000 views. Note that Alt News has fact-checked misinformation shared by this user several times.

The same day, on X, Sagar Kumar (@KumaarSaagar), a journalist at Sudarshan News, a pro-Right outlet, shared the same video, suggesting that offering namaz during a Hindu festival signalled a larger conspiracy at play.

ये एक बहुत बड़ी साज़िश है।

अपना शक्ति प्रदर्शन किया गया है।
हिंदुओं की सबसे बड़ी और पवित्र रथ यात्रा भगवान जगन्नाथ जी के रथ के नीचे “नमाज़” पढ़ी गई। pic.twitter.com/UCgiSJhUXm

— Sagar Kumar “Sudarshan News” (@KumaarSaagar) July 2, 2025

The post had over 573,000 views at the time this was written.

Another X user, Sameer (@BesuraTaansane), also shared the video with a provocative caption that those who hate Hindus should go to their “promised land”.

If you hate Hindus so much why don’t you just GTFOH & go to your promised land

Shameless beach was caught offering under the Rath at the Jagannath Rath Yatra pic.twitter.com/3FWer1vLgv

— Sameer (@BesuraTaansane) July 2, 2025

At the time of writing this, the post had over 781,000 views.

Several other social media users, whom Alt News has previously called out for amplifying misinformation, also shared the video with similar claims. These include MeghUpdates (@MeghUpdates), Squint Neon (@TheSquind), Jitendra Pratap Singh (@jpsin1), Ocean Jain (@ocjain4), and Kalpana Srivastava (@Lawyer_Kalpana).

Click to view slideshow.

Fact Check

On looking closely, we found that the viral video had a “Khabardar Live” watermark. We then found Khabardar Live’s Facebook page, which identifies itself as a local news and media website based in Odisha. On this page, we found a longer version of the viral video posted on June 28, 2025. The caption, in Odia, reads, “Why did police bring women under Jagannath’s chariot?”

ଜଗନ୍ନାଥଙ୍କ ରଥ ତଳୁ ମହିଳାଙ୍କୁ ଘୋଷାରି ଆଣିଲେ ପୋଲିସ କାହିଁକି ? #PuriRathayatra #puri #jagannathratha #rathayatra2025

Posted by Khabardar Live on Friday 27 June 2025

In this video, at the 1:22-minute mark, the woman who was seen being dragged by the police volunteer can be heard protesting, “Yeh kya tareeka hai?” she says (“What kind of behaviour is this?”). To this, a man nearby responds that the idol of the Jagannath deity would soon be carried up the chariot stairs, and for that, people were not allowed to sit under the chariot. The woman then replies, “Lekin humko yahaan par bitha ke gaye the, bhaiyya..” (“But I was asked to sit here”). Pointing at the others still kneeling under the chariot, she says, “Wo bhi toh wahin khade hai” (“They are also standing there”).

This made it clear that the woman was not sitting there defiantly, but there seemed to be some miscommunication regarding her presence there.

Also, usually, during prayers, Muslims cover their head and use a prayer mat, which was not the case here, making us doubt that she was offering namaz. To be sure, we ran this by someone familiar with how Islamic prayers are done, and they too told us that covering the head is a customary requirement for women during namaz, and her sitting posture—with feet crossed—does not align with the posture prescribed for Salah. They added that no janamaz or prayer mat was visible, making it unlikely that she was offering namaz.

Alt News also contacted a senior journalist from Puri who was familiar with the incident. Refuting the communal narrative being circulated, she said that the individuals were kneeling and sitting there just to get a glimpse of Jagannath’s idol.

To corroborate this, Alt News also reached out to Odisha Police’s officer in charge of temple security, Kaushik Nayak. When asked about the alleged video, Nayak said, “No such instance was reported.”

Alt News also independently identified the woman in the video, but will not be divulging her name to protect her privacy. We managed to reach out to her family and acquaintances, who confirmed that she is, in fact, Hindu and a Jagannath devotee.

These findings, put together, make it clear that the viral video shows a Hindu woman sitting under the chariot during the crowded Rath Yatra festival and not offering namaz as social media users wrongly claimed.

The post Video of Hindu woman kneeling at Rath Yatra in Puri viral with false claims that she was offering namaz appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Ankita Mahalanobish.

PIB’s claim that India is fourth most equal country citing World Bank data is misleading

Shinjinee Majumder — Thu, 10 Jul 2025 15:15:48 +0000

On July 5, 2025, the Press Information Bureau (PIB)—the official media and public relations arm of the Indian government—published a press release titled “World Bank Places India Among World’s Most Equal Societies.” Citing a World Bank report, PIB published a misleading claim that “India ranks fourth globally in income equality with a Gini score of 25.5,” after the Slovak Republic, Slovenia, and Belarus.

Click to view slideshow.

After PIB’s release, several media outlets, including Times of India, Moneycontrol, The Hindu, Mint, Deccan Herald, Indian Express and Republic published reports that India ranked fourth in terms of income equality, with some directly attributing it to the World Bank. Among them, The Hindu and Deccan Herald had PTI copies while Mint had an ANI copy. Largely, they all parroted the PIB release.

Also Read | Op Sindoor: As Indian media made false, outrageous claims, PIB looked the other way

Click to view slideshow.

Why PIB’s Claim Is Misleading

Comparing India’s Gini score (25.2) with the United Kingdom (32.4), the United States (41.8) and China (35.7), PIB said that India’s income equality outshone major economies.

Source: PIB press release

The World Bank defines the Gini as an index that measures the “extent to which the distribution of income or consumption among individuals or households within an economy deviates from a perfectly equal distribution”. A Gini score or coefficient is expressed as a percentage. The number 0 denotes a perfectly equal society (where everyone has the same level of income or consumption), while a score of 100 denotes extreme inequality (where some have nothing and the rest have all).

Also Read | India is not the fourth-largest or a $4-trillion economy yet; NITI Aayog CEO’s claim citing IMF data misleading

However, the PIB seems to have cherry picked some information from the World Bank report and misrepresented it.

Here’s what the World Bank’s April 2025 Poverty & Equity Brief for India says:

“…India’s consumption-based Gini index improved from 28.8 in 2011-12 to 25.5 in 2022-23, though inequality may be underestimated due to data limitations. In contrast, the World Inequality Database shows income inequality rising from a Gini of 52 in 2004 to 62 in 2023. Wage disparity remains high, with the median earnings of the top 10 percent being 13 times higher than the bottom 10 percent in 2023-24…”

So, there are two Ginis—one based on consumption and the other on income. Clearly, the World Bank says that India has improved in one and done worse in the other.

But PIB has compared the consumption-based Gini score of India (where India fares slightly better in 2022-23 than 2011-12) with the income-based Gini scores of UK, US, Slovenia and Slovak Republic (where India is worse off now than before).

The World Bank itself warns against comparing Gini coefficients of different countries for this very reason, because the underlying data used in surveys for these calculations varies. Note that the World Bank does not collect data itself; it measures inequality based on household survey data provided by governments. From the World Bank glossary:

“Because the underlying household surveys differ in methods and types of welfare measures collected, data are not strictly comparable across countries or even across years within a country.”

The reason such a comparison is problematic follows:

“… Surveys can differ in many respects, including whether they use income or consumption expenditure as the living standard indicator. The distribution of income is typically more unequal than the distribution of consumption.”

So, in comparing India’s consumption inequality with more developed countries’ income inequality, we are essentially comparing two different units. And inequality based on consumption data will, by default, appear more equal.

Let’s understand why this is so.

Inequality Based on Consumption vs Income

Most developed, wealthy or high-income countries use income-based household surveys because their economies are formalised and tracking incomes is not a challenge. Developing, middle and lower-income groups use consumption-based household surveys owing to challenges with collecting data on incomes (some reasons could be a sizeable proportion of the labour force being deployed in informal sectors, more cash transactions, less access to banking, etc).

But when we track inequality based on the two different surveys, the results are different. Countries that use income-based surveys appear to be more unequal. There are three main reasons for this:

First, income-based surveys include all means through which one earns (such as salary, capital gains, additional earnings) whereas consumption-based surveys take account only of households’ expenditure. To put it another way, one measures a household’s potential purchasing power while the other only measures how much is actually used or spent. While those with higher incomes may consume more, they also have a greater propensity to save. So, just looking at households’ consumption data cannot give us a clear picture of their potential purchasing power.

Let’s take an oversimplified example. A poor household spends around Rs 15,000 a month or 75% of its income, while a wealthy household spends Rs 50,000, which is 10% of its monthly income. At a glance, just based on their expenditure or consumption, it is hard to gauge the level of inequality between the two, even when there is a significant difference in their spending. But if we conflate their monthly incomes—Rs 20,000 and Rs 5 lakh, respectively—the level of inequality is stark.

Two, according to a 2024 paper on the Gini coefficient titled “The World Bank’s New Inequality Indicator: The Number of Countries with High Inequality” (Haddad et al.) households’ incomes can sometimes be extremely low or even negative, due to unemployment, loss in business, or other temporary shocks but they would still need to maintain a basic level of consumption for sustenance. This keeps consumption levels from falling sharply.

Three, wealthier households have a greater propensity to save. As incomes grow, the proportion of what is spent on essentials diminishes and the proportion devoted to savings rises. For instance, a household might receive a large one-time income from investments but won’t necessarily spend all of it right away. Instead, they may save most of it for future needs or emergencies.

Because of these differences, income and consumption inequality are not directly comparable—income can fluctuate sharply, while consumption tends to be smoother since everyone depends on at least a minimum level of subsistence.

What PIB Got Wrong

The Press Information Bureau took the 25.5 figure, which is the consumption-based Gini and compared it with the income-based Gini of the United States of America and the United Kingdom. It also claimed that India stands fourth globally in income equality, after the Slovak Republic, Slovenia and Belarus.

As established earlier, income inequality is typically higher than consumption inequality. This means that when the Gini for a country is calculated using income data, it will appear more unequal and thus have a higher score than when it is calculated using consumption data.

For example, the United Kingdom’s score on the Gini index (calculated in 2021) is 32.40, which makes it seemingly more unequal than India’s consumption-based Gini index score of 25.5. The footnote in the World Bank data clearly states that the UK’s Gini score is based on income data.

Click to view slideshow.

Similarly, the United States of America’s latest score on the Gini index (calculated in 2023) is 41.80, which is higher (and hence more unequal) than India’s consumption-based Gini index score of 25.5. US’s Gini coefficient is also based on income data.

Click to view slideshow.

Like we mentioned before, this is similar to comparing absolute numbers of different units. For instance, it’s like saying 100 grams is more than 50 ounces. What is comparable, however, is India’s income-based Gini, which is 62, much higher than those of the UK and the USA.

Similarly, the Slovak Republic, in 2022, had an income-based Gini of 24.10. When compared with India’s income-based Gini of 62, the Slovak Republic is far ahead in terms of equality.

Click to view slideshow.

Slovenia, as of 2022, had an income-based Gini of 24.30. Again, income equality there is far less than in India, with a Gini of 62.

Click to view slideshow.

As of 2020, Belarus had a consumption-based Gini Index of 24.40. This is comparable to India’s consumption-based Gini of 25.5. Belarus fares better than India.

Click to view slideshow.

China’s Gini Index of 35.70 is comparable to that of India’s 25.5, since China also has a consumption-based Gini.

Click to view slideshow.

We’ve ranked the countries mentioned in the PIB press release below, distinguishing their most recent available consumption-based and income-based scores on the Gini index.

To put things in perspective, India’s income inequality has actually risen from 2004 to 2023. The World Bank brief clearly says this. Even the improvement in consumption inequality is very marginal—from 28.8 in 2011-12 to 25.5 in 2022-23. This is hardly celebratory; it rather shows that India’s consumption is facing strain.

Economist Surbhi Kesar, who was the first to point out PIB’s misrepresentation of World Bank data on X, writes that we might even be underestimating India’s consumption inequality due to data limitations. The 2022–23 Household Consumption Expenditure Survey introduced several changes in methodology compared to the earlier 2011–12 survey, making direct comparisons on poverty reduction unreliable.

Also, the Gini index is one inequality indicator, just like income and consumption are a few metrics to measure inequality. Like economist Santosh Mehrotra points out in The Wire, inequality manifests in various ways such as social inequality (owing to caste, ethnicity, class, etc) and wealth-based inequality (when wealth is concentrated in the hands of a few over the years and then passed down as inheritence), which are often beyond the scope of the Gini index but crucial for developing economies like India to take into account.

Importantly, these surveys and numbers do not highlight enough just how stark inequality is in India, in terms of wealth concentration. These issues have been widely flagged by economists and statisticians on several occasions.

(With inputs from Diti Pujara)

The post PIB’s claim that India is fourth most equal country citing World Bank data is misleading appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Shinjinee Majumder.

Media misreport: Islamic flag waved at Muharram rally falsely described as Pakistani national flag

Ankita Mahalanobish — Thu, 10 Jul 2025 14:36:00 +0000

After the observance of Muharram on July 6, 2025, a video showing a man seated atop what appeared to be a stack of loudspeakers caught the attention of some news channels. The man held a large flag bearing a crescent and star motif. The footage was aired in news bulletins with the claim that the Pakistani national flag had been carried in a Muharram procession in Jamui, Bihar.

News18 Bihar aired the video on July 6, with anchors highlighting the incident and identifying the flag as Pakistan’s national flag. Remarking that the Pakistani flag drew inspiration from the Islamic flag, News18 clarified that the video had not been independently verified by the channel. The location of the incident, was, however, identified as Pairamatihana village in Sono block of Jamui district in Bihar.

During the bulletin, the anchors described the act as potentially problematic and turned to an on-ground reporter for an update. The reporter stated that a formal complaint had been lodged, and police had initiated an investigation. Authorities were currently reviewing the footage, and efforts were underway to identify the individual seen waving the flag, he further reported, adding, once the person was identified, appropriate legal action would be taken.

It is worth noting that News18 Bihar has since deleted both the video and the corresponding post on X. One can watch the relevant part of the bulletin below. An archived version of the X post by the media outlet can be seen here.

Dainik Bhaskar, on July 7, published a report on this in which the headline described the flag as an Islamic flag, but the photo caption and the story itself said it was a Pakistani flag. The story stated that on the evening of Sunday, July 6, during a Muharram procession in Sono, a man was seen waving a flag of Pakistan while being seated over the sound system. The report further claimed that Sono police station-in-charge Dharmendra Kumar acknowledged that the flag had not been noticed by officers at the time. However, he assured that efforts were underway to identify the individual, and appropriate legal action would be taken.

Bhaskar also made a voice-over video report on this which is embedded in the above-mentioned article. At the 5-second mark, the reporter can be heard saying, “Ek yuvak Pakistani Jhandda lehrate huye dikh rahe hai” (A young man is seen waving a Pakistani flag). Again, at the 20-second mark in the video, the reporter alleges the flag in question was the Pakistani national flag. Watch it here:

Right-wing propaganda website OpIndia published an article detailing instances of violence reported during several Muharram processions in Bihar. The article referenced the incident and claimed that the Pakistani national flag had been waved in Jamui. Although police were present at the location, they did not take any action, the article added.

Fact Check

Upon closer examination of the video, it becomes evident that the flag held by the man is an Islamic flag, not the national flag of Pakistan. The flag in question appears black in colour, featuring a crescent and a star, common Islamic symbols. In contrast, Pakistan’s national flag is bright green with a white vertical stripe towards the mast, also bearing a white crescent and a star.

A visual comparison has been done below for clarity.

Alt News reached out to the Sono police station-in-charge Dharmendra Singh, who clarified that the flag seen in the viral video was not the national flag of Pakistan, but an Islamic flag. He further stated that no formal complaint or FIR had been registered in connection with the incident. Singh also noted that the authenticity of the video’s location — whether it was indeed filmed in Sono — was still under investigation.

To sum up, the flag waved by a man at a Muharram procession reportedly in Bihar’s Jamui was not Pakistan’s national flag; it was the Islamic flag. Several media outlets and propaganda website OpIndia misreported the incident and falsely claimed that the Pakistani national flag had been waved.

The post Media misreport: Islamic flag waved at Muharram rally falsely described as Pakistani national flag appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Ankita Mahalanobish.

Rahul Gandhi’s photo on sanitary pads distributed in Bihar? Congress files FIR over ‘fake’ video

Oishani Bhattacharya — Wed, 09 Jul 2025 08:26:32 +0000

Days after the Bihar state unit of Congress launched a campaign to distribute around 5 Lakh sanitary napkins to women in the state, a video showing a pack of napkins with images of Rahul Gandhi printed on its outer cover as well as on the pads went viral on social media.

On X, the official handle of BJP Goa shared the clip and claimed that in its desperation ahead of the Bihar elections, Congress had attached Gandhi’s image “at unwanted locations”. (Archive)

Heights of Desperation

Bihar Congress distributing Sanitary pads attached with Rahul Gandhi’s photos at unwanted locations ahead of Bihar Elections pic.twitter.com/HK5mDxouTW

— BJP Goa (@BJP4Goa) July 5, 2025

X user Raushan Sinha (@MrSinha_), who amplifies pro-BJP propaganda and misinformation on a regular basis, on July 5 shared a video where a man wearing a saree shows a sanitary napkin with Rahul Gandhi’s image on it. Sinha identified the person who appeared in the video as @RatanRanjan_, and praised his ‘creativity’. (Archive)

Top level creativity by @RatanRanjan_ pic.twitter.com/JxcqwCFgb6

— Mr Sinha (@MrSinha_) July 5, 2025

Another pro-BJP X user, Rishi Bagree (@rishibagree), had also posted the viral video on X on July 5 with the caption: “Their hereditary habit of sucking blood”. Bagree later deleted his post.

Several other social media users have shared these videos with similar claims.

Click to view slideshow.

Ratan Ranjan, who had originally shared the videos, has since deleted them. We noted that on his X bio, he described himself as a comedian. (Archive 1, 2)

‘Fake’, Says Congress, Files FIR

Upon running a relevant keyword search, we found several news reports related to the viral clip. According to a report by the Times of India from July 6, Congress had filed an FIR regarding the circulation of the video with Rahul Gandhi’s image on the sanitary pad, and had called it fake.

The report, however, mentions that the boxes in which the pads were distributed in Bihar did have images of Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi.

Supriya Shrinate, who is in charge of Congress’s social media and digital platforms, too, clarified that the video was fake. She also shared on X a copy of the FIR that the party had filed against Ratan Ranjan and Arun Kosil in Bengaluru.

राहुल गांधी जी की तस्वीर का गलत इस्तेमाल करके Fake वीडियो बनाने के खिलाफ FIR दर्ज करा दी गई है

अभी औरों के ख़िलाफ़ भी एक्शन लिया जा रहा है pic.twitter.com/up42Z3GqJK

— Supriya Shrinate (@SupriyaShrinate) July 6, 2025

Further, we came across a tweet by Pawan Khera, chief of Congress’s media and publicity department, where he posted a video comparison, showing the fake viral video and the actual pack of sanitary pads distributed by the party. The latter do not have any image on the surface of the pad.

चोर चोरी से जाए हेराफेरी से ना जाए, प्रचारमंत्री जी खुद तो फेक वीडियो बनाने को लेकर ज्ञान देते है और उनकी ट्रोल आर्मी इस तरह के घिनौने फेक वीडियो बना कर बिहार में गंदा प्रोपगेंडा चला रही है! pic.twitter.com/Rs6NImE0x6

— Pawan Khera (@Pawankhera) July 5, 2025

Glaring Discrepancies & Admission of ‘Fakery’

The readers should also note that while Bihar Congress distributed pads in cardboard boxes, the viral video shows packets. If one notices carefully, it becomes apparent that the Rahul Gandhi image from the side of the boxes was cut and pasted on the orange-coloured packet of a popular brand of sanitary napkins that is available in the market. See comparison below: On the left side is a screengrab showing the packet from the viral video. On the right side is the box that was actually distributed (Photo taken from TOI report).

Also, the packet from which the pad with the Congress leader’s image is taken out in the viral video is not sealed, hence, it can be surmised that the content of the packet was possibly tampered with before the video was made.

We also found an interview of Ratan Ranjan on a YouTube channel named A2Z News TV, where he admits that the video he made was ‘fake’. At the 00.15-minute mark in the video the interviewer tells him that the video he made was ‘fake’. To this, Ranjan replies, “When did I claim it was factual!”.

Later in the interview, the anchor shows how a photo cut out of the Rahul Gandhi had been placed on a sanitary napkin so that the viral video could be made.

To sum up, sanitary napkins distributed by Bihar Congress to women in the state did not have Rahul Gandhi’s photo on them. The boxes, in which they were distributed, did, however, have Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi’s photos. The viral video does not show the actual box or the actual sanitary pads that were distributed.

The post Rahul Gandhi’s photo on sanitary pads distributed in Bihar? Congress files FIR over ‘fake’ video appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Oishani Bhattacharya.

Kolkata rape case: Did TMC turn a blind eye to key accused Monojit Mishra’s past?

Shinjinee Majumder — Tue, 08 Jul 2025 12:55:45 +0000

Trigger Warning: Details of sexual assault, reader’s discretion advised.

After the alleged rape of a student in Kolkata’s South Calcutta Law College came to light, leaders of the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) have tried to distance themselves from Monojit Mishra, the key accused in the case. The party had come under fire after social media posts hinted at Mishra’s connections with TMC’s top brass.

On June 25, Mishra (31), allegedly raped a 24-year-old student, in the security guard’s room in the college premises in the presence of two students, Zaib Ahmed (19) and Pramit Mukherjee (20). Alt News has accessed the First Information Report (FIR) filed at the Kasba police station on June 26. The three have been charged under sections 127 (2), which deals with wrongful confinement; 70(1), gang rape; and 3 (5), dealing with joint criminal liability, of the Bharatiya Nyay Sanhita.

In her statement to the police, the survivor said that the key accused was an ex-student, a college official and “unofficially” the head of the college’s TMC-affiliated student wing–Trinamool Congress Chhatra Parishad (TMCP). She said that he was “giving everyone a post for TMCP unit” and she was given the post of the Girls’ Secretary and asked about her ‘loyalty’ to Mishra and the TMCP unit before she was raped. She also alleged that Mishra and the others recorded videos of the incident and threatened to leak them if she refused to ‘co-operate’. She wrote that she had a panic attack when the ordeal was ongoing and was given an inhaler, but they did not let her go. Mishra also tried to hit her with a hockey stick. The two other students accused in the case had locked the main campus gate while the guard stood there helpless, she wrote.

Alt News’ findings reveal that Mishra is a history sheeter, who, despite his troubling record of violence and harassment, was given an official position with the party’s student wing (Trinamool Congress Chhatra Parishad). Even when he was not an office bearer, Mishra allegedly flexed his power on campus with repeated acts of vandalism and harassment.

‘Failed to Predict in 2019 that Mishra would Commit such a Crime’

From ruling out the accused’s association with the party entirely to claiming that they could not have possibly foretold what happened, TMC leaders have made public statements and held press conferences to keep the prime accused at arm’s length. However, Alt News found that Mishra was assigned leadership positions in the party’s student wing despite several police complaints in his name before the latest case, including for allegedly molesting a woman.

On June 27, after the FIR in the case was filed, senior TMC leaders Kunal Ghosh and Shashi Panja, along with TMCP state president Trinankur Bhattacharya, held a press conference where they repeatedly insisted that the TMC and its student wing, the TMCP, were being made scapegoats.

“Various quarters are softly targeting the Trinamool Chhatra Parishad. Why? …I have never claimed that the accused was not part of the TMCP… Whether or not he is involved with the Trinamool or its student wing should never be the basis for judgment,” he said. Bhattacharya, a TMCP president for six years, sarcastically remarked that party members were no experts in astrology and thus “failed to predict in 2019 that Mishra would commit such an act” six years later. Bhattacharya also emphasised that since 2022, Mishra had no official TMCP position.

But despite having no position, Monojit Mishra seems to have wielded more power on campus than the party leaders let on. Going by the survivor’s statement, he was appointing people in TMCP positions at the college level. “Unofficially, he is the TMCP head of the college and holds much power in the college. Everyone listens to him. He was giving everyone a post for TMCP unit,” her statement reads.

Meanwhile, The Hindu quoted Kolkata mayor Firhad Hakim as saying that Mishra was in no way associated with the TMC. “They might be supporters, but they had no relation to the TMC. Anyone who does support TMC based on ideals can never commit such crimes.”

However, Mishra was not just a supporter. Graffiti bearing his name and initials, along with TMCP slogans, was prominently on display in South Calcutta Law College alongside posters of Abhishek Banerjee, which were later taken down.

Source: Alt News

Mishra was also named an ‘organising secretary’ of TMCP’s South Kolkata district committee in 2021. Active in several districts in West Bengal, the TMCP has around 100 district committees, according to TMCP state president Bhattacharya. Mishra was part of one such district committee, but not after 2022.

So, it’s unclear whether Hakim was suggesting that TMC and its student wing (TMCP) had no association with each other.

Two senior TMCP leaders confirmed to Alt News that the district committee list in 2021 did include Monojit Mishra’s name, but was reconstituted in 2022 and Mishra’s name was dropped. Alt News also accessed a 2022 document with names of the members of the south Kolkata district TMCP committee, where Mishra’s name no longer appeared. When asked about the reason for his removal, one of these leaders said that similar allegations of sexual misconduct had surfaced against him at the time. In response to a question about how often district committees are reshuffled, we were told that changes are made according to “party needs.”

Why TMC Leaders’ Claims are Misleading

During its investigation, Alt News found that even before he was named an organising secretary of a TMCP district committee in 2021, Mishra had several allegations of misconduct levelled against him and was named in FIRs and police chargesheets. As the timeline below will show, he had a troubling history of violence and assault before he was given a position with TMCP in 2021 and later, in 2024, employed as temporary staff at the college by the institute’s governing body that was headed by a TMC leader.

2012-2025

2012: Monojit Mishra joined South Calcutta Law College as a student.
2013: He was expelled, reportedly for stabbing a youth. A case is filed at the Kalighat police station. SCLC ex-student, Titas Manna, told India Today that in 2013, an attempt to murder case had been filed against Mishra for “stabbing a catering worker and cutting off their finger”.
2016: Mishra returned to campus. He led a mob of outsiders to the campus and vandalised college property.

2017: He is re-admitted to South Calcutta Law College. The same year, in November, he allegedly ransacked the campus while holding demonstrations against the college’s then-principal. According to an ABP Ananda report from the time, Mishra and a mob with him allegedly destroyed the principal’s nameplate, windows and CCTV cameras. At the time, Mishra had told the press that the reason for the demonstration was the high fees at SCLC. Mishra was reportedly barred from the campus for a while after this incident.

In December 2017, Mishra, along with a group of 30-40 boys, allegedly beat up students of the college, including women. An ex-student, Titas Manna, told news outlets ABP Ananda and India Today that Mishra attacked student union members after he was barred from joining. According to The Telegraph’s report, citing a senior police official at the Lalbazar Police Station, Mishra was arrested twice in 2017–once by the Kalighat police in April and then in August. The charges included causing grievous hurt, wrongful confinement and mischief. Alt News was unable to get a statement from the Kolkata police independently on these arrests. The story will be updated if and when we have more details.

2019: In a Facebook post from July of that year, TMCP’s South Calcutta Law College unit denounced links to Mishra. Calling him “an antisocial,” the unit said that he provoked and threatened students to support “his antisocial works… inside and outside the college premises”. The post also said he did this by misusing the name of TMC leader Abhishek Banerjee.

“He was not a member of the unit; whatever he has told to the students (of) this college it was vague and defamtory to the Unit. So the students are requested not get indulged in any such provocation or activities by Monojit Mishra…[sic]” the post read.

The page also shared copies of two FIRs filed against him in July at the Gariahat and Tollygunge police stations.

The FIR filed at the Gariahat police station includes section 354 of the Indian Penal Code (assault or criminal force to a woman with intent to outrage her modesty). Note that the contents of the FIR are illegible, but we could figure out the phrase “outrage her modesty”. Other IPC sections invoked include 341 (punishment for wrongful restraint) and 323 (punishment for voluntarily causing hurt). He was also charged under these sections in the FIR filed at the Tollygunge police station.

Click to view slideshow.

From this Facebook page, we also found an ABP Ananda report from July 23, 2019, showing SCLC students protesting against Monojit Mishra for allegedly harassing female students. In the video, a student demonstrator says, “Monojit Mishra took admission in the college in 2012. At the time, he was rusticated for indecent activities on campus. In 2016, he vandalised the college with the help of outsiders. After that, he re-entered the college illegally. He repeatedly harassed female students to keep them on his team and would make those videos go viral. If any girl were seen outside the college, he would physically assault her there. If any male student went out to celebrate a birthday or attend a family event, he would try to heckle them, too. We have one clear demand–Monojit Mishra must be rusticated. If he is not, then all students should be transferred from SCLC to another college.”

Agami 7 diner modhea kortipokkho sidhanto na nilea ,brihottoro andoloner pothea namtea chleachi amra…sokol chatra chatri der anurodh andolon santi purno vabea cholbea,kono bohiragoto prolochonaea porea andolon kea bivranto na korar anurodh.clg r sokol chatro chatrider safety nd security sobar agea ,kortipkhho ta ditea bertho.kono chatro ,chatri jodi Monojit mishra dara hackeld hoea sorari Garihat p.s ea cntct kro.amder keo jnio,sadharon chatro chtrider pasea amra sobsomea achi…
#jai bangla
#jai hind
#sclc tmcp unit jindabad
#sclc

Posted by South Calcutta Law College TMCP unit on Wednesday 24 July 2019

The channel re-aired this clip on July 1, 2025, identifying the speaker in the video as then-TMCP student leader Sufal Kundu. It is worth noting that even in the recent incident, the survivor alleged that Mishra filmed the ordeal and threatened to leak the video.

2021: Despite these charges and a troubling history with college authorities, Mishra is named an organising secretary of Trinamool Chhatra Parishad’s south Kolkata district committee in an official document dated February 2021 (added earlier in the story). Thereafter, Mishra is seen participating in programmes by the West Bengal Trinamool Chhatra Parishad as well as going door-to-door distributing pamphlets for the TMC.

Click to view slideshow.

2022: As mentioned earlier, the district committee of the south Kolkata TMCP was “reconstituted” in February 2022. Mishra was no longer part of this. According to his LinkedIn profile, he also graduated from college in 2022. According to a Telegraph report, citing sources, he was named in a chargesheet filed by the Kasba police in March 2022 for allegedly molesting a woman.
2023: In 2023, during a student picnic at Budge Budge, Mishra allegedly groped and bit a second-year student. The student’s account was reported in The Times of India. “He pinned me down and held my hands so tightly that I was not in a position to move. He took that chance and tore my innerwear’s strap,” she said. According to the report, when she decided to lodge a formal complaint, “Monojit’s gang” threatened to throw acid on her and “finish off” her family. The student said she left the city for a month-and-a-half.
2024: On August 30, 2024, Mishra was appointed by the governing body as “temporary office staff” at the South Calcutta Law College. It is worth noting that the governing body is led by TMC MLA from Budge Budge, Ashok Kumar Deb, with whom Mishra has uploaded several images and videos, referring to him as ‘Jethu’ or uncle.

2025: On July 1, 2025, after the rape allegations surfaced, the college’s governing body terminated him from his position, which means that the alleged incident took place when Mishra was serving as “office staff” on campus.

Political ‘Linkages’

While the party and its student wing have sought to distance themselves from Monojit Mishra, his Facebook profile paints a different picture. On several occasions, he has shared images with TMC bigwigs, including Abhishek Banerjee and mayor Firhad Hakim.

In 2024 (when he had no official position with the college or the TMCP) he was seen with TMCP South Kolkata district president Sarthak Banerjee at a blood donation camp in the college. The same year, he was also seen speaking at preparation day meetings ahead of the TMCP’s foundation day and photographed sharing the stage with senior TMC and TMCP leaders, including MLA Debashish Kumar and Sarthak Banerjee. As recently as April this year, he was felicitating Banerjee at a blood donation camp in the institute.

Click to view slideshow.

His Facebook timeline is also replete with tributes to Trinamool Congress, the student wing and the party’s leaders. Photographs also indicate that he was very involved in college activities and a devoted worker.

After the latest rape allegations surfaced against him, multiple students have claimed that they too were harassed, assaulted, or threatened by Mishra, and silenced by fear. These accounts, combined with the rape survivor’s statement, the above instances—including the graffiti in college bearing his name—make it clear that he not only had a troubling record but was appointed to TMCP and the college despite these allegations. It seems as though he was not just accommodated in the shadows, but in full public view, giving the impression that he had tacit support.

Mishra’s troubled record also raises important systemic questions about student leaders associated with TMC wielding authority in campus to this extent when they are no longer students at the institute or in leadership positions. Also, little is known about what happened to the FIRs against him, some of which had named him for non-bailable offences.

The post Kolkata rape case: Did TMC turn a blind eye to key accused Monojit Mishra’s past? appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Shinjinee Majumder.

Hindu teacher garlanded with shoes in Bangladesh? No, video viral with false communal claims

Pawan Kumar — Tue, 08 Jul 2025 06:31:30 +0000

A video showing a man wearing a garland of shoes around his neck and surrounded by a group of people, who appear to be Muslims, is viral on social media. The video is being shared with claims that this is how a Hindu teacher who taught for 4 decades was treated by Muslims in Bangladesh.

Vaishali Poddar, the state general secretary of Delhi BJP Mahila Morcha, shared the video on X (formerly Twitter) and claimed, “A Hindu teacher served the country for 40 years. And in return, a group of fundamentalists in Bangladesh insulted him by garlanding him with slippers. This is an insult, not just of a teacher, but of the entire Hindu society.”

एक हिंदू शिक्षक ने 40 साल तक देश की सेवा की और बदले में बांग्लादेश में कुछ कट्टरपंथियों ने उन्हें चप्पलों की माला पहनाकर अपमानित किया।
यह सिर्फ एक शिक्षक का नहीं, पूरे हिंदू समाज का अपमान है।@Yunus_Centre तुम्हारी चुप्पी भी गुनाह है।
शर्म करो! pic.twitter.com/WGHS2P6eB5

— Vaishali Poddar (@PoddarVaishali) June 28, 2025

X users @MithilaWaala, @KreatelyMedia, @ocjain4 and @Vini__007 also shared the video with similar claims.

Click to view slideshow.

Note that these users have been called out by Alt News for amplifying misinformation on several occasions in the past.

Other X users, such as @SouleFacts, @Sudhanshuz and @IRinitiPandey, also shared the video with similar claims.

Click to view slideshow.

Fact Check

To verify the claims, Alt News performed a reverse image search of key frames from the viral video. This led us to a report by Dhaka Times, which had screenshots of the viral video. The report said that the victim, Ahmed Ali, a retired community medical officer in Baliakandi, Rajbari, was beaten up by an angry mob for insulting Prophet Mohammed.

“On June 15, locals alleged that Ahmed Ali made derogatory remarks about Prophet Mohammed at a tea stall in Beruli Bazaar in the morning. When the news spread in the area, an agitated mob caught hold of him and beat him up in the afternoon,” Baliakandi police station in-charge Mohammad Jamal Uddin told the publication.

We also came across the same incident reported in another Bangladesh-based news outlet, bbarta24. Its report said that Ahmed Ali was tied to a tree and beaten up by an angry mob for making derogatory remarks about Prophet Mohammed and was later garlanded with shoes. Apart from this, Baliakandi police station in-charge Mohammad Jamal Uddin said that the situation was brought under control with the intervention of the police and army and the injured individual was taken to a local hospital for treatment.

So, unlike the viral claims, the man garlanded with footwear is not a Hindu teacher but a retired Muslim community medical officer from Bangladesh. He was thrashed by a mob and made to wear a garland of shoes for making derogatory remarks about Prophet Mohammed. Social media users have shared his video with false communal claims.

The post Hindu teacher garlanded with shoes in Bangladesh? No, video viral with false communal claims appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Pawan Kumar.

Dainik Bhaskar, OpIndia misreport that 300 illegal firearms & 50,000 cartridges seized from Lucknow man

Abhishek Kumar — Mon, 07 Jul 2025 15:29:13 +0000

On June 26, Lucknow police arrested a man named Salahuddin and recovered some weapons, cartridges and equipment used to make illegal weapons. Soon after that, news outlets published reports that 300 illegal firearms and 20 sacks of a total of 50,000 cartridges were recovered from the house of the accused just before Muharram. This was also amplified by social media users, some of whom claimed that the police recovered as many as 3,000 guns.

On its English website, Dainik Bhaskar reported that Lucknow police raided an illegal arms factory ahead of Muharram and seized 300 illegal weapons and 50,000 cartridges. (Archive)

OpIndia, which has been called for publishing misinformation and propaganda as news, also reported that a day before Muharram, the police recovered 300 firearms and 50,000 cartridges from the home of a man named Hakim Salahuddin in Lucknow. (Archive)

X user @MrSinha_, whose posts have been fact checked by Alt News several times, posted a picture, allegedly showing the accused standing with cops and recovered arms. “3000+ guns isn’t a small number, it’s enough to arm a small army and capture an entire city… Why did Md. Salauddin have them? What was he up to? Planning something big?” he posted. (Archived link)

Other X users, such as @SaffronChargers, @JaipurDialogues and Sudarshan News’ @KumaarSaagar also shared similar claims of 3,000 guns and 50,000 cartridges being recovered from Hakim Salahuddin’s house in Lucknow with with an image of a large cache of guns. “Were they preparing for Ghazwa-e-Hind (war against India)?” the users wrote. The image and claim was also shared by Harshvardhan Singh, state general secretary of BJP’s youth wing from Uttar Pradesh.

Click to view slideshow.

Fact Check

Alt News perused through posts on the Lucknow police’s X handle for more information and found a police statement on this case shared on June 27. In a video, police officer Gopal Krishna Chaudhary says that on June 26 joint team of the Malihabad and Rahimabad police stations of Lucknow arrested 68-year-old Salahuddin alias Lala for making and selling illegal weapons in the Mirzaganj area of Malihabad.

He briefed that they recovered three .32 bore pistols, one .315 bore country pistol, two .22 bore country pistols, one .22 bore rifle, seven air guns, about 140 cartridges of different bore sizes, some empty shells, other weapons including knives, hooks and saws, and deer hide from the accused.

थाना मलिहाबाद पुलिस टीम की सफलता – अवैध असलहा/तंमचा बनाने वाला 01 नफर अभियुक्त को अवैध असलहा, कारतूस तथा असलहा बनाने वाले उपकरणों व प्रतिबंधित हिरन की खाल के साथ किया गया गिरफ्तार। @Uppolice #Lkopolice_On_Duty pic.twitter.com/yX4b2cquzU

— LUCKNOW POLICE (@lkopolice) June 27, 2025

Thus number of firearms recovered is nowhere close to 300 or 3,000 guns and 50,000 cartridges. The number of pistols, rifles and air guns seized by the police was altogether 14 and the number of cartridges recovered was around 140.

To sum up, news outlets Dainik Bhaskar and OpIndia as well as many social media users spread misleading and exaggerated claims about the number of actual arms recovered in this case and tried to add a communal angle to the incident by linking it to Muharram.

The post Dainik Bhaskar, OpIndia misreport that 300 illegal firearms & 50,000 cartridges seized from Lucknow man appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Abhishek Kumar.

Ambedkar supporters thrashed by police? No, viral video shows making of a Kannada film

Pawan Kumar — Mon, 07 Jul 2025 15:03:02 +0000

A video, in which policemen are seen beating up half-naked men in public, is doing the rounds of social media. Users are sharing the video while claiming that police beat up Ambedkar supporters in public to teach them a lesson for allegedly threatening ‘Manuvadis’ on social media.

X user Vikash Kumar Sinha shared the video with the same claim.

इंस्टाग्राम पर मनुवादियों को धमकी देने बाली भीमटा गैंग की आज सेवा की गई टोचन जिंदाबाद pic.twitter.com/JKpTe6peM5

— Vikash Kumar Sinha (@vikashaps) June 30, 2025

Other X users like Neela Zeher, and numerous Facebook and Instagram users including the handle @Modified_Hindu9 promoted the footage with similar claims.

Click to view slideshow.

Fact Check

When we took a closer look at the viral video, we noticed that a logo was visible in it. When we searched for this logo with the help of Google Lens, we found that it was the logo of “Kannada Pichhar”, a social media handle that posts content related to Kannada cinema.

Next, we performed a reverse image search with frames taken from the video in question. This time, we found the same footage uploaded on the YouTube channel of “Kannada Pichhar” on April 15, 2025. In the accompanying caption, the video was described as the making of the film ‘Deadly Soma 2’.

Apart from this, we also discovered that the same video had also been uploaded on the Instagram page of “Kannada Pichhar”.

Along with this, there are many other videos from the shooting of the film “Deadly Soma 2” on the YouTube channel and Instagram page of “Kannada Pichhar”, in which a cameraman can also be seen.

News 26 Kannada aired some of the above-mentioned footage in a report and noted that the film was being shot in Bengaluru. “Deadly Soma 2” is the sequel of the 2005 Kannada film “Deadly Soma”, which was directed by Ravi Srivatsa.

In other words, the viral video does not show police actually beating up youths on the streets, but is a scene from the shooting of a Kannada film. The claims of Ambedkar-supporters being thrashed are entirely baseless.

The post Ambedkar supporters thrashed by police? No, viral video shows making of a Kannada film appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Pawan Kumar.

RBI has not asked banks to stop disbursing ₹500 notes; viral claim is false

Pawan Kumar — Mon, 07 Jul 2025 09:58:53 +0000

Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu recently called for the demonetisation of Rs. 500 notes and further promotion of digital payments. He said that such a step would help curb corruption and increase transparency in financial transactions.

Against this backdrop, in a video report by YouTube channel Capital TV, its editor-in-chief Manish Kumar praised the BJP government and accused the Opposition of having links with corrupt individuals. He claimed that bundles of Rs. 500 notes had been recovered from the homes of corrupt politicians. The report further mentioned that following Chandrababu Naidu’s demand to ban Rs. 500 notes, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had issued a notification directing 75% of all ATMs to reduce their stock of Rs. 100 and Rs. 200 notes and those of smaller denominations by September 2025, and 90% of all ATMs to do so by March 2026.

In another report by Capital TV, Kumar claimed that the RBI had stopped the printing of Rs. 500 notes. He stated that by March 2026, the Rs. 500 note would be abolished like the Rs. 2,000 rupee note.

Verified X User CA Anupam Sharma along with other users such as AK Mandhan and CA Paaras Gangwal also claimed that the RBI had planned to remove Rs. 500 notes from ATMs by September 2025 and going forward, only Rs. 200 and Rs. 100 notes would be dispensed from ATMs.

Click to view slideshow.

We received multiple requests to verify this claim on the Alt News WhatsApp helpline.

Click to view slideshow.

Fact Check

To verify the authenticity of the viral claim, Alt News reviewed all recent press releases and notifications issued by RBI on its official website. We did not find any information to support the claim that it had directed banks not to dispense Rs. 500 notes through ATMs.

However, during our investigation, we came across a notification issued by the RBI on April 28, 2025, which stated that in an effort to increase public access to banknotes of most used denominations, the Reserve Bank of India had directed banks and White Label ATM Operators (WLAO) to ensure that ATMs dispensed Rs. 100 or Rs. 200 denomination notes. In the first phase, by September 30, 2025, 75% of all ATMs would dispense bank notes of Rs. 100 or Rs. 200 denomination from at least one cassette, while in the second phase, i.e. by March 31, 2026, the target has been set to increase this figure to 90%.

It is worth noting that a ‘cassette’ in an ATM is a box or container in which currency notes of only a specific denomination (such as Rs 100, 200, 500) are kept.

The Economic Times reported on April 28, 2025 that the Reserve Bank of India had asked banks and WLAOs to ensure that Rs. 100 or 200 notes were dispensed from ATMs, to increase the availability of these notes to the public. In other words, the RBI has not directed all banks to stop dispensing Rs. 500 notes from ATMs by September 30, 2025. It has only directed banks and WLAOs to increase dispensation of Rs. 100 and Rs. 200 notes.

Apart from this, the claim made by Capital TV editor-in-chief Manish Kumar regarding the RBI issuing a notification asking ATM machines to stock Rs. 100 and Rs. 200 notes following Chandrababu Naidu’s demand to ban Rs. 500 notes is also false. This is because the RBI issued the notification on April 28, while Naidu had spoken about this at the annual Mahanadu Sabha held from May 27 to May 29.

PIB Fact Check also posted on X and clarified that the viral claim regarding the RBI banning Rs. 500 notes by March 2026 was false. It clarified that the RBI had not made any such announcement and Rs. 500 notes had not been banned. It also advised the public to avoid such false and misleading news updates.

Is the ₹500 note set to be phased out by 2026?

A #YouTube video on the YT Channel ‘CAPITAL TV’ (capitaltvind) falsely claims that the RBI will discontinue the circulation of ₹500 notes by March 2026.#PIBFactCheck

@RBI has made NO such announcement.

₹500 notes have… pic.twitter.com/NeJdcc72z2

— PIB Fact Check (@PIBFactCheck) June 3, 2025

To sum up, many users including a YouTube channel named Capital TV made false claims on social media about the RBI banning Rs. 500 notes.

The post RBI has not asked banks to stop disbursing ₹500 notes; viral claim is false appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Pawan Kumar.

After SCO defence ministers’ meet, false claims of India being left out and Russia signing joint statement go viral

Prantik Ali — Thu, 03 Jul 2025 11:29:03 +0000

After defence ministers representing their countries at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) were unable to adopt a joint statement at the end of their talks on June 26, several rumours regarding the meeting were viral on social media. One of the viral claims is that Russia signed a joint SCO statement supporting Pakistan. Another claim suggested that a closed-door meeting was carried out without India.

Formed in 2001, the SCO is a grouping of 10 countries including China, Russia, India, Pakistan, and Iran. The defence ministers’ meeting took place in China’s Qingdao ahead of the upcoming annual summit.

On June 29, X user @TheDailyCPEC claimed that Russia had signed the joint SCO statement. At the time of this article being written, the post had a million views. (Archive)

BREAKING: Russia has officially signed the joint SCO statement, supporting Pakistan’s position over India. pic.twitter.com/GHGxmH5cA4

— The Daily CPEC (@TheDailyCPEC) June 29, 2025

X user @NavCom24 had also shared the viral claim that Russia signed the SCO statement. However, it was later deleted. (Archive)

Meanwhile, X user @thinking_panda claimed that China, Iran, Russia and Pakistan agreed to a closed-door SCO meeting without inviting India. (Archive)

If we tell India, India will tell the US and Israel. So we have to keep India out of the door. pic.twitter.com/FOSqIGC5Mj

— ShanghaiPanda (@thinking_panda) June 29, 2025

Several other X users, including @DefenseDiplomat, @BigWayneConley and @qazafi197476, shared similar claims. (Archives: 1, 2, 3)

Click to view slideshow.

We also found an Instagram post, which made similar claims. The caption reads, “A high-level NSA meeting is scheduled among China, Iran, Russia, and Pakistan under the SCO framework, but India has not been invited.”

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Corporate Wire (@corpwire)

Fact Check

According to several media reports, the SCO joint statement was not adopted because Indian defence minister Rajnath Singh refused to endorse it as it did not mention the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack, in which 26 civilians were shot dead by terrorists. India has blamed Pakistan for sheltering terrorist factions responsible for the attack. Pakistan has denied the allegations.

According to Randhir Jaiswal, spokesperson from the Ministry of External Affairs, a joint statement was not adopted at the SCO. “Certain member countries could not reach consensus on certain issues, and hence, the document could not be finalised… India wanted concerns and terrorism reflected in the document, which was not acceptable to one particular country.”

We found no news reports mentioning any other country, such as Russia, signing the SCO document.

We then looked at the SCO charter available on the site of India’s Ministry of External Affairs. Article 16 on the procedures on taking decisions says that SCO decisions are taken by agreement without voting as long as no member objects. It says:

“The SCO bodies shall take decisions by agreement without vote and their decisions shall be considered adopted if no member State has raised objections during its consideration (consensus), except for the decisions on suspension of membership or expulsion from the Organization that shall be taken by “consensus minus one vote of the member State concerned.”

This meant that SCO statements are adopted by unanimous consensus. But to be sure, we also reached out to a journalist who has covered diplomatic and strategic affairs for over a decade to understand how countries adopt statements at the SCO. This journalist, who did not wish to be identified, clarified that the “signing” on the draft statement is only if all members agree to adopt it, which was not the case in this SCO defence ministers’ meeting. So, if one member state does not agree, there is no way that some member states sign the document and others do not. It is either adopted as a whole by all or it’s not, he reiterated.

So, the claim that Russia ‘signed’ the joint SCO statement supporting Pakistan’s position over India is not true.

Also, the SCO published a report on the defence ministers’ meet on June 26 in which Indian defence minister Rajnath Singh can also be seen among the representatives of the invited nations. This debunks the claim that there was a closed-door SCO meeting at which India was not invited.

Also, one of the claims, which uses an image of the leaders of China, Pakistan, Russia and Iran is actually from a meeting in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, in 2023 and not the recent SCO meet in China.

To sum up, the viral claims that India was not invited to a closed-door SCO meeting or that Russia signed a joint SCO statement favouring Pakistan are baseless.

The post After SCO defence ministers’ meet, false claims of India being left out and Russia signing joint statement go viral appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Prantik Ali.

Identifying an impostor: ‘Verified’ X account not of Iranian journalist whose show was interrupted by Israeli attacks

Ankita Mahalanobish — Wed, 02 Jul 2025 13:35:32 +0000

On June 16, amid the exchange of fire between Israel and Iran, Iranian state TV journalist Sahar Emami’s live broadcast had to be cut short. Israel had attacked the studio of the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) in Tehran, where Emami was hosting her show. However, within minutes, she returned to complete her programme despite the adversities. The moment cemented her popularity and resilience on social media. Soon after, her X account @iamSaharEmami became very active. Many on social media began flocking to it for updates on the ground situation in Iran.

The account, with her image, identified her as a journalist and the “Iranian voice for truth,” “sharing real stories from the ground”. Created in October 2023, the account gathered nearly 200,000 followers after the video of her TV appearance amid the bombing in Tehran went viral. Below is a screenshot of her account when her follower count was steadily increasing.

However, Alt News found that this account, which appears authentic, impersonates the Iranian state TV anchor.

After an Alt News journalist called this out on X on June 22, the account changed its bio to a “commentary account” that was “not affiliated with Sahar Emami”.

Note that on June 21, IRIB news shared a video on X and Instagram in which Sahar Emami clarifies that she has no X account.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by خبرگزاری صداوسيما (@iribnews.ir1)

But even before Emami’s video statement, several things about the user made us suspect that this was an impostor. Here’s how we identified it.

Identifying an Impersonator

Below are some pointers that raised doubts:

Old posts deleted: The account was created in October 2023, yet the first post by this account visible right now is as recent as June 18, 2025. This seemed highly unlikely. Since we had tracked the user for some time, we knew that there were older posts that were deleted. Fortunately, we took screenshots of the deleted posts with their original publication dates.
Click to view slideshow.
Abusive language: We found some posts in which abusive language was used, that too in Hindi.
Posts: The first post from this account, available now, is from June 18. Here, the user draws parallels between Israel and the Nazi regime. Again, it seemed like content shared by troll accounts, not journalists.

Israel is a Nazi style regime. pic.twitter.com/rtSBbaT5x3

— Sahar Emami (@iamSaharEmami) June 18, 2025

4. Location: Before the account had as many followers, we noticed that the location was mentioned as Georgia, USA. It was later changed to the Islamic Republic of Iran.

5. Misinformation: In several posts, the user had shared and amplified false, AI-generated, and misleading information, unlikely to be done by a journalist. We have embedded some examples below. (Archives 1, 2, 3)

Wait for it pic.twitter.com/KW2cn0srxs

— Sahar Emami (@iamSaharEmami) June 19, 2025

Israel pic.twitter.com/yxTF9Ycb9n

— Sahar Emami (@iamSaharEmami) June 20, 2025

Iran ➝ Jordan ➝ Israel
The route is open.
The message is clear.
This is just the beginning. pic.twitter.com/PUrPHEhXhQ

— Sahar Emami (@iamSaharEmami) June 20, 2025

On June 22, 2025, the account had also amplified misinformation that the US used Indian airspace to strike Iran during operation Midnight Hammer. (Archive)

CONFIRMED: Indian airspace was used by U.S. forces to strike Iran.
New Delhi’s quiet complicity now places it on the wrong side of history.
Iran will not forget. pic.twitter.com/cuuIeKKjXw

— Sahar Emami (@iamSaharEmami) June 22, 2025

The account had shared posts quoting Pakistani media channels, which had also alleged that the US used Indian airspace to strike down Iranian nuclear plants.

One of the posts claiming the US used India’s airspace to strike was further amplified by Hamid Mir, a journalist from Pakistan who has also shared misinformation in the past.

The joint chief of staff for the US military, General Dan Caine, said during a press briefing on June 22 that the jets used in the operation, which included B-2 Spirit bombers, required refueling as they crossed the Atlantic and the Mediterranean. The below map shows the route used and nowhere includes the Indian airspace.

The same day, India’s Press Information Bureau (PIB) also refuted claims that India’s airspace was used by the US for operation Midnight Hammer.

Several social media accounts have claimed that Indian Airspace was used by the United States to launch aircrafts against Iran during Operation #MidnightHammer #PIBFactCheck

This claim is FAKE

Indian Airspace was NOT used by the United States during Operation… pic.twitter.com/x28NSkUzEh

— PIB Fact Check (@PIBFactCheck) June 22, 2025

Watch | Were Indian or Pakistani airspace used for Op Midnight Hammer?

6. Attempt at establishing credibility with the same image: We noticed that the user shared images of Sahar Emami from her viral video with compelling captions to establish credibility. No other images or videos from other broadcasts were used. (Archive)

We’re not afraid of death.
We’re afraid of dishonor.
You can’t break us —
We’ll stand tall till the end. pic.twitter.com/JYF07lA09X

— Sahar Emami (@iamSaharEmami) June 20, 2025

7. Pakistan-related posts: The account had also amplified some pro-Pakistan posts, especially those in favour of jailed leader Imran Khan. For instance, in one post dated June 18, 2025, the account advocates for former Pakistan PM Khan’s release. “A great leader is unjustly in jail, the caption of the post says. The video in the post has a woman lauding Iran for standing up to Israel and urging fellow Pakistani citizens bring back Imran Khan. Referring to Khan as a “charismatic leader,” she calls his leadership “the need of the hour” and condemns Pakistan’s army chief, Asim Munir.

ایک عظیم لیڈر ناحق جیل میں ہے، جبکہ ایک نااہل اور کمزور شخص 24 کروڑ عوام پر مسلط ہے۔ ہم ہر روز نئے بہانے تلاش کرتے ہیں۔

اگر آپ گھروں سے باہر نہ آئے تو نہ خان کی جدوجہد کامیاب ہوگی، نہ پاکستان حقیقی آزادی پائے گا۔ pic.twitter.com/u6Up0tLQzj

— Sahar Emami (@iamSaharEmami) June 18, 2025

The account also shared a video by Pakistani senator Allama Raja Nasir Abbas Jafri.

آج دنیا میں جو جنگ چھڑی ہے، وہ صرف زمین، وسائل یا اقتدار کی لڑائی نہیں، بلکہ یہ حق اور باطل کے دو متضاد نظاموں کا تصادم ہے۔ مغرب اور سامراجی قوتیں اس نظام سے لرزہ براندام ہیں جو ظلم کے آگے جھکنے سے انکار کرتا ہے، جو مظلوم کا ساتھ دیتا ہے، اور جو استعماری غلبے کو للکارتا ہے۔ حقیقت… pic.twitter.com/Pf0V1543zj

— Sahar Emami (@iamSaharEmami) June 18, 2025

These indicators helped us identify this as an impersonator account. However, to a lay social media user, these clues may not occur immediately. To make matters worse, the profile also has a blue tick or a verified badge. The badge, was once a marker of authenticity, now offers little assurance that an account truly represents a public figure or credible source, since it can be paid for.

Such “verified” impersonator and troll accounts also signal a larger problem with X’s policy, which states that a verified badge serves as an indicator that an account is in “public interest” and is “authentic.” In practice, however, it has helped dubious accounts amplify misinformation and blurred the line between credible and non-credible sources of information.

The post Identifying an impostor: ‘Verified’ X account not of Iranian journalist whose show was interrupted by Israeli attacks appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Ankita Mahalanobish.

Dalit man tortured in Jhansi? Old video resurfaces; police says victim, assailants from same community

Oishani Bhattacharya — Wed, 02 Jul 2025 11:41:14 +0000

A 55-second-long clip, purportedly showing a Dalit labourer with his hands tied and his head being shaved against his will as a crowd laughs at his plight, is viral on social media. In the second half of the clip, the man is seen speaking to the media, narrating the ordeal he was subjected to. He says his head was forcibly shaved as an act of humiliation because he refused a job, and he was then paraded in that state.

X user Navratn Lal Yadav (@NavrtnYadav) shared the clip on June 29 with a caption in Hindi that translates to: “Now if a Yadav, Lodhi, or Dalit refuses to work as a labourer, their head is shaved, they are hung upside down and made to drink water, paraded through the entire village—this is the Taliban-like punishment of the BJP government. There is no definition for what happened in Jhansi; under the protection of the government of the dominant people, their courage is emboldened. PDA will change the government in 2027”. So far, this post has received over 163,000 views and has been retweeted nearly 2,000 times. (Archive)

यादव , लोधी अब दलित अगर मजदूरी से मना कर देगा तो उसका सर गंजा कर दिया उल्टा लटका के पानी पिलाया पूरे गाँव मे घुमाया ये तालिबानी सजा है भाजपा सरकार की कोई नहीं परिभाषा झाँसी में जो क्रत्य हुईं प्रभुत्ववादी लोगों के सरकार के संरक्षण में जो होसले बुंलन्द है PDA 2027 में सरकार बदलेगा pic.twitter.com/mMyMFKKyCb

— Navratn Lal Yadav (@NavrtnYadav) June 29, 2025

Several other users shared the same clip, claiming that the victim belongs to the Dalit community and the perpetrators are from a dominant caste. Below are a few instances.

Click to view slideshow.

Fact Check

We noticed that the Jhansi police clarified, under some of the recent posts carrying the viral clip, that the video is eight months old and that both parties are from the same community.

pic.twitter.com/35KMLHul0X

— Jhansi Police (@jhansipolice) June 30, 2025

To know more about the incident, we broke down the viral video into several keyframes and ran a reverse image search on a few of them. This led us to a report by Aaj Tak from October 25, 2024, which carried a screengrab from the viral clip. The headline of the article said: ‘A young man was punished for not preparing fodder for the buffalo, his head was shaved and he was hung from a tree with his hands and legs tied’.

The report mentioned that the victim, 45-year-old Baba Kabutra, was tortured by four men, who have been referred to as bullies, from the Takori village in Jhansi, Uttar Pradesh. According to the report, one of the assailants was pressuring the victim to move from the Padri village to Takori to prepare fodder and clean dung of his cattle. When the victim declined the job, four men—Vijay, Nakul, Shatrughan and Kallu—dragged him from his workplace, shoved him into a car and took him to Takori village where they shaved his head, paraded him through the village, beat him up with his hands and feet tied and hung him upside down from a tree.

A case had been registered at the Sipri Bazar police station after the video of the victim’s head being shaven went viral on social media. The report, however, made no mention of the victim or the assailant’s castes.

We then came across a report by Hindustan Times, also from October 25, 2024. Quoting the station officer of Sipri Bazar police station, the report mentioned that both the accused and the victim belonged to the same caste.

A video statement by superintendent of police, Gyanendra Kumar Singh, shared on Jhansi Police’s official X account on October 26, 2024 made it clear that the victim was “Baba Kabutra”, a resident of Padri village, and the assailants, three of whom had been arrested, were also from the Kabutra community.

सोशल मीडिया के माध्यम से प्राप्त वीडियो के सम्बन्ध में थाना सीपरी बाजार पर सुसगंत धाराओं में अभियोग पंजीकृत कर घटना से सम्बन्धित तीन अभियुक्तों को गिरफ्तार कर अग्रेतर कार्यवाही की जा रही है । इस सम्बन्ध में पुलिस अधीक्षक नगर की बाइट pic.twitter.com/ETmqBsufaf

— Jhansi Police (@jhansipolice) October 25, 2024

To sum up, the viral clip is from October 2024, and is not an instance of caste-based violence. The victim and the assailants are from the same community.

The post Dalit man tortured in Jhansi? Old video resurfaces; police says victim, assailants from same community appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Oishani Bhattacharya.

Video from 2023 pro-Palestine protest viral with misleading claims that Muslims are ripping US flags in NYC

Prantik Ali — Tue, 01 Jul 2025 10:52:06 +0000

A video showing a man climbing a street lamp and removing American flags is being widely circulated on social media. Shared after Zohran Mamdani’s win in the mayoral primary for New York City, the footage is being shared with claims that Muslims in the city are taking down US flags.

On June 26, 2025, X user @iAnonPatriot shared the video with the claim. (Archive)

Muslims in New York TEAR DOWN American flags..

pic.twitter.com/DxFVIYXSus

— American AF (@iAnonPatriot) June 26, 2025

Another X user, @RadioGenoa, also posted the video claiming that Muslims hated America. (Archive)

The video was further amplified by other X users such as @nicksortor, @coolfunnytshirt and @AlexDuncanTX. (Archives 1, 2, 3)

Click to view slideshow.

The video was also viral on Facebook with the same claim. Screenshots below:

Click to view slideshow.

Fact Check

To check the authenticity of the video and claims, we ran a reverse image search on one of the keyframes from the clip and landed on a YouTube video. This video, which is the same as the viral clip, was uploaded on November 12, 2023, and the caption reads, “DISGUSTING! Pro Palestine protester ripping down American flags in NYC.”

We also came across the same video in an X post from November 11, 2023. The caption said that a Palestinian activist ‘desecrated’ the American flag on Veterans Day.

WATCH: Palestinian activist desecrates American flags on Veterans Day

Replaces US flags with Palestinian flags in New York City pic.twitter.com/hUN5IIWCRc

— Katie Daviscourt (@KatieDaviscourt) November 11, 2023

We also found some news articles from around that time on protests by pro-Palestine demonstrators in which access to the Grand Central terminal was temporarily blocked. A report by Fox News from November 11, 2023, featured a similar video of someone taking down flags from a lamppost. The caption of the video said, “Pro-Palestinian protester arrested after tearing down American flags in New York City”.

Thus, the viral video has been shared with misleading communal claims after Zohran Mamdani’s win as the Democratic nominee for New York City’s mayoral race. It is from a 2023 pro-Palestine demonstration.

The post Video from 2023 pro-Palestine protest viral with misleading claims that Muslims are ripping US flags in NYC appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Prantik Ali.

2021 video from Delhi’s Yamuna Vihar viral with misleading claims of communal disharmony

Prantik Ali — Mon, 30 Jun 2025 12:56:52 +0000

A video, little more than a minute long, is viral on social media. It shows at least five injured men, their clothes stained with blood. Voices in the background suggest the presence of more people in the room. Children are also visible – among them, a wounded, dazed girl being attended to by a woman, and two children whose dresses are soaked in blood.

Users on social media have alleged that the viral video shows an influential Muslim family from Delhi’s Yamuna Vihar. Allegedly, the men in the video had protested the use of loudspeakers that were being used on the occasion of a religious program by a Hindu family in their lane. Users have suggested that this culminated in them being brutally beaten up by the Hindu family.

X user (@SanataniMuslim_) posted the video with the viral claim. (Archive)

यह हाजी का परिवार यमुना विहार में मस्जिद के पास में रहता है घर में सब लोग पहलवान रहे है अच्छी खासी दबंगई इनकी इलाके में है इनकी गली में एक हिन्दू के घर कुछ धार्मिक कार्यक्रम चल रहा था जनाब वहां Loudspeaker बंद करवाने पहुंच गए और फिर हिन्दुओ ने बहुत शांति से इन शांतिदूतो को समझाया… pic.twitter.com/c8G3PfHwuJ

— Nadeem Shaikh (@SanataniMuslim_) June 22, 2025

X user (@geetappoo) also posted the video. At the time of this article being written, the post has garnered more than 8 lakh views. (Archive)

यह हाजी का परिवार यमुना विहार में मस्जिद के पास में रहता है घर में सब लोग पहलवान हैं अच्छी खासी दबंगई इनकी इलाके में है इनकी गली में एक हिन्दू के घर कुछ धार्मिक कार्यक्रम चल रहा था जनाब वहां लाउडस्पीकर बंद करवाने पहुंच गए और फिर हिन्दुओ ने बहुत शांति से इन शांतिदूतो को समझाया…… pic.twitter.com/4GGOpRi44X

— Geeta Patel (@geetappoo) June 22, 2025

Another X user (@Vini__007) posted the video with similar claims. However, the tweet was later deleted. (Archive)

The video was also viral on Facebook with similar claims. Screenshots below:

Click to view slideshow.

Fact Check

To verify the authenticity of the claims, we broke down the video into several keyframes. A reverse image search on one of these led us to a video on Instagram – which is the same as the one that recently went viral. We noticed that the video was uploaded on June 14, 2021.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Unbiased media (@theunbiasedmedia_)

The caption states: “Armed Hindutva mob, led by Vipin, attacked Muslim family at midnight in Delhi’s Yamuna Vihar injuring 14 people including 3 females. They called them Pakistanis and used other anti-Muslim slurs. This is second time family faced violence since Feb 2020.”

Taking cue from this, we ran a keyword search on Google, and came across a news report by The Indian Express, from June 15, 2021. The report states that ‘local residents from different communities’, in Delhi’s Yamuna Vihar area, had gotten into a heated clash over the opening of a gate in the area, on June 14.

According to the report, a resident from a nearby area, named Vipin Kumar, had tried accessing the gate late at night. Having found it locked, Kumar broke into an altercation with the security guard. At this juncture, another local resident, identified as Mohd. Yasin, along with some family members, intervened and reportedly rebuked Kumar. They allegedly assaulted him as well. In response, Kumar called his relatives to the spot, leading to a scuffle between the two groups. Several individuals from both sides sustained injuries during the altercation.

Moreover, we found an X post, from the official handle of the Deputy Commissioner of Police, of North East Delhi (@DCPNEastDelhi).

A criminal case has been registered regarding Yamuna Vihar incident and legal action initiated.

We request people to neither share nor promote inflammatory posts with twisted facts being circulated on social media with an intention to disturb our communal harmony.

— DCP North East Delhi (@DCPNEastDelhi) June 13, 2021

From this, it is evident that the incident was not communal in nature. The viral video, which is actually from 2021, has been amplified on social media with misleading claims, alleging that a Muslim family has been beaten up by a Hindu family for protesting the use of loudspeakers in a religious ceremony. On investigating, Alt News found that such claims are baseless.

The post 2021 video from Delhi’s Yamuna Vihar viral with misleading claims of communal disharmony appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Prantik Ali.

Video of husband assaulting wife in UP viral with false communal claims that Muslim man beat up Hindu woman

Prantik Ali — Sat, 28 Jun 2025 11:53:45 +0000

Trigger Warning: The story has visuals and descriptions of violence & domestic abuse. Reader’s discretion advised.

A video of a man physically assaulting a woman—kicking, slapping, and even hitting her with a rolling pin—is viral on social media. The video is being shared with communal claims that this is the fate of Hindu wives married to Muslim men.

X user @Lawyer_Kalpana posted the viral video with a Hindi caption, which translates to: “Look, secular Hindu girls, the same will happen to you; there is still time, go back home.” (Archive)

देख लो सेक्युलर हिन्दू लड़कियों तुम्हारे साथ भी ऐसा ही होगा अभी भी समय है घर वापसी करलो।

इस विडियो को ज्यादा से ज्यादा रिपोस्ट करें ताकि हर हिन्दू लड़कियों तक यह विडियो पहुँचे। pic.twitter.com/MZkYTlljo3

— कल्पना श्रीवास्तव (@Lawyer_Kalpana) June 25, 2025

Another X user, @SonOfBharat7, also shared the video with similar claims. He identified the woman in the clip as 25-year-old Nandini Rao and the man as Aryan Khan. The caption, which is in Hindi, goes into details about how the woman was lured into marriage, and then tortured and sexually harassed by Khan and his family members:

“… Nandini was held captive in a flat in Domjur, Howrah, where she faced unimaginable torture and sexual harassment by Aryan Khan, his mother Shweta Khan, and a minor family member, Zoya Khan. The tortures were systematic and relentless. Nandini was beaten with iron rods, her body was burned with cigarette butts, and her hair was forcibly cut as a form of humiliation. She was repeatedly raped, with reports revealing that rods were inserted into her private parts, a level of cruelty beyond comprehension. The accused allegedly pressured her to participate in shooting obscene videos and work as a bar dancer, and when she refused, the violence escalated.”

The user also alleges that Khan has been arrested in Kolkata, and that the police are examining “potential links to a larger pornographic racket.” At the time this article was written, this post had over 2.4 million views. (Archive)

जिस मुँह को चूमता था अब्दुल
उसी मुँह पर मारी जोरदार लात….

नंदिनी और इस्लामिक मोहोब्बत की सच्चाई

31 दिसंबर, 2024 को पश्चिम बंगाल के सोदपुर की 25 वर्षीय हिंदू महिला नंदिनी राव को आर्यन खान ने इवेंट मैनेजमेंट में आकर्षक नौकरी का वादा करके धोखा दिया ।

इसके बाद जो हुआ वह एक… pic.twitter.com/CuIiopbLB4

— Deepak Sharma (@SonOfBharat7) June 26, 2025

X user @ocjain4 had also posted the viral claim. However, it was later deleted. (Archive)

Several other X users, such as @BHUPENDER_HRD and @JIX5A, also shared the video with similar claims.

Click to view slideshow.

Fact Check

To check the authenticity of the claims circulating on social media, we ran a reverse image search on one of the key frames from the viral video. This led us to an Instagram post, uploaded on June 21, 2025, featuring the same video.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by AbduL Amin BarkaTi (@abdulamin_barkati)

In the caption, the user claims the video is from the Sikandar Gate area in Moti Colony, Hapur, Uttar Pradesh.

Taking cue from this, we ran a relevant keyword search in Hindi and came across the same video shared on X on June 19. The caption said that the incident was from the Sikander Gate police outpost area, Moti Colony, under the Hapur city police station jurisdiction. We also found that the official X handle of Uttar Pradesh’s Hapur Police had commented below this post, clarifying that the video is over a month old: “The aforementioned viral video is about one and a half months old, in which the man beating the woman is her husband, regarding whom a case has been registered earlier at the Hapur Nagar police station under relevant sections, and the process of evidence collection has been completed, with the charge sheet already sent to the honorable court.”

उक्त वायरल वीडियो करीब डेढ़ माह पुराना है, जिसमें महिला को पीटने वाला व्यक्ति उसका पति है, जिसके संबंध में पूर्व में थाना हापुड नगर पर सुसंगत धाराओं में अभियोग पंजीकृत है, साक्ष्य संकलन की कार्यवाही कर आरोप पत्र मा0 न्यायालय प्रेषित किया जा चुका है।

— HAPUR POLICE (@hapurpolice) June 19, 2025

We found another post from June 26, made by the official handle of the Hapur Police, refuting the communal angle in the viral claims. It said that the person beating the woman was her husband and that both of them are Muslim. A case was registered at Hapur Nagar police station for physical assault.

#भ्रामक_खबर_का_खण्डन
सोशल मीडिया पर कुछ शरारती तत्वों द्वारा मुस्लिम दंपती के आपसी झगड़े को हिन्दू-मुस्लिम का रूप देकर भ्रामक खबर पोस्ट की जा रही है।#HapurPolice द्वारा भ्रामक खबर पोस्ट करने वालो के विरूद्ध अभियोग पंजीकृत कर विधिक कार्यवाही की जा रही है।@UPPViralCheck @Uppolice pic.twitter.com/zgiuk6DuBJ

— HAPUR POLICE (@hapurpolice) June 26, 2025

Thus, as clarified by the police, there is no communal angle in the case of the assault. The viral video, depicts an incident from over a month ago in which a man is beating his wife. Both the husband and wife are Muslims and the incident is from Uttar Pradesh, unlike what the viral claims suggest.

The post Video of husband assaulting wife in UP viral with false communal claims that Muslim man beat up Hindu woman appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Prantik Ali.

‘News’ about two-wheelers having to pay toll is not true; TV9 Bharatvarsh, India Today, others misreport

Pawan Kumar — Fri, 27 Jun 2025 11:13:25 +0000

On June 26, several news outlets reported that under new rules by the Indian government, two-wheelers will be required to pay a tax at toll plazas from July 15, 2025.

Media outlets TV9 Bharatvarsh, TV9 Hindi and TV9 Assam in their video reports and stories on June 26 said that July 15 onwards, two-wheelers using the national highway will have to pay toll to the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI).

Although TV9 Bharatvarsh has now removed this video, it was shared on YouTube by Opposition party, Congress. The party’s national spokesperson, Ritu Chaudhary, and party member, Priyamvada, also shared TV9 Bharatvarsh’s video on X to claim that the Narendra Modi-led Bharatiya Janata Party was making life harder for middle-class Indians by imposing toll tax on two-wheelers, which is often dubbed a lifeline for many who cannot afford cars.

Click to view slideshow.

Besides TV9, many other media organisations such Zee News Telugu, ETV Bharat, Punjab Kesari, IBC24, Lalluram.com, IRIA Gujarat, BBN 24 and DB Live published similar reports that two-wheelers will have to pay toll tax from July 15. India Today also published a report, which was subsequently taken down from its website. However, social media users shared screenshots of the story. Panchajanya, a Hindi language weekly magazine published by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), also posted the update on X but deleted it later.

Click to view slideshow.

The Karnataka Congress also shared a similar report on its official X handle, calling it another blow to the common man. Other social media users on X also posted about the government levying a toll tax, based on media reports.

Click to view slideshow.

Fact Check

Considering some news outlets deleted their reports, we began checking whether the information was true.

While investigating, we came across an X post by Nitin Gadkari, the minister of road transport and highways, shipping and water resources. His post said that media outlets were spreading misleading news that the government was levying toll on two-wheelers. Condemning those for spreading misinformation without verifying, he clarified that no such decision was made and two-wheelers remain exempt from toll tax. He even tagged TV9Bharatvarsh in his post.

The X handle of the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) also said that reports by media outlets on toll being levied on bikes and scooters was baseless and that no such proposal was being considered.

The fact-checking unit of the government’s Press Information Bureau (PIB) also debunked the claims that two-wheelers would soon have to pay toll. However, it is worth noting that PIB did not call out any news outlet’s reports in its post, even though the misinformation was amplified because of misreporting by news outlets.

Even during the recent India-Pakistan conflict, PIB’s fact-check unit debunked many false claims spread on social media, but did not name or call out any media houses that blatantly spread misinformation.

Read: PIB ignores false claims by Indian media about Operation Sindoor & The fictional strikes on the Karachi port and what it says about Indian media

On June 26, TV9 Bharatvarsh issued a clarification: “TV9 Bharatvarsh had run the news some time ago that now two-wheelers will have to pay toll tax on NHAI, refuting this news, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari has tweeted and informed that this news is false.”

दो पहिया वाहनों को नहीं देना होगा टोल टैक्स

TV9 भारतवर्ष ने कुछ देर पहले ये खबर चलाई थी कि अब NHAI पर टू व्हीलर्स को टोल टैक्स देना होगा, इस खबर का खंडन करते हुए केंद्रीय मंत्री नितिन गडकरी ने ट्वीट कर जानकारी दी है कि ये खबर गलत है. यानी टू व्हीलर्स पर कोई भी टोल टैक्स नहीं… pic.twitter.com/RSP1mkFC3w

— TV9 Bharatvarsh (@TV9Bharatvarsh) June 26, 2025

To sum up, many Indian news outlets misreported that two-wheelers would soon have to pay toll tax, resulting in many amplifying it. The NHAI and Union minister Gadkari clarified that no such proposal was on the cards.

The post ‘News’ about two-wheelers having to pay toll is not true; TV9 Bharatvarsh, India Today, others misreport appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Pawan Kumar.

Digitally manipulated clip of ABP debate shared with claims that Iranian lawmakers burnt Indian flag

Prantik Ali — Fri, 27 Jun 2025 10:50:18 +0000

Visuals of the Indian flag being burnt in the Iranian Parliament are viral on social media and a clip showing a television debate on this image by a Hindi news channel is being widely circulated. Amid the ongoing conflict between Iran and Israel, which began on June 13, India has maintained a cautious diplomatic stance without criticising the move by Israel, prompting some criticism.

X user @haidar5s posted the viral clip, alleging that the Indian flag had been burnt in the Iranian Parliament. When this article was written, the post had managed to accumulate more than 300,000 views and was reshared over 2,500 times. (Archive)

Another user, @summandar01, also posted the video with similar claims. However, this post was later withheld in India. (Archive)

The viral video was also amplified by several other Pakistani users on X. (Archives 1, 2, 3, 4)

Fact Check

To authenticate the viral image and video. We carefully looked at the visual of the TV debate. The top left corner had the name of the segment: सीधा सवाल (‘Seedha Sawaal’).

Taking cue from this, we ran a relevant keyword search on YouTube and came across the original video uploaded on June 16 by ABP News. The episode of ‘Seedha Sawaal’ features news anchor Sandeep Chaudhary and guest seen on the right in the viral video is retired Major General Bishamber Dayal.

We noticed that the viral section begins at the 24:39-minute timestamp. When the show’s host and Dayal converse, the visuals do not show the Indian flag being burnt but generic footage of conflict. Below is an example:

The part about the treatment meted out to the Indian flag in the Iranian Parliament seems to have been edited into the viral footage. Nowhere does the TV debate make any such mention or report that something like this happened. The episode remained focused on the conflict between Iran and Israel, as on June 16, and went into discussions about the conflict’s geopolitical consequences for India.

We also ran relevant keyword searches to check if anything of the sort had transpired at the Iranian Parliament, but found no reports. This raised doubts that the visual may have been generated using artificial intelligence.

To be sure, we looked at what the Iranian Parliament looks like based on images used by Iran’s Tasnim news agency. This did not bear a resemblance to the image used in the viral video. Below are comparisons:

On looking closely, we also found several disparities in the viral image. For instance, in the first image, there was no smoke from the fire where one supposed lawmaker is holding the Indian flag on fire; the way his palms hold the flag is also unnatural. The computer placement seemed odd as well. In the second image, we noticed that two chairs placed next to one another and a show plant kept nearby were distorted. The angle at which the flag is shown burning also seemed unnatural. We have highlighted these below:

Based on these findings, we believe the image is likely AI-generated.

To sum up, the viral video of a TV debate showing the Indian flag being burnt in the Iranian Parliament is digitally manipulated. The image of the burning flag was likely generated using AI and added to a clip of an actual ABP debate from June 16 with different audio to mislead viewers.

The post Digitally manipulated clip of ABP debate shared with claims that Iranian lawmakers burnt Indian flag appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Prantik Ali.

News18, social media users share 2-month old visuals of blast in Iranian city as footage from June conflict with Israel

Oishani Bhattacharya — Thu, 26 Jun 2025 13:37:28 +0000

A 17-second clip showing a cloud of smoke emanating from an explosion in an urban area is viral on social media with claims that it shows Iran being bombarded by Israel. Some claim the video of the explosion is from Ahvaz in Iran, while others claim it shows an explosion at the Bushehr airport.

The conflict between the two escalated after Israel targeted Iran’s nuclear and military structures from warplanes and drones on June 13; Iran soon retaliated with strikes. Since then, several unverified visuals have been circulating on social media platforms with claims they are from either of the two countries .

A June 22 report by News18 titled, “Bushehr Airport Hit By Israel As Explosion Rocks Iran Province Housing Nuclear Site,” featured a screengrab from the above clip. (Archive)

X user Abhijit Iyer-Mitra (@Iyervval) also posted the same video on June 22, claiming that the visual depicted an explosion in Ahvaz. (Archive)

Several other users on X, such as @mog_russEN, @World_At_War_6, @thecsrjournal, and news outlet EurAsia Daily, used the viral clip claiming it showed footage of an explosion in Iran amid the ongoing Iran-Israel conflict.

Click to view slideshow.

Fact Check

After breaking down the clip into multiple keyframes, we ran a reverse image search on a few of them. This led us to an Instagram carousel post by an account @qatarday from April 26, 2025. The fourth slide in the carousel, has the now-viral clip.

The caption of the post reads, “Four dead, over 500 injured as ‘massive’ explosion hits Iran’s Bandar Abbas”. Bandar Abbas is a port city on the southern coast of Iran.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Qatar Day (@qatarday)

We also found the video shared by X account, @JasonMBrodsky, on April 26, which also said the explosion was from Iran’s Bandar Abbas.

The more I read about this explosion today in Bandar Abbas, the more I think about the reports about those #Iran cargo ships docking in Bandar Abbas after departing #China with missile components. pic.twitter.com/X0Rxrx51Na

— Jason Brodsky (@JasonMBrodsky) April 26, 2025

Taking a cue from the above posts, we checked for news reports with relevant keywords from that time and found that several outlets had covered it.

According to an April 27 report by the BBC, nearly 28 individuals were killed and 800 injured in the explosion in Shahid Rajaee in the Iranian city of Bandar Abbas. The report carried a video captured by an individual who recorded it from his car when the explosion took place. It has the same smoke pattern as is seen in the viral clip.

Al Jazeera also used a clip from the same location, recorded at a different angle. Here, too, the smoke pattern is the same.

Below is a comparison of the visuals aired by BBC and Al Jazeera with the viral clip. As can be seen, in all three screenshots, the smoke pattern is similar.

Thus it was clear that the viral clip of the explosion is neither from Ahvaz nor from Bushehr but an explosion that happened in Shahid Rajaee port in Bandar Abbas city in Iran two months before the June conflict.

However, it should be noted that Iranian cities Ahvaz and Bushehr did suffer from Israeli strikes.

The post News18, social media users share 2-month old visuals of blast in Iranian city as footage from June conflict with Israel appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Oishani Bhattacharya.

Viral image does not show 70-year-old Muslim man from Rajasthan married to his teen granddaughter

Ankita Mahalanobish — Thu, 26 Jun 2025 09:41:11 +0000

Images of a young woman with an elderly man are being shared widely with claims that a 70-year-old Muslim man from Churu, Rajasthan, married his 19-year-old granddaughter.

On June 18, 2025, a Facebook page named Khabri TV shared a collage of images of the two, claiming that Liaquat Ali was a 70-year-old resident of Churu who married his teen granddaughter. The post alleged that following the death of her parents, Liaquat Ali raised the child himself and ultimately went on to marry her. (Archive)

राजस्थान के चूरू में 70 साल के लियाकत अली ने अपनी 19 साल की पोती के साथ में शादी कर ली है। माता-पिता के गुजरने के बाद…

Posted by Khabri Tv on Sunday 15 June 2025

An X user, Gopal Sanatani (@GopalSa22721269), shared the same collage along with a similar caption on June 18. (Archive)

राजस्थान के चूरू में 70 साल के लियाकत ने अपनी 19साल की पोती के साथ में शादी कर ली है। माता-पिता के गुजरने के बाद लियाकत ने हीं अपनी पोती की परवरिश की थी। लेकिन जवान होने के बाद उनकी पोती खूबसूरत लगने लगी। जिसके बाद लियाकत अली का मन मचल गया और उन्होंने अपनी पोती के साथ शादी कर ली। pic.twitter.com/bg1SeK1K0V

— गोपाल सनातनी (@GopalSa22721269) June 18, 2025

Similarly, on Instagram, user Rakesh Singh shared the collage with a similar caption.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Md Mokhtaz (@cricket_facts_2.7)

Several social media users also shared the collage, claiming that the incident was from Churu, Rajasthan, and the two individuals were related.

Click to view slideshow.

Fact Check

To verify the authenticity of the viral claims, we did a keyword search and found a YouTube video by Syed Basit Ali on June 14, 2022. The video is an interview with the same people shown in the collage. The couple is from Lahore, Pakistan, and had a unique story about how they got married.

According to the interview, the man (70) is Liaquat Ali and the woman (19) is his wife, Shumaila Ali. They told the interviewer that they fell in love during their daily morning walk routine. The woman goes to say that her parents were initially against their marriage, but eventually she managed to convince them.

“One doesn’t see age in love, it just happens. People should refrain from commenting on others who marry with a vast age difference. They should be respected for their decision. It is their life, and they can live it the way they want,” she adds.

We also found a few news reports regarding this from 2022. The Economic Times had reported this. However, the outlet featured it under its Spotlight section, which is for paid or branded content. The Tribune also published a report based on the YouTube video.

From just the video by Syed Basit Ali, Alt News was unable to verify whether the interview depicted was a real incident or a scripted video made for entertainment. We reached out to him for clarification and the story will be updated based on his response. But we found that the YouTuber frequently features content from Pakistan, capturing unorthodox stories. So, even if it is a scripted video, the couple featured in the viral image shared recently—reportedly Liaquat Ali and Shumaila Ali—are not from Churu, Rajasthan, but Pakistan. Also, going by their accounts in the interview, the two are not related.

Thus, the widely circulated claim suggesting that a 70-year-old from Churu, Rajasthan, married his granddaughter is baseless. Also, the viral images of them are at least three years old.

The post Viral image does not show 70-year-old Muslim man from Rajasthan married to his teen granddaughter appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Ankita Mahalanobish.

Clip of Air India crash survivor Vishwas Kumar Ramesh going back to look for brother viral with conspiracy theories

Prantik Ali — Thu, 26 Jun 2025 08:14:07 +0000

Following the devastating crash of Gatwick-bound Air India flight 171, a new video purportedly of Vishwas Kumar Ramesh, the sole survivor of the tragic accident, is viral on social media. The footage shows him walking towards the crash site, which is engulfed in flames. Ramesh was among the 242 aboard the Boeing 787 Dreamliner that crashed into the BJ Medical College in the densely populated area of Meghani Nagar in Gujarat’s Ahmedabad within 30 seconds of take-off. The accident, among the worst tragedies in recent aviation history, claimed the lives of 241, including crew, and many others residing in the premises of the medical college.

The survival of Ramesh, who was seated in an emergency exit in the aircraft, has been nothing short of miraculous. Earlier, a video, shared by many news outlets, showed Ramesh walking out of a building gate as plumes of smoke could be seen in the background. This was different from the now-viral video, which shows him walking towards the site of the crash.

Social media users have widely circulated the video questioning why he walked towards the site of the crash and emerged afterwards. Wondering what unfolded, many insinuated it was fishy that a man “shown as a survivor” was walking into the accident and coming out later. Some even said that this was the “reality” that was not being broadcast by media outlets. Below are some claims from X and Instagram. (Archives 1, 2)

Seriously?! is this for real? pic.twitter.com/PJimpwlJdl

— Lord Shiv (@lordshivom) June 18, 2025

Bit confused by seeing this viral video. The person who was shown as a survivor was found walking inside the accident zone area and then again he came out how’s that possible? I can’t believe this.#planecrash #ViralVideos #Accident #AirIndiaPlaneCrash #IranIsraelConflict… pic.twitter.com/eOIBysIAtN

— Amit Kumar Singh (@AmitSingh0208) June 18, 2025

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Mahadev ke deewane Hain ham (@sanju_bob_thakor_mahadev_)

Users on Facebook also shared the viral clip. Screenshots below:

Fact Check

Since information on passengers in the flight and Vishwas Kumar Ramesh’s boarding pass were published by many media outlets, we were certain that he was on the flight.

But to understand what was being shown in the viral video, we broke it down into key frames, and ran reverse image searches on some of them. This led us to several short videos where a man bearing a close resemblance to Vishwas Kumar Ramesh is seen entering the crash site more than once and exiting. Alt News went through many such videos generated by those at the site and tried to piece together the chain of events.

Our research found that Ramesh first exited the crash site when there were very few people around and tried to go back in twice to look for his brother, who was on the same flight. The new viral video, shared with conspiracy theories, shows him re-entering the crash site for the first time. He tried entering it a second time, too when there were more people at the site, who beckoned to him and called him back. When he emerged from the site this time, he was guided by these people to an ambulance. A video of his emergence and being taken to an ambulance was the same one shared by news outlets.

Here’s a breakdown of how we arrived at this:

We found one Instagram reel uploaded by user @ravibarthuniya on June 12, showing a man in a white t-shirt, standing across from the crash site, making his way across the street and entering the premises. His clothing and the fact that he was limping matched the description and visuals of Vishwas Kumar Ramesh seen emerging from the site.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Ravi Barthuniya (@ravibarthuniya)

We compared visuals in the viral video and this reel and found they were the same. Below is a comparison.

Thus, the viral clip does show Vishwas Kumar Ramesh entering the crash site. We also noticed that there was a scooter parked by the compound wall he entered and only few people around.

However, when this reel is compared with the video shared by news outlets showing him emerging from the site and being guided towards an ambulance, some things appear different.

For instance, the scooter against the wall seen in the first comparison image was removed. Also, there were a lot more people present at the site. This suggests that some time had passed between the two videos, and the clip of him emerging was taken later.

We also found another video on Instagram of Ramesh using his phone and entering the crash site. However, this is different from the previous video of him entering.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Amit kumar jain (@amitalwin)

We also noticed that the scooter was removed and, unlike in the previous instance, the dog is absent. There are also more people. Multiple videos we watched confirmed that he entered the crash site not once, but twice.

In the second instance, the people present at the site call out to him after he goes in. When he comes out, a man in a pink shirt and blue turban is visible. Based on the video shared by news outlets, we know that he is the same person who guides Ramesh to an ambulance.

A video report by BBC India, posted on Instagram on June 18, identifies the man in the turban as Satinder Singh Sandhu. Sandhu, who supervises a fleet of ambulances, was the first emergency responder at the crash site.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by BBC News India (@bbcnewsindia)

We then reached out to Sandhu, who told us that when he arrived at the spot, he saw Ramesh going back into the premises. “I was just done shifting a victim to the ambulance. Then I saw him (Ramesh) near the gate. He went in and then came out again, after which I intervened and moved him to an ambulance,” he told us in Hindi.

Sandhu told the BBC that Ramesh, even after his rescue, “kept trying to go back to the site of the crash.”

“He had no idea what he was doing. He kept going in and out of the complex. We told him to stop, and dragged him away to an ambulance so that he could receive medical care… That’s when he said to me that his relative was trapped inside and he wanted to go save him. We did not speak a word after that,” he told the publication. At the time, Sandhu had no idea the man was the lone plane crash survivor. The emergency responder gave similar accounts to news outlets PTI, NDTV and UK-based DailyMail.

Thus, we were able to conclude that Vishwas Kumar Ramesh emerged from the crash site and tried going back near the burning wreckage at least twice to look for his brother. Piecemeal footage on social media from different angles and at different times has led to confusion regarding the chain of events. Alt News was unable to find footage that shows him walking away from the crash site the very first time. But we were able to establish that the now-viral video shows him trying to re-enter the first time, most likely to look for and save his brother.

The post Clip of Air India crash survivor Vishwas Kumar Ramesh going back to look for brother viral with conspiracy theories appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Prantik Ali.

Language Row: News outlets take down stories on Amit Shah’s controversial English remark

Ankita Mahalanobish — Wed, 25 Jun 2025 13:47:48 +0000

Recent remarks by Union home minister Amit Shah on the English language have sparked a controversy. Speaking at a book launch on June 19, Shah said that India is not too far from becoming a society where English speakers would “feel ashamed”. His statement led many Opposition members to question the Bharatiya Janata Party’s selective language politics. However, what stands out in this case is that many news outlets, including news agency ANI, took down their stories on Shah’s contentious statement without issuing a clarification.

Speaking on the concerns regarding the state of the Hindi language in India, Shah said, “Remember what I say and listen to me carefully. In this country, those who speak English will soon feel ashamed—the creation of such a society is not far away.” “Only those who resolve to act can accomplish things,” he said on the government’s resolve to build an Indian society based on Indian languages and not a foreign one. Shah was addressing a gathering at the launch of Main Boond Swayam, Khud Sagar Hoon, authored by former IAS officer Ashutosh Agnihotri.

“I believe that the languages of our country are the jewels of our culture. Without our languages, we cease to be truly Indian… With pride in our languages, we will run our country, ideate, research, make decisions, and lead the world, too. There is no need for anyone to doubt this…Our languages will greatly contribute to us being at the top of the world in 2047,” he added.

ANI, Others Take Down Story

On June 19, news agency Asian News International (ANI) shared a video of Shah’s speech on X and posted a story on its website. However, within hours, both the social media post and the article were taken down. ANI has issued no clarification on why these were removed.

Since ANI is a wire agency whose stories go to the syndicated feed of subscribing news outlets, we found the now-deleted ANI article on WION. At least prima facie, the piece has no factual inaccuracies or misinformation and seems like routine coverage of the event with Shah’s remarks, largely verbatim.

We found a similar pattern across news outlets. Times of India, NDTV, Times Now and ABP News retracted their reports. These articles and their headlines and image thumbnails still appear on search engines but they lead to a 404 error page on clicking. Note that none of these outlets issued public clarifications on why these stories were taken down. Since archives of these were not available, we could not verify whether these were wire copies by ANI, published by them and later taken down.

We also found another intriguing pattern. News outlets such as The Indian Express, The Hindu and Republic TV, which still have their articles with Shah’s statement available on their website, did not amplify the story on social media platforms, especially X. This is unusual because news outlets routinely promote most of their articles on these platforms, as standard practice.

Debate on Language Politics

Shah’s statement has ruffled many feathers. Opposition leaders believe that in shunting English to promote native languages, the BJP government is actually pushing for Hindi. Though Shah mentions embracing ‘Indian languages’ and nativity, his discourse and statement at the event followed a question by another speaker on the weakened status of Hindi as a language. Shah’s remarks almost seem to use Indian languages and Hindi interchangeably.

Such preoccupation with Hindi has also been a flashpoint between the centre and states, especially on education. The indirect imposition of Hindi as part of the National Education Policy’s (NEP) three-language policy has been opposed by many states, most vehemently Tamil Nadu. Note that while the NEP does not mandate learning Hindi, experts believe that the Centre has left states with little choice but to adopt it as the most plausible third optional language. Tamil Nadu largely follows a two-language system where students are taught in Tamil and English. Most states in the southern region, in the North East or those lying in tribal belts believe that the Central push for Indian languages comes with the obvious subsuming of dialects, regional languages and local traditions by Hindi and Hindi speakers. The push for Hindi is also reflected in the obvious tilt in NCERT textbooks used across states.

In a country where language has often been a flashpoint for regional and communal tensions, Shah’s statement could appeal to many, especially those in the Hindi-speaking belt where the BJP already has a stronghold. However, the removal of his controversial remarks by news outlets must be seen in view of the upcoming Assembly polls in Tamil Nadu, Kerala and West Bengal in 2026, where the BJP’s communal and language politics have failed to land the party a win.

Besides the underlying Hindi push, Shah’s remarks have also come under fire for their “restrictive and narrow-minded” approach towards English, a language that, despite its colonial roots, still acts as a bridge for many within the country and abroad. English has evolved into a global lingua franca and has been used for international engagement. Arguably, English has also allowed many to subvert caste and class hierarchies predominant within the society and culture.

“English is not a barrier; it is a bridge… BJP-RSS don’t want India’s poor children to learn English—because they don’t want you to ask questions, move forward, or stand equal… English is as essential as your mother tongue—because it will secure jobs, boost confidence,” Opposition leader Rahul Gandhi said on Shah snubbing English.

Disappearing Articles

It’s not exactly clear why the reports were removed or what prompted it. Alt News has tried to contact some people to understand what may have caused this. The story will be updated if and when we receive responses.

But the question remains that even if removed, why was there no clarification? Was there implicit pressure from authorities owing to the contentious nature of Shah’s speech? Was there an inaccuracy? The incident poses serious doubts on the integrity and autonomy of India’s media ecosystem and independent decision-making in editorial policies. ANI has a fairly wide reach and when a major news agency, a video partner to most news outlets, takes a crucial video down, it is bound to limit reach, thus cushioning the impact from criticism. Alt News also reached out to ANI for comment, the editor refused to speak to us.

In March 2025, at least three major media outlets took down their stories on a South African wildlife organisation, raising concerns over the functioning of the Reliance-owned Vantara Animal and Rehabilitation Centre in Jamnagar, Gujarat. Read our story to know what the investigation revealed. In 2018, Doordarshan had similarly deleted its X post in an attempt to cover up Amit Shah’s flag-hoisting blooper.

The post Language Row: News outlets take down stories on Amit Shah’s controversial English remark appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Ankita Mahalanobish.

TV9 Kannada amplified AI video as Iranian missile hitting Israeli target

Pawan Kumar — Wed, 25 Jun 2025 06:37:06 +0000

A video of a massive explosion is doing the rounds on social media platforms. The footage shows an explosion causing a huge fireball followed by a thick cloud of fire and smoke that rises high into the sky. Several media outlets as well as social media users are sharing this video claiming that it is related to the ongoing military conflict between Israel and Iran.

TV9 Kannada published the video with the caption, “Iran missile hits a building in Haifa, Israel.” (Archived link 1, Archived link 2)

The outlet’s X handle and Facebook page also posted the video with the claim that the visuals showed an Iranian missile strike on Israeli territory.

Click to view slideshow.

An Iranian Instagram page called akhbar.fouri and Indian Instagram handle geopolitics.ig also amplified the viral video as a recent attack by Iran on Israel.

Click to view slideshow.

Other X handles, including @iamSaharEmami, @truck2047, @Qlbi_3la_Gaza and @mustafaaleem, promoted the visuals and accompanying claim.

This video has also gained widespread traction on YouTube as an Iranian strike on Israel.

Click to view slideshow.

Fact Check

Alt News examined the viral video in question and observed that in addition to the fire and smoke from the explosion, lightning flashes were visible in the sky, which is not typical of real-life footage of explosions caused by military attacks. This suggests that the video may have been artificially generated.

We performed a reverse image search using frames taken from the viral video. This led us to a YouTube video uploaded on June 18 by a channel named cemilacıyangallery. The caption provided explicitly states that it is an AI-generated visual.

In addition, when a user asked for the location of the blast, the creator responded that it had been generated using artificial intelligence.

When we examined the YouTube channel further, it became evident that the creator consistently uploaded AI generated videos. The channel’s description also clearly states that all videos on the channel have been produced with artificial intelligence.

To sum up, several individuals and media outlets, including TV9 Kannada, circulated an AI-generated video on social media as real, falsely presenting it as scenes from the ongoing conflict between Iran and Israel.

The post TV9 Kannada amplified AI video as Iranian missile hitting Israeli target appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Pawan Kumar.

Viral photo of Rahul Gandhi attending George Soros son’s wedding is AI-generated

Kinjal — Wed, 25 Jun 2025 06:36:02 +0000

A photo of Rahul Gandhi is being widely shared on social media. In the picture, he is apparently seen greeting Alexander Soros, son of American investor George Soros, and his partner Huma Abedin on their wedding.

The caption accompanying the viral image reads, “For the last four days, everyone was worried about whoch foreign country Rahul Gandhi had travelled to. No one knew his whereabouts. Now see this highly condemnable and extremely shameful act by Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi. He attended the wedding of the son of India’s biggest enemy George Soros. Although friendship with the enemies of our country is his profession. Foolish Hindus who vote for Congress will never understand this.”

A verified X user named Naveen Chauhan posted a collage of some pictures of Alex Soros’ wedding, which also contained the picture in question, with the same viral message.

The image is widespread on X with the same claim.

Click to view slideshow.

It also made the rounds on Facebook.

We also noticed the image was also being circulated on Instagram. (Link 1, Link 2)

Click to view slideshow.

It had also made its way to messaging platform WhatsApp, along with the accompanying claim.

Click to view slideshow.

Fact Check

First, we noticed that the hands and fingers of the three individuals seen in the photo were deformed and unrealistic, which is an error typical of AI-generated images. We have indicated these in the picture provided below. The viral image also features a watermark of the artificial intelligence platform Grok in the bottom right corner.

Grok is the AI chatbot of X. Images created by Grok have the same symbol as the one seen in the viral image.

This confirms that the viral image is not real, but has been created with the help of AI chatbot Grok. Alt News could not find the picture of Rahul Gandhi anywhere in the collection of images from Alex Soros’ wedding available online. (Link 1,Link 2) Moreover, there is no official confirmation of Rahul Gandhi having attended Soros’ wedding.

Vogue magazine published a compilation of Huma Abedin and Alexander Soros’ wedding photos which included 83 images from their wedding ceremony. None of these photos include Rahul Gandhi. Moreover, Huma wore two different dresses at the ceremony, but neither of these match the dress she is seen wearing in the viral photo.

Click to view slideshow.

Although Alt News cannot independently confirm whether Rahul Gandhi attended Alexander Soros’ wedding or not, it is clear that the photo in question was created with the help of AI.

The post Viral photo of Rahul Gandhi attending George Soros son’s wedding is AI-generated appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Kinjal.

Viral image does not show Xi Jinping’s daughter; news outlets, photo agencies Getty & Alamy misidentify Xi Mingze

Diti Pujara — Tue, 24 Jun 2025 10:54:58 +0000

Between May 30 and June 2, several news outlets published reports on American activists demanding the deportation of Xi Mingze, the daughter of Chinese President Xi Jinping, from the United States.

This follows a May 28 announcement by United States’ secretary of state, Marco Rubio, that the US would “aggressively” start revoking visas of Chinese students, including those with “connections to the Chinese Communist Party or studying in critical fields”. “We will also revise visa criteria to enhance scrutiny of all future visa applications from the People’s Republic of China and Hong Kong,” the statement read. The move aligns with US President Donald Trump’s hardline crackdown on immigration. His administration has deported foreign students, revoked their visas, suspended Harvard University from enrolling them and is widening social media vetting for university admissions.

After Rubio’s statement, far-Right American political activist Laura Loomer called for the deportation of the Chinese President’s daughter. Loomer, often referred to as a Trump supporter and conspiracy theorist, claimed that Mingze, who went to Harvard University, lives in Massachusetts under the guard of China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA). She had made these claims in April as well

Click to view slideshow.

Alt News found reports by several news organisations, both Indian and international, on this, which used a photograph of a woman in white apparel, identifying her as the daughter of the Chinese President. NDTV, Dainik Jagran, News9, Eenadu, Asianet Hindi, Loksatta, Mathrubhumi and Times Now were some Indian news outlets that published reports using this image. The Times and Newsweek were among international outlets that used the same photo.

Pro-Right American outlet America First Post (AF Post) also wrote on this with the same image. (Archive)

Laura Loomer called for the deportation of Xi Jinping’s daughter, Xi Mingze, who attended Harvard and lives in Massachusetts.

Follow: @AFpost pic.twitter.com/KUfP0XbzEM

— AF Post (@AFpost) May 29, 2025

In a video report, Reliance-owned media outlet Firstpost also used the same image to refer to Jinping’s daughter. However, the image has now been edited from the segment uploaded on YouTube. The full segment where the image was used can be accessed here.

Fact Check

A quick Google search with Mingze’s name showed the same image as highlighted above. But many reports that used the image had sourced it from social media posts or platforms. A Washington Post report from May 2012 said that Mingze enrolled in Harvard in 2010. A New Yorker article from April 2015 said that she graduated from the Ivy League university and moved back to Beijing in 2014. We also found a Daily Mail report on her elusive presence on campus from 2012, but the report used a different image of hers, sourced from Facebook.

Mingze has made few public appearances. Little is known about her and her time in the US and Chinese authorities have kept information about her under wraps. The Washington Post’s report hints that Chinese Communist leaders may be maintaining a low profile regarding their children’s foreign education to avert criticism regarding their undisclosed wealth. In 2019, a man named Niu Tengyu was arrested and later sentenced to 14 years in prison for disclosing personal information regarding Xi Jinping’s family online.

A reverse image search of the photo also led us to similar pictures on Getty, Alamy and Shutterstock. They show her at an event held by Fashion for Development in New York in September 2018. Getty had identified her as Xi Mingze. The Alamy image featured her with an older lady clad in pink. The caption said Peng Liyuan and Xi Mingze had arrived for Fashion 4 Development’s Annual First Ladies Luncheon. Meanwhile, the Shutterstock image’s description said it showed Noelle Xie and Fi (Catherine) Chen.

On checking further, we found that the woman in pink (seen on Alamy and Shutterstock) is indeed Noelle Xie, a Chinese-born American art curator who works with the United Nations and the US Department of State. This made us certain that the Alamy caption was incorrect. We then wrote to Getty and the photographer to cross-check whether the woman in the image is indeed Xi Mingze or has been misidentified, considering Shutterstock had used a different name.

Alt News wrote to Getty on June 4 and found that a few days later, the photo agency had changed the caption and identified her as Fi Catherine Chen. Since they did not issue a public correction, it was hard to tell when exactly the caption was changed. Below is a screenshot of the new caption with the image.

Thus, the viral image does not depict Xi Mingze, the daughter of Chinese President Xi Jinping, but Fi (Catherine) Chen, about whom little is known publicly. It’s possible that news outlets relied on images on social media or Getty and Alamy to identify Xi Mingze, where she was misidentified.

The post Viral image does not show Xi Jinping’s daughter; news outlets, photo agencies Getty & Alamy misidentify Xi Mingze appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Diti Pujara.

Did Trump make a ‘u-turn’ on his role in the India‑Pakistan ceasefire, as news outlets claimed?

Oishani Bhattacharya — Tue, 24 Jun 2025 07:53:15 +0000

Since June 18, several news outlets in India reported that US President Donald Trump did a ‘u-turn’ on his earlier claims that he stopped the conflict between India and Pakistan. NDTV, Times of India, Business Standard and PTI, among others, reported that the US President had “changed his tune”, giving Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi due credit for the cessation of the conflict.

The four-day long armed clash between India and Pakistan, after India launched Operation Sindoor on the intervening night of May 6 and 7, came to a close after both countries agreed to a ceasefire on May 10. Interestingly, Trump announced that ceasefire even before the Indian and Pakistani sides issued statements. In his post and remarks afterwards, he emphatically took credit for maintaining peace between the two countries and even wrote that the United States mediated talks between India and Pakistan.

This claim by the US President led to several questions from the Opposition to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party on whether India “opened the doors to third-party mediation“. India downplayed the US’s role in brokering the deal. According to a Hindu report from May 13, Trump, in an in-person meeting at the White House, claimed that the US did not just ‘broker’ the ceasefire deal but averted a major nuclear conflict. The US president reportedly ‘threatened’ to stop trade with both countries if they refused to de-escalate. But those within the government, privy to the discussions, told the news outlet that there had been “no reference to trade” during de-escalation talks.

On a June 18 NDTV broadcast, senior journalist and the channel’s managing editor, Shiv Aroor, did a segment on United States President Donald Trump’s ‘u-turn’.

“Trump has changed his tune. After speaking to Prime Minister Modi for 35 minutes on the phone today, a big ‘u-turn’ by the US President, who last month had tried to take complete credit for the ceasefire after Operation Sindoor. Trump has said it was Modi who stopped the war on the Indian side, but he still says that he was the one who stopped the war on the Pakistan side. That [latter] part could actually be true because it was after all Pakistan that went running to the United States, and then the US had told Pakistan to get on the hotline and ask for a ceasefire from India. This is Trump taking the biggest u-turn of the season and saying, it was India, it was the Indian Prime Minister that caused the ceasefire from the Indian side and stopped the war…” Aroor said.

After showing Trump’s statement on this issue, he goes on to say, “Trump changes his stance after all and it took a 35 minute conversation with the Indian Prime Mister where he was very mildly told that this is credit that you cannot take, this was something that India imposed on Pakistan, not giving them a choice. And there is Trump giving that credit to the Indian Prime Minister”.

News agency Press Trust of India (PTI) was among the first to report that US President Trump backtracked from his initial claim that he brokered the ceasefire deal between India and Pakistan. They cited him as saying that “two ‘very smart’ leaders of India and Pakistan ‘decided’ not to continue a war that could have turned nuclear”. The report was later updated with more information, where it was mentioned that this comment could be “seen at variance with his claims over a dozen times in the last few weeks” where he took credit for the ceasefire between the neighbouring nuclear-armed nations. (Archives 1, 2)

Click to view slideshow.

Several other news outlets, such as The Hindu, NDTV, Indian Express, National Herald, Vartha Bharati, published the same PTI wire. (Archives 1, 2, 3, 4, 5)

Click to view slideshow.

Other outlets such as the Times of India, Hindustan Times, India TV, Firstpost and Business Standard also reported that Trump did a ‘u-turn’ by saying that the leaders of India and Pakistan were ‘very smart’ and ‘decided’ to stop the war. (Archives 1, 2, 3, 4, 5)

Click to view slideshow.

Is it a U-Turn?

We carefully heard Trump’s statement, which was referenced by the above media outlets, and found that this was from a flagpole installation event at the White House’s South Lawn on June 18. A reporter asked him what the US President wished to achieve diplomatically from his upcoming lunch with Pakistan’s army chief, Asim Munir and that’s when Trump talks about the conflict. Here’s his statement verbatim:

“Well, I stopped a war… between Pakistan… I love Pakistan. I think Modi is a fantastic man. I spoke to him last night. We’re going to make a trade deal with Modi of India. But I stopped the war between Pakistan and India [sic]. This man (Asim Munir) was extremely influential in stopping it, from the Pakistan side. Modi, from the India side, and others. And they were going at it. And they’re both nuclear countries. I got it stopped. I don’t think I had one story… did I have one story written about? I stopped a war between two major nations, major nuclear nations. I don’t think I had a story written about it… but that’s okay. You know why? The people know”.

Evidently, Trump’s words can hardly be called a u-turn. The American President reiterates 4 times that it was he who stopped the war. He gives the Indian PM the same credit as Pakistan’s army chief for being ‘influential’ in stopping the war. But he emphasises his own role in ghis. A mere mention of the two leaders does not imply that he went back on his word, especially when he leaves no room for doubt that he had a huge role to play in it.

Note that his June 18 statement is not too different from his May 10 statement on the ceasefire wherein he congratulated the two countries for using “common sense and great intelligence”.

It would be fair to say that Indian news outlets may have read too much into Trump’s latest statement. Nowhere does he go back on his stance nor can this be seen as a softening of his earlier approach. He is still very much of the opinion that he “got it stopped” and repeats it more than once.

It would be misleading to say that Trump mentioning Modi in the same vein as Munir is akin to him doing a u-turn on his earlier approach.

The post Did Trump make a ‘u-turn’ on his role in the India‑Pakistan ceasefire, as news outlets claimed? appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Oishani Bhattacharya.

Video of Iranian women protesting Mahsa Amini’s custodial killing in 2022 linked to June conflict with Israel

Prantik Ali — Tue, 24 Jun 2025 07:18:15 +0000

As the conflict between Iran and Israel rages on, social media users have amplified a 35-second-long video, which appears to show a large gathering of female students taking off their headscarves and sloganeering. Users have suggested that the video is from Iran and symbolises a defiance of the rigid codes that restrict women’s agency under the country’s theocratic regime, implying that Iran is undergoing internal turmoil even as it fights attacks from Israel.

X user @realMaalouf posted the viral video on June 18, claiming the women were chanting “Death to the dictator and the Islamic regime”. At the time this article was written, the post had gathered over 7 million views. (Archive)

Iranian girls remove their hijabs, take over their school, and chant “Death to the dictator and the Islamic regime”.

pic.twitter.com/K72zlBMSOv

— Dr. Maalouf ‏ (@realMaalouf) June 18, 2025

Another X user, @sumit45678901, also posted the video with the same claim. It had over 750,000 views at the time this article was written. (Archive)

Iranian girls remove their hijabs, take over their school, and chant “Death to the dictator and the Islamic regime”.

Fuck Khamenei Regimi

Iran in 1970s . Do you want them back ? #IranVsIsrael #Khamenei #IranIsraelConflict #TelAviv pic.twitter.com/GsnAbWYohn

— sumit (@sumit45678901) June 18, 2025

Several other X users, including @debajits3110, @PankajTiwarri, @journorai, @EliAfriatISR and @LibTearCreator1, among others, shared the video with the same claim.

(Archived links: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5)

Click to view slideshow.

Fact Check

To verify the authenticity of the claims, we ran a reverse image search on one of the key frames from the viral video. This led us to an X post, from October 5, 2022, which features the same clip that has recently gone viral. The caption, translated from Spanish, reads: “Learn and see… THIS IS REVOLUTION. Iranian students take off their headscarves and protest furiously against their country’s authorities. ‘NO MORE’ was the cry for independence from a servile yoke that dehumanized them. I repeat: THIS IS REVOLUTION!” (Archive)

Aprende ve… ESTO ES REVOLUCIÓN. Estudiantes iraníes se quitan el velo y protestan con furor contra las autoridades de su País. NO VA MÁS era el grito de independencia de un yugo servil que las deshumanizaba. Repito: ¡ESTO ES REVOLUCIÓN! pic.twitter.com/hOnCA73dCP

— Luis Antonio Ruiz (@luisantonio_r) October 5, 2022

Taking cue from this, we ran a relevant keyword search and found that this particular incident was among several others that took place across Iran in the aftermath of the custodial killing of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini on 16 September, 2022, She was arrested by Iran’s morality police for having allegedly violated strict Islamic rules that require women to cover their heads.

We also came across news reports that corroborated this. News outlets such as Koha, and Social News XYZ, published reports on the protest, featuring visuals from the viral video. Both these reports are dated October 4, 2022.

Click to view slideshow.

Thus, the viral video, which is being shared with claims that it shows female Iranian students defying the Islamic regime by flinging off their headscarves, is actually from 2022. Students in various schools and universities across Iran flouted the strict moral codes by refusing to cover their heads, to protest the custodial killing of Mahsa Amini. It is unrelated to the June conflict with Israel and the claims are misleading.

The post Video of Iranian women protesting Mahsa Amini’s custodial killing in 2022 linked to June conflict with Israel appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Prantik Ali.

NBDSA orders Times Now Navbharat to take down misleading thumbnail from video on Shimla mosque controversy

Shinjinee Majumder — Mon, 23 Jun 2025 14:19:54 +0000

The News Broadcasting and Digital Standards Authority (NBDSA) has pulled up Times Now Navbharat (TNN) for using a “misleading” thumbnail on one of its broadcast videos from 2024 that was “not in the interest of communal harmony”. In an order dated June 6, 2025, NBDSA directed the news channel to take down or edit the thumbnail within seven days.

The NBDSA’s order was on a segment aired by TNN on September 6, 2024. It took note of the matter based on a complaint filed by activist Indrajeet Ghorpade. While several concerns were raised by Ghorpade, the NBDSA’s action was limited to the misleading thumbnail. After the order, the news outlet took down the video from its YouTube channel altogether.

In the now-deleted video where the thumbnail has been used, a TNN correspondent interviewed women from Himachal Pradesh on a matter related to a disputed mosque in Shimla’s Sanjauli. In the video, the correspondent speaks to the women on “safety concerns” they experience while living close to an “illegal mosque”. In the thumbnail of this video, the channel makes it seem like the women made some strong remarks against Muslims. Thumbnails are the first things that viewers see before they decide whether or not to watch a video and often give the viewer a ‘teaser’ of the content that is to follow.

Below is a screenshot of the thumbnail and a downloaded version of the TNN video report that has been taken down.

Source: YouTube/ @timesnownavbharat

The Disputed Sanjauli Mosque

For context, the mosque regarding which the women were interviewed is disputed for two reasons.

One, the mosque committee has been accused of constructing additional floors that are not compliant with construction laws. Cases related to this ‘illegal construction’ have been pending in the Shimla municipal court since 2010.

Two, the mosque was allegedly the place where members of a minority community sought ‘refuge’ after a brawl in which a Hindu shopkeeper was assaulted. While the altercation was a local incident in the Malyana area of Shimla on August 31, 2024, it soon snowballed into a major communal issue. The incident sparked protests against unauthorised mosques in Shimla and other regions of Himachal Pradesh. On September 11, 2024, Hindu outfits staged a major demonstration demanding the mosque’s demolition. The protest turned violent and eventually resulted in demonstrators clashing with the police. Both sides sustained injuries.

On October 5, 2024, the Shimla municipal commissioner ordered the removal of three unauthorised floors of the five-storied place of worship. Seven months later, on May 3, 2025, the same municipal commissioner ruled that the first two floors of the mosque were also ‘illegal’ and ordered for the whole structure to be demolished.

‘Insinuating’ Thumbnail

In the TNN video report, the women tell the channel’s correspondent that they felt threatened by the growth in the number of Muslim residents in the locality. However, their responses were fairly different from what was shown in the thumbnail.

In his complaint, Indrajeet Ghorpade highlighted this along with the “prejudiced” line of questioning by the TNN reporter. Before we get into the issues raised by him, let’s look at the statements by the women interviewees whose images are used in the thumbnail.

When asked to talk about her concerns, the woman on the right in the image above, who runs a shop next to the mosque, says she had no issues with older residents but fears the newer ones. “You know, we hear that they, people from one community commit rapes. That’s when we feel scared, thinking, what if something like that happens to our children?” she said. “These people need to be verified. Those who pass the verification can stay; others should leave. When we go out at night and see these people also out, we feel scared. We don’t know where they’re from or what they’re doing—there’s no verification.” She also claimed that the locality had become crowded and many Muslim residents were now bringing their families.

It is pertinent to note here that the interviewee did not say she was harassed by Muslim residents of Sanjauli. She said she feared something like that could happen. However, her image was used in the thumbnail with a speech bubble that said “Musalmaan ladke humein…” (Muslim boys do…), making it seem as though some wrongdoing already took place.

The second interviewee, the woman seen on the left in the thumbnail, said that her problem was that movement across the city was becoming a problem with the rising number of residents in the area. “When they offer namaz, there’s a lot of noise and commotion,” she said. After being asked about women’s safety twice by the TNN journalist, the interviewee responded that when there’s a large crowd or movement, “everyone gets scared, thinking someone might say something to us”.

This woman’s image was used in the thumbnail with a speech bubble that said, “Jumme ke din toh…” (On Friday prayers, it’s so…). This quote, too, is misattributed. During her one-minute interview with TNN, the woman does not mention Jumma or Friday prayers.

Also, the legality of the mosque was still subjudice when the video was uploaded, but the TNN journalist used the phrase ‘Avaidh Masjid’ or ‘illegal mosque’ while asking questions. The title of the video report and the thumbnail, too, had the same phrase in single quotes.

Issues Raised with NBDSA

Misleading Thumbnail: In his complaint, Ghorpade said that the thumbnail violated several NBDSA rules, including “accuracy, neutrality, objectivity, guidelines for prevention of hate speech, guidelines to prevent communal colour in reporting crime, riots, rumours and such related incidents, guidelines on broadcast of potentially defamatory content, section on racial & religious harmony under specific guidelines covering reportage and guidelines for the telecast of news affecting public order.”

He questioned what the channel was trying to imply by using text such as “Avaidh Masjid ko lekar Shimla ke Hinduon ne Musalmano par kya kaha” (Regarding the ‘illegal mosque, what Shimla’s Hindus had to say about Muslims) in the thumbnail.

He also said that the channel seemed to “insinuate” something to the viewers with the incorrect and misleading text in the speech bubbles. He emphatically said that the text in the speech bubbles mentioned issues “none of the women interviewed by the reporter had flagged”.

Leading Questions: Ghorpade also pointed out that the TNN reporter asked leading questions such as, “Has the number of Muslims visiting the mosque increased?”; “Do women feel safer compared to to earlier?” and “What is the change in the mahaul with the rise in the population of Muslim persons in Shimla?”

He also added that the interviewees’ responses “seemed to stem from deep-rooted Islamophobia” and the channel was not helping by using phrases such as “Kya dar ka mahaul hai?” (Is fear clouding the atmosphere?) in their reportage.

“While women’s safety is undoubtedly a matter of grave concern and not an issue that must be downplayed, asked in the report, in the report by Times Now Navbharat, the reporter, in an attempt to highlight local concerns, asks leading and prejudiced questions to portray that the Muslim the presence must be feared and that women’s safety, particularly, is at a risk due to and rise of Muslim people in a particular area,” his complaint said.

Judgment on Subjudice Matter? Ghorpade emphasised that the semantics used by Times Now Navbharat in their reportage made it seem like the broadcaster had already declared the mosque illegal even while its status was being determined legally.

“Writing the word illegal in single or double quotation marks does not change the impact that such inaccurate and malicious reporting has on viewers. A regular viewer does not fully understand the meaning of writing words in single or double quotation marks,” he said on the words ‘illegal mosque’ being used widely by the channel.

TNN’s Response and NBDSA’s Order

While responding to the complaint, TNN said that the thumbnail should be “read in its entirety to understand the context. Further, no motive could be attributed to it. In the thumbnail, the full statement cannot be carried.”

The channel also contended that Ghorpade’s arguments “had no merit” and alleged that it stemmed from viewing “the programming in a piecemeal manner instead of looking at it as a whole.” It also argued that the press had the right to provide “fair commentary on matters affecting the public at large” and the editorial discretion regarding the mode and manner of presentation.

TNN emphasised that its video report did not target a community. The women were interviewed independently and while they raised concerns about unknown newcomers and suggested verification of men entering Shimla, no specific community was named, it said.

Meanwhile, the NBDSA, in its order, only tackled the issue of the thumbnail without getting into the demerits of the content and manner of the broadcast. The body said that the thumbnail texts were “inconsistent with the statements made by the women interviewed during the broadcast” and gave the impression that the women were harassed by Muslims, which was not stated by the women interviewed. “Thus, this was not only misleading but also not in the interest of communal harmony,” it said.

Consequently, the body ordered TNN to edit or remove the thumbnail from the video on its site and YouTube within seven days. NBDSA also issued an advisory to all broadcasters, highlighting that the tickers and thumbnails should conform to the actual version of the discussions/interviews.

Not A First

Last year, the NBDSA slapped a Rs 1 lakh fine on Times Now Navbharat for its malicious reportage on the murder of Shraddha Walkar in November 2022. Walkar was killed by her Muslim boyfriend, Aftaab Poonawalla, and her dismembered body was found in the fridge. Following this, several news channels, including TNN, went on a rampage. In its reportage, TNN turned the incident into a larger communal issue, portraying all Muslims as barbaric and guilty of organised crimes against Hindu women.

NBDSA fined Times Now Navbharat Rs 1 lakh, News 18 India Rs 50,000 in cases I filed against painting the entire Muslim community as barbaric & guilty of conducting organised crimes against Hindu women, by malicious linking Shraddha Walker’s murder to the ‘love jihad’ conspiracy. pic.twitter.com/RO5jJR0iLN

— Jeet (@jeetxg) February 29, 2024

The post NBDSA orders Times Now Navbharat to take down misleading thumbnail from video on Shimla mosque controversy appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Shinjinee Majumder.

Waterlogged Kolkata street did turn red after Eid qurbani: Alt News ground report rebuts police cyber cell’s denial

Ankita Mahalanobish — Mon, 23 Jun 2025 11:52:55 +0000

After Bakri Eid was celebrated in India on Saturday, June 7, a video went viral on Facebook claiming to show a blood-filled road in Kolkata following the Qurbani (sacrificial) ritual.

Several users shared visuals of a blood-filled road and remarked sarcastically, “This isn’t Bangladesh or Pakistan…” Some stated that parts of Kolkata resembled “scenes from Bangladesh”. The posts also claimed that the visuals were from Ward 44 in Kolkata. (Examples: 1, 2, 3, 4)

BJP leader Sajal Ghosh who represents Ward No. 50 in the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC), also shared the video on Facebook and claimed that it was from the Bhawani Dutta Lane and Neel Madhab Sen Lane areas of Bowbazar. In the post, He also urged ‘urban, smart, ultramodern seculars’ to wake up unless they wanted the same picture to emerge from their localities within four-five years.

খুশির ঈদে খুশির বন্যা l

না এটা বাংলাদেশ না পাকিস্তান, এ আমার সাধের মধ্য কলকাতার বউবাজার অঞ্চলের ভবানী দত্ত লেন ও নীল মধব সেন লেন অঞ্চলের ছবি l

ঈদ কুরবানী একটি সম্প্রদায়ের নিজস্ব বিষয়, সে নিয়ে আমি কিছু বলবো না, কিন্তু যে প্রাণীকে আমরা পূজা করি, তার এই পরিণতি আমাদের ভাবাবেগকেও আঘাত দেয় l
অদ্ভুতভাবে প্রশাসন এবং পুরসভা চোখে ঠুলি পড়ে আছেন‌ l
তাই সমস্ত শহুরে স্মার্ট অত্যাধুনিক সেকুলার মানুষজনকে আমার অনুরোধ নিজে জাগুন অন্যকেও জাগান l

নয়তো আর ৪-৫ বছর বাদেই ঈদের দিনের এটাই আপনার পাড়ার ছবি হবে।
Sajal Ghosh BJP West Bengal Kolkata Municipal Corporation

Posted by Sajal Ghosh on Sunday 8 June 2025

On the same day, the X handle of the West Bengal Police Cyber Crime Wing shared a related fact check. It picked up a Facebook post from a user named Nepal Saha, which contained six photos of purported Eid celebrations in Kolkata, and labelled them as fake. One of these photos is a screenshot from the viral video. The fact check claimed that the photos originated in Bangladesh, with a 2016 post from Dhaka cited as the source. However, the viral video screengrab is not part of the 2016 post, and only two of the five others flagged as fake can actually be traced back to it. (Archive)

A disturbing image falsely linked to Kolkata post-Eid is actually from Dhaka, 2016, after Eid-ul-Adha and heavy rain. It has no connection to West Bengal.#factcheckthetruth #factcheck #Bangladesh #WestBengal pic.twitter.com/SVSPwxr748

— Fact Check : The Truth (@t20274) June 8, 2025

We found a website (https://factcheck.wb.gov.in/) bearing the same logo which published the same fact check. The website describes itself as “the Fact Check Portal of the West Bengal Cyber Crime Wing (which) is ready to tackle the menace by presenting verified, accurate, reliable information…”. Note that it uses a gov.in domain.

We tried reaching out to the cyber cell of Bengal Police. When we called on their number, they asked us to speak to the social media cell. The officer who spoke to us from the social media cell confirmed that the fact check had indeed been done by West Bengal Police’s cyber cell. However, he said the concerned person was on leave and only he could enlighten us about it. When we called up again the next day, we were met with the same response — that the person in the know of things was not available.

Alt News Visited the Spot

Taking a cue from Sajal Ghosh’s Facebook post, Alt News was able to precisely identify the spot featured in the viral clip. Bhawani Dutta Lane and Neel Madhab Sen Lane are two narrow streets near the College Street — Mahatma Gandhi Road crossing, stones throw from the Presidency University. We visited the site and shot a video that shows the same area that is seen in the viral clip.

The business establishments visible toward the end of the footage all carry Kolkata addresses. (Outlined in red in the screengrabs below)

Click to view slideshow.

Key landmarks visible in the viral video — including a distinct red-coloured house, a grey coloured building with light blue stripes, and a black car — can be seen in the Alt News video as well. The grey building houses the historical and current sections of the West Bengal state archives and bears the address: 6, Bhawani Dutta Lane.

These elements have also been highlighted below:

Click to view slideshow.

Have Never Seen Streets Turn Red Like this Before: Locals

To understand what transpired, we spoke to several locals. They recounted that on the intervening night of June 6 and June 7, the area experienced heavy rainfall resulting in severe waterlogging. On Saturday, June 7, morning, the ritual of qurbani (animal sacrifice) was carried out in keeping with religious tradition, local residents observed.

With the lanes being already waterlogged from the overnight rain, blood from the animal sacrifices mixed with the stagnant rainwater. Locals themselves came forward to manually clear the drains before the intervention of the civic body.

Alt News spoke to a local shop owner, Rajesh, who said he had lived and worked in the neighbourhood for over four decades. He told us that he had never witnessed anything like this before.

“I’ve been living and working in this neighbourhood for over 40 years, and I’ve never witnessed anything like this. The area indeed gets waterlogged whenever it rains, and the ritual of qurbani is performed here every year. But this is the first time I’ve seen such a scene — it was truly unprecedented.” Rajesh also confirmed that the video shows his locality and is from last Saturday.

The same information was corroborated by another shop owner from the area who told us that he had been in business there for around five to seven years and “had never seen anything like it.” “The water was red and there was a pungent smell”, he told us.

To further corroborate the events, we spoke to another family that had been residing there for over 60 years. They told us that in all their time living there, they had never witnessed such a disturbing sight. According to them, waterlogging is a recurring issue whenever it rains — and Friday was no exception. That evening, the area experienced heavy rainfall, which led to water accumulation due to clogged drains. “I was born and brought up here. In my lifetime, this was the first time I had witnessed something like this. Yes, the streets get waterlogged after a heavy shower. And on Friday, we experienced a heavy rainfall, which led to the accumulation of water.”

“Even at around 7 am, the water was clear, and likely after an hour, it turned red. Yes, it was accompanied by foul odour,” members of the household told Alt News. they did not want to be named. The time of the water turning red was corroborated by two other witnesses.

When asked whether the ritual of qurbani is practised every year on Eid al-adah, the family said, “Yes, but it has never affected the neighbours in any manner.” They also observed that a few local residents took the initiative to clear the clogged drains using sticks in an attempt to improve the situation. Shortly after these efforts, municipal workers arrived, cleaned the affected area, and restored normalcy. “We saw a few locals trying to unclog the drains with sticks. And later the municipality intervened and cleared it up.”

Kamal Pandit, a priest at a nearby temple, repeated the same point — that this was unprecedented. “I have been working here for the past six years. In this span, I have never seen a filthy sight like this. Whenever it rains, the area gets waterlogged, but I have never seen it turn red. It was cleared up in the afternoon.”

To sum up, Alt News’ on-ground investigation confirmed that the viral video was indeed authentic and were filmed in Kolkata. On the night of June 6 (Friday), the city witnessed heavy rain in certain areas, including Bhawani Dutta Lane in central Kolkata. As a result, following the Qurbani (sacrificial) ritual on Bakri Eid the next day, the already waterlogged lanes turned red, possibly due to contamination with animal blood. However, the X handle of Bengal police’s cyber crime wing issued an inaccurate fact-check of a Facebook post carrying a screenshot from the same video, incorrectly claiming that it was from Dhaka, Bangladesh, in 2016.

This story will be updated if we receive a response from the cyber cell of police.

The post Waterlogged Kolkata street did turn red after Eid qurbani: Alt News ground report rebuts police cyber cell’s denial appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Ankita Mahalanobish.

2009 photo of Israeli shell exploding over Gaza Strip viral with claims that it shows Iran’s strikes on Tel Aviv

Prantik Ali — Sat, 21 Jun 2025 07:49:19 +0000

As the conflict between Iran and Israel rages on, leaving a large number of casualties in its wake, an image of a missile exploding in the air has gone viral. Those sharing it on social media claim it shows Iran attacking Israel.

X user @TheIranianNews posted the image on June 19, with the caption, “We’re back, Tel Aviv.” At the time of this article being written, the post had 6 million views. (Archive)

Another X user, @thjournalisteye, also shared the image with similar claims. At the time we wrote this, the post had 28,000 views. (Archive)

The same image was amplified by several other users on X. (Archives: 1, 2, 3, 4)

Click to view slideshow.

The image was also viral on Facebook with similar claims.

Click to view slideshow.

Fact Check

To check the veracity of the claims, we ran a reverse image search on the viral image.

This led us to a report by German magazine Der Spiegel, from January 5, 2009, on Israel’s military offensive in the Gaza Strip, an operation which lasted three weeks, leaving over a thousand Palestinians dead. The report had used the same image, crediting it to news agency Reuters.

We found the same image on Reuters, published on January 4, 2009, photographed by Baz Ratner. The caption says, “A shell fired by Israeli forces explodes over the northern Gaza Strip.”

Thus, a Reuters image of an Israeli ballistic shell exploding mid-air in the Gaza Strip has been shared on social media with wrong claims that it shows an Iranian missile fired into Israeli territories. The image is from 2009 and completely unrelated to the recent conflict between Iran and Israel.

The post 2009 photo of Israeli shell exploding over Gaza Strip viral with claims that it shows Iran’s strikes on Tel Aviv appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Prantik Ali.

Churu: FIR slapped on local journalist who recorded DSP hitting lady constable on the back

Abhishek Kumar — Fri, 20 Jun 2025 16:36:01 +0000

After the video of the Churu DSP slapping a woman constable on the back to catch her attention went viral, an FIR has now been lodged against journalist Akhter Mugal who recorded the incident.

Mugal had gone live on Facebook from the collectorate gate during Congress’s ‘Halla Bol’ rally on June 9, and recorded DSP Sunil Jhajharia slapping a woman constable on her back as she could not hear him the first time. After the video went viral, the SP’s act drew sharp criticism from various quarters with Nagaur BJP MP Hanuman Beniwal demanding his suspension. Several major news outlets ran the story, questioning the DSP’s behaviour and demanding an explanation from the police department.

The FIR against Mugal was lodged on the basis of a complaint by the woman constable who alleged that the journalist had edited and distorted the video and made it go viral without her permission. The FIR (139/2025) against Mughal and others in Kotwali Churu mentions Section 352 and 79 of BNS and Section 72 of IT Act. These people were accused of sharing the edited video with the intention of defaming Rajasthan Police.

The claim by Churu Police that the video had been edited has already been debunked by Alt News. Readers should note that videos broadcast live on Facebook can not be edited.

Mugal released a video on June 17 narrating his ordeal after the FIR was registered. He says in the video that he was called to the police station by inspector Sukh Ram Chotiya on June 14, where his mobile phone was confiscated. During this, he was forced to sign on four blank papers, his mother and sister were abused and he was also threatened with imprisonment.

Mugal, the readers should note, is a journalist with limited resources. He delivers newspapers from door to door in the mornings and spends the rest of his day reporting for local newspapers. His mobile phone is an essential tool for his work, helping him connect with sources and stay informed about local events. With his phone confiscated, Mugal has not only found it difficult to connect with his friends and other contacts, but has also been left without work.

Senior local journalist from Churu, J P Joshi, told Alt News that Akhter Mugal was just doing his job when he recorded the SP’s act on Facebook Live. Noting that he had been treated unfairly, Joshi sated that it was not the job of the police to abuse someone and make them sign on a blank papers. The entire journalist community should unite against such hooliganism and demand action, he added.

Another local journalist told Alt News that notices had been served on two channels through a lawyer for playing the concerned video. He further noted that an attempt was being made to curb the freedom of journalists, which was unprecedented in Churu. The administration wanted the media to follow their diktats, but that cannot happen; the media will have to be impartial, he observed.

Alt News contacted Churu SP Jai Yadav over phone. As soon as we mentioned the case of journalist Akhtar Mughal, the SP disconnected the call and blocked our number.

The post Churu: FIR slapped on local journalist who recorded DSP hitting lady constable on the back appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Abhishek Kumar.

Media outlets link visuals of Chinese fire drill from 2015 to Iranian strikes on Israeli power station

Prantik Ali — Fri, 20 Jun 2025 14:43:28 +0000

Amid the ongoing Iran-Israel conflict, which began after Israel attacked Iranian nuclear sites on June 13, in which several civilians were killed, a video of a huge explosion in what looks like a power plant has gone viral. Social media users sharing the video claimed it is from Israel and that oil refineries in the port city of Haifa were blown up Iranian missiles.

https://video.twimg.com/ext_tw_video/1935271992120258560/pu/vid/avc1/720x1280/MUxmqkk70u69zb68.mp4

News outlets ABP News Hindi and InKhabar used screengrabs from the viral video in their reports on Iran firing hypersonic missiles on Israel’s power station. (Archived links: 1, 2)

Click to view slideshow.

X user @Niharik43914213 posted the viral video on June 18, with a Hindi caption that Iran blew up an oil refinery. When this article was written, the post had accumulated more than 200,000 views and was amplified widely. (Archive)

Another X user, @SilentlySirs. posted the viral video, claiming it showed the destruction of the Bazan Oil Refinery in Israel’s Haifa. This has also seen massive traction, with close to 500,000 views at the time of this article being written. (Archive)

The same video was shared with similar claims across X by several other users, such as @AuctionMirza, @AAPka_Manojk, @AhsanPti786, and others. (Archived links: 1, 2, 3)

Click to view slideshow.

Fact Check

First, we checked to see if the Bazan oil refinery had been destroyed by Iranian missiles in the ongoing conflict, as claims on social media suggested.

A Reuters report from June 17 said that the Bazan group shut down all refineries after one of its power stations was hit in Iranian attacks on June 16.

To verify whether the viral video corresponds to the same attack, we broke it down into key frames, and ran a reverse image search on some of them. This led us to a YouTube video uploaded on November 19, 2015. The viral clip appears around the 00:25-minute timestamp.

Taking cue from the caption of the YouTube video, which said “Chinese chemical plant explosion,” keyword search led us to a post on Weibo—a Chinese social media platform—by the Sichuan Fire Department, from November 13, 2015.

Based on this, we gathered that the visuals are from a drill carried out by the Sichuan fire department on November 12, 2015, and they match the structures seen in the viral video. Below is a comparison.

This was also reported by a Chinese news website on November 12, 2015. Below are screenshots translated in English.

In conclusion, a video from 2015, showing a fire drill in the Sichuan province of China, has been amplified by social media users with false claims that it shows oil refineries in Israel being hit by Iranian missiles. Even ABP Hindi and InKhabar used visuals from the Chinese drill in their stories on an Israeli power station being hit by Iranian strikes. While a power station attached to an oil refining group (Bazan) was hit in the strikes, the video is unrelated to the incident.

The post Media outlets link visuals of Chinese fire drill from 2015 to Iranian strikes on Israeli power station appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Prantik Ali.

Iran-Israel conflict: Old video of woman dancing in rain viral as Iranian women ‘sending message’ to Islamic regime

Prantik Ali — Thu, 19 Jun 2025 15:33:46 +0000

A video, around 12 seconds long, showing a woman dancing in the rain in a dress is viral on social media. Those sharing it have claimed the video is from Iran and shows Iranian women breaking free of the conservative chokehold of the regime, which imposes strict rules on women, in a strong message to the authorities.

https://video.twimg.com/amplify_video/1935035240105525248/vid/avc1/720x1280/jVTToCrRGGa7t1D4.mp4

The video has emerged amid the recent escalation in tensions between Iran and Israel, which began on June 13 with Israel attacking nuclear and military sites in Iran, resulting in the death of 585 people across the country, according to a Washington-based Iranian human rights organisation. Iran soon retaliated with a spate of ballistic missile attacks on several key cities of Israel, which continued through the following days, resulting in the death of 24 people.

On June 17, X user @realMaalouf posted the video of the woman dancing in the rain, labelling it as a ‘message’ to the Islamic regime. The user posited the video as an act of defiance by Iranian women against the regime, which is also under attack by Israel. At the time of this article being written, the post had been viewed over 600,000 times and reshared over 14,000 times. (Archive)

The video was also shared by X user @mkeshari. It has also seen significant traction, with more than 1.7 lakh views. (Archive)

Another X user, @NagarJitendra, also posted the video with the same claim but deleted it later. An archived version of the post can be accessed here.

The video was also viral on Facebook with the same claim.

Click to view slideshow.

Fact Check

To check the authenticity of the claims on the viral video, we broke down the video into key frames and ran a reverse image search on some of them.

This led us to an Instagram reel, uploaded on August 5, 2023. It is the same clip that has recently gone viral.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Bir Kadın bir Adam (@birkadinbiradamdans)

On probing further, we came across another video uploaded by the same Instagram user. It shows the same woman seen dancing in the viral video.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Bir Kadın bir Adam (@birkadinbiradamdans)

We tried more reverse image searches on this video and were found a TikTok account with the username @wildprincess9.

We found the viral video uploaded by this user on July 16, 2023.

Taking cue from her TikTok account we searched and found this person’s Instagram profile. In her bio, she identifies herself as Tamta Sabelashvili, a personal trainer based in Strasbourg, a city in northeastern France.

We came across the viral video on her Instagram profile as well. It was uploaded in June 2024.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Tamta Sabelashvili (@tatasb_9)

Thus, the viral video of a woman dancing in the rain, which has been available online since 2023, has been falsely linked to the recent clashes between Iran and Israel. The woman in the video is not Iranian but a personal trainer based in France. The claims being circulated with the video are baseless.

The post Iran-Israel conflict: Old video of woman dancing in rain viral as Iranian women ‘sending message’ to Islamic regime appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Prantik Ali.

Did ANI share & delete X post on Modi being ignored in G7 photo? No, viral screenshot is doctored

Oishani Bhattacharya — Thu, 19 Jun 2025 14:59:33 +0000

Since the three-day Group of Seven (G7) Summit concluded in Canada on June 17, a purported screenshot of an X post by news agency ANI has been circulating on social media. The screenshot has an image of global leaders, and says, “#WATCH | PM Modi Invited to G7 summit, only to be not invited on stage? #BoycottG7Summit.”

According to the screenshot, the image was posted at 1425 hours IST (2:25 pm) on June 17.

The 51st G7 Summit, held in Kananaskis, Alberta, in Canada, this year, was carefully scrutinised by the Indian media because of the last-minute invite to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The late invitation was seen as a sign of strained India-Canada relations.

Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States form the Group of Seven, or G7. However, the European Union and several non-G7 countries, including India, are also invited to the summit. Invitation to non-G7 members is the prerogative of the host country.

An X user, گلویندر (@rebelliousdogra), posted the screenshot at 1429 hours on June 17 shortly after the time stamp in ANI’s post, claiming that ANI had deleted the post. (Archive)

What is this behaviour @ANI?

Why did you delete this tweet? pic.twitter.com/QdjbOdNJSU

— گلویندر (@rebelliousdogra) June 17, 2025

Soon after, another user, @yasarshah_SP, shared the same screenshot, claiming the news agency had taken down the post. (Archive)

ANI Posted
ANI Deleted. pic.twitter.com/LmRjUINZLE

— Yasar Shah (@yasarshah_SP) June 17, 2025

Several other users posted the same screenshot, claiming that the news agency had first posted and later deleted the tweet with the contentious caption. Below are a few instances.

Click to view slideshow.

Fact Check

To begin with, the controversial caption and hashtag #BoycottG7Summit made us doubt the authenticity of the screenshot.

We checked all X posts made by ANI on June 17 between 1420 and 1440 hours IST. Within those 20 minutes, the news agency had posted five times, but none of the posts were related to the G7 Summit. Further, we checked all posts made by the news agency between June 16 and 18 related to the G7, and none of them used the image in the viral screenshot showing the G7 leaders.

Then, to check whether ANI deleted any post between 1420 and 1440 hours, we checked all replies to ANI during that window. Note that even if an X post is deleted, the replies to it do not get deleted unless users do so themselves. We found no replies to any deleted post during that time.

Also, for much of its G7 coverage, ANI had used the hashtag #PMModiAtG7. News agencies with such a wide reach are unlikely to use hashtags such as #BoycottG7Summit.

Click to view slideshow.

Alt News also reached out to ANI for comment. The news agency’s editor, Smita Prakash, categorically told Alt News that the screenshot was a fake image and that ANI had not posted any such tweet. Also, while investigating, one of the X users who shared the screenshot told Alt News that the image was created by them and not an actual ANI tweet. However, we were unable to corroborate this with metadata.

Based on these findings, we can conclude that the viral screenshot on Modi being left out at G7 bearing ANI’s signage is doctored. The news agency did not make any such post.

(With inputs from Mohammed Zubair and Diti Pujara)

The post Did ANI share & delete X post on Modi being ignored in G7 photo? No, viral screenshot is doctored appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Oishani Bhattacharya.

Video showing Churu DSP slapping lady cop to catch her attention is not doctored

Abhishek Kumar — Thu, 19 Jun 2025 12:34:25 +0000

After a video showing a male police officer slapping a female colleague on the back during a Congress rally in Rajasthan’s Churu went viral, police have claimed that the clip was edited.

The Congress held a Halla Bol march from the party’s block office to the collectorate in Churu on June 9 over various demands. A video of the rally, in which Congress MP from Churu Rahul Kaswan was present, soon went viral on social media. In the clip, DSP Sunil Jhajharia is seen slapping a female police officer hard on the back while seemingly asking her to follow him.

The viral video caused a lot of outrage on social media with BJP MP from Nagaur, Hanuman Beniwal, calling it an insult to women power. He demanded the chief minister immediately suspend the errant police officer.

चुरू जिले में कार्यरत एक RPS अधिकारी द्वारा अपने अधीनस्थ कार्यरत महिला पुलिस कार्मिक पर हाथ उठाना निंदनीय व अशोभनीय कृत्य है तथा यह नारी शक्ति का अपमान है,एक तरफ महिला शिक्षा को बढ़ावा देने व सरकारी क्षेत्र में महिलाओं की भूमिका बढ़ाने की बातें सरकारें करती है मगर दूसरी तरह जब… pic.twitter.com/i6RUmOZHHN

— HANUMAN BENIWAL (@hanumanbeniwal) June 9, 2025

Edited Video, Claims Churu Police

Churu police immediately reacted to the controversy and tweeted that the video had been edited and made viral. They also pledged action against those who shared the video.

चुरू जिले में कार्यरत एक RPS अधिकारी द्वारा अपने अधीनस्थ कार्यरत महिला पुलिस कार्मिक पर हाथ उठाना निंदनीय व अशोभनीय कृत्य है तथा यह नारी शक्ति का अपमान है,एक तरफ महिला शिक्षा को बढ़ावा देने व सरकारी क्षेत्र में महिलाओं की भूमिका बढ़ाने की बातें सरकारें करती है मगर दूसरी तरह जब… pic.twitter.com/i6RUmOZHHN

— HANUMAN BENIWAL (@hanumanbeniwal) June 9, 2025

According to media reports, DSP Sunil Jhajharia claimed that what was being shown in the video was not true. He stated that since the woman constable was looking in the other direction, he called out to her and asked her to go to the front of the rally. When the woman constable did not hear him, he went close to her and asked her to go to the head of the rally. The DSP clarified that there was no incident of misbehaving.

A Navbharat Times report further stated that the policewoman had herself rejected the allegation against the DSP. Stating that the DSP had only asked her to go to the head of the rally, she refuted the claims that she had been misbehaved with. “A conspiracy is being hatched to malign me and the department’s image by distorting the video,” she told the media. The report also stated that the lady constable had filed a case against six people for sharing the video, many of whom were Congress workers.

Was the Video Tampered with?

We found the full video of the incident on the Facebook profile of local journalist Akhtar Mughal. Akhtar had gone to cover the Congress’ Halla Bol rally, and he was live on Facebook at the time of the incident. The act of DSP Sunil Jhajharia slapping the lady constable was captured on Akhtar’s Facebook live. The Live video is 8-minute–46-second long, capturing the sequence of events from the Congress rally reaching the collectorate gate to submitting the memorandum. And there is no cut in this video. And since this is a live video, it is clear that there ae nom edits or tampering.

#चूरू: कांग्रेस हल्ला बोल…….
#इस लाइफ वीडियो में कुछ खास पूरा देखें।

Posted by Akther Mugal on Sunday 8 June 2025

It can be seen in the above video that as the rally reached the collectorate, several police personnel were present in the vicinity. Police stopped the protesters at the gate itself, but after a brief conversation, they opened the gate to let some people in. As some rally participants barged into the gated premises, policemen tried to close the gate and control the crowd. This is when DSP Sunil Jhajharia asked the lady constable to do something. And since she was looking in the other direction, she seemingly did not hear the DSP’s words. At this point, DSP Sunil Jhajharia slapped the female police officer hard on the back and asked her to go to the other side. The intensity of the slap can be gauged from the fact that it is actually heard in the video and the woman is seen pushed forward in its effect.

The entire video was broadcast on Facebook live, and the incident of DSP Sunil Jhajharia hitting the woman comes at 2 minutes 47 seconds. Therefore, Rajasthan Police’s claim that the viral video is edited was false.

Churu MP Refutes ‘Edited Video’ Claim

Reacting to the whole incident, Churu MP Rahul Kaswan slammed Churu police for lodging FIR against Congress workers. “In this digital age, it is common for Facebook live stream videos to be shared by the public. During one such live stream, a video of a Churu police officer slapping a female constable was seen; which was shared on social media by the media and the public. Since this was an internal matter of the police administration, we did not want to politicize the issue, but filing an FIR against Congress workers by the Churu police administration by calling the Facebook live video edited is completely against democratic values,” he tweeted.

कल के चूरू में कांग्रेस द्वारा आयोजित ‘हल्ला बोल प्रदर्शन एवं रैली’ के दौरान एक घटनाक्रम को लेकर कांग्रेस कार्यकर्ताओं पर की गई झूठी और बेबुनियाद FIR चूरू पुलिस द्वारा अपनी नाकामी छूपाने का प्रयास है।

इस डिजिटल युग में फेसबुक लाईव स्ट्रीम विडियो आमजन द्वारा चलाना आम बात है। इसी… pic.twitter.com/vSyDSfCvw7

— Rahul Kaswan (@RahulKaswanMP) June 10, 2025

In February 2025, a controversy had erupted over Rajasthan Police escorting YouTuber Elvish Yadav. After the video went viral, Jaipur Police took to X to clear the air. They claimed that several videos were edited using artificial intelligence to spread misleading information. This, however, was an entirely baseless claim. Our detailed report in this regard can be read here.

The post Video showing Churu DSP slapping lady cop to catch her attention is not doctored appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Abhishek Kumar.

News18, TOI, India Today among others misreport that Pak army chief Asim Munir was invited for US Army parade

Ankita Mahalanobish — Thu, 19 Jun 2025 05:47:47 +0000

Amid geopolitical tensions between India and Pakistan, several prominent Indian news outlets, including CNN News18, India Today, CNBC TV18, Times of India, Financial Express, Deccan Herald and Economic Times among others reported that Pakistan’s army chief Asim Munir was invitated to participate in the celebrations marking the 250-th anniversary of the US Army. The celebrations, which took place on June 14, 2025 coincided with the 79th birthday of US President Donald Trump.

The Pakistan Army promoted Asim Munir to the rank of field marshal after the recent conflict between the two countries, which intensified after India launched Operation Sindoor (on May 7) targeting terror bases in Pakistan, a fortnight after the dastardly terror attack in Kashmir’s Pahalgam killed 26 civilians.

On June 11, News18 published a story titled “Pakistan COAS Asim Munir Invited to US Army Day Celebrations on June 14: Sources | Exclusive”. According to the report, Pakistan’s chief of army staff (COAS), Asim Munir, was invited by the US administration to attend the commemorative event. Citing ‘top intelligence sources’, News18 said that Munir would arrive in the United States by June 12.

On June 12, India Today also reported, citing ‘top sources’ that Munir confirmed his attendance at the ceremonial military parade on June 14 after Washington extended an invitation.

Deccan Herald also reported that the Trump administration invited Asim Munir to attend the US Army Day celebration on June 14.

Other news outlets, including the Times of India, Economic Times, and Financial Express, reported the same.

Click to view slideshow.

Munir being invited to the US celebrations sparked outrage in India, with Opposition leaders calling it a major diplomatic setback for the country on a global scale. Congress MP Jairam Ramesh criticized the United States for extending an invitation to Munir, considering his incendiary rhetoric (calling Kashmir India’s jugular vein) before the Pahalgam attack.

This is the man who spoke in such incendiary and provocative language just before the Pahalgam terror attacks. What is the US really up to?

This is another huge diplomatic setback for India.https://t.co/bLD2gF5dcK pic.twitter.com/coJ5xnArhz

— Jairam Ramesh (@Jairam_Ramesh) June 11, 2025

Fact Check

Firstly, Munir was nowhere to be seen in the June 14 parade, which was largely an affair limited to the US administration.

Click to view slideshow.

Secondly, right before the parade, the White House categorically told some news publications that it had not invited any foreign military leaders, including Munir, to participate in the June 14 US Army parade.

The Quint cited an unnamed White House official as saying: “We never invited a foreign official… this is a celebration of 250 years of our Army and the United States of America.”

Responding to widespread speculation—particularly reports originating from India—regarding Asim Munir’s purported attendance, the official added:

“If a foreign military leader of that stature were to visit, established diplomatic protocols would be followed and public announcements made in advance. This appears to be a product of rumor-mongering, amplified by certain media circles. Just observe the timing.”

Note that the unsubstantiated claims surfaced shortly after US Central Command’s (CENTCOM) commander general Michael Kurilla, testified before the US House Armed Services Committee, where he commended Pakistan’s ongoing counter-terrorism operations.

By June 14, several of the publications that reported on Munir being invited to the US Army parade have updated or revised these reports to say that the White House issued a denial of these reports. News18 was among the few that added a correction in its updated report.

To sum up, reports claiming Pakistan army chief Asim Munir was invited to the US Army’s 250th anniversary parade are not true and have been denied by the US. Many Indian media news outlets seem to have misreported this owing to incorrect “source-based information”.

The post News18, TOI, India Today among others misreport that Pak army chief Asim Munir was invited for US Army parade appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Ankita Mahalanobish.

Viral video of Israeli soldier pleading Iran for mercy is AI-generated

Prantik Ali — Thu, 19 Jun 2025 05:40:13 +0000

With tensions escalating in the Iran-Israel conflict, which has claimed many civilian lives since it began on June 13, a video of an Israeli soldier in tears, begging for mercy, has gone viral. In the video, the soldier looks at the camera and urges the Iranian army to stop the destruction, while injured soldiers are seen lying in the rubble of destroyed buildings in the background. “Iran, we beg you. Please stop the attacks. Half of Israel is gone. We surrender. Just stop this destruction,” he says.

The conflict between the two, which is threatening to turn into an all-out war, started with Israel attacking nuclear and military sites in Iran on June 13. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the attack ‘Operation Rising Lion‘ – supposedly launched to disconcert Iran’s nuclear program. However, the strikes resulted in the deaths of many ordinary citizens, after which Iran, too, resorted to retaliatory missile strikes.

X user (@Skylar_Soul_) posted the viral video on June 16. When this article was written, the post had accumulated more than 100,000 views and was reshared over 1,000 times. (Archive)

इज़राइल के सैनिक ईरान से रो रो कर रहम की भीख मांग रहे हैं…! pic.twitter.com/CoGwu8Fv3d

— Minal Sultan (@Skylar_Soul_) June 16, 2025

Another X user, @dpsingh1313, posted the same video, which was viewed over 160,000 times at the time this article was written. (Archive)

अंड भक्तों, pic.twitter.com/HHEcHPuSUw

— Davinder Pal Singh 幸王 دیویندر سنگھ ਦਵਿੰਦਰ ਪਾਲ ਸਿੰ (@dpsingh1313) June 16, 2025

The viral video was also shared by several other X users, including @Deb_livnletliv, @SanjeevCrime, @Ayesha786Majid, @armanofficial00 and @hammehaiindia62. (Archived links: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5)

Click to view slideshow.

The same video was viral on Facebook with similar claims.

Click to view slideshow.

Fact Check

A reverse image search on one of the key frames from the clip led us to the same video on YouTube posted around the same time, but with better resolution.

We noticed that the YouTube version had a clear watermark ‘Veo’ on the bottom right corner. The same watermark can be seen in the viral video as well, but owing to lower resolution, it is faint and not very apparent.

Veo is an artificial intelligence-based video generation tool, launched by Google this year. It allows users to create 8-second-long realistic videos without anatomical abnormalities.

Note that the viral video is precisely 8 seconds long. Moreover, what makes Veo stand out from other video generation models is its ability to integrate audio and dialogue without distortions, which is evident in the viral video.

To be sure, we also ran the video through HIVE’s AI detection tool. According to this, there is an 88% likelihood that the viral video was AI-generated.

Based on these findings, we were able to conclude that the viral video showing an Israeli soldier crying and pleading with Iran to stop the retaliatory strikes against Israel is artificially generated through Google Veo, and not real.

The post Viral video of Israeli soldier pleading Iran for mercy is AI-generated appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Prantik Ali.

Indian media picked up Apple user’s satiric tweet, ‘reported’ team behind newly launched UI had been fired

Pawan Kumar — Wed, 18 Jun 2025 07:33:00 +0000

A day after Apple introducing new user interface (UI) feature Liquid Glass at its worldwide developers conference in California, an X user by the name Jon Yongfook (@yongfook) shared a tweet on June 10 stating he and his entire team had been fired by Apple even though they worked tirelessly for 18 months.

Several Indian media outlets picked up the story and began reporting on it. Republic Bharat, News24, IndiaTV, and Ahmedabad Mirror published reports claiming that Apple had fired the chief designer behind the Liquid Glass UI and his entire design team, and that this termination happened just a few hours after the official announcement of iOS 26. However, after the story began receiving scrutiny, all the outlets either updated their articles to correct the information or deleted them altogether.

Click to view slideshow.

NDTV Profit and Gadget 360 Hindi, both owned by the Adani Group, also published similar stories amplifying the same claims. The report published by NDTV was also republished by MSN.com.

Click to view slideshow.

‘Intended as Satire’

Alt News conducted a search of Jon Yongfook’s profiles on X as well as LinkedIn. Upon examining his professional history, we found no confirmation indicating he had ever been employed by Apple. His X profile bio however, clearly states that he is the founder of BannerBear, which is a SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) platform for the automatic generation of images, social media visuals, ecommerce banners and more. Furthermore, according to the job history listed on his LinkedIn profile, Yongfook is a former employee of Aviva.

In addition, Yongfook later posted a clarification on his X account in a follow-up tweet. He explained that his original post had been intended as satire. He wrote, “I have been an Apple user for more than 20 years, this is the worst UI I have seen, I hope Apple will make some changes to it.”

Bless all of you who recognized this as satire. I’ve been enjoying the puns. I’ve been an Apple user for 20+ years, this is the worst UI I’ve seen, I hope they tweak it.

To be perfectly transparent, this is overwhelming my notifications now, so I’m putting the thread on mute

— Jon Yongfook (@yongfook) June 10, 2025

To sum up, X user Jon Yongfook is not an Apple employee but rather an Apple user who posted a satirical comment on social media. The post was amplified as ‘news’ by several media outlets including Republic Bharat, NDTV Group, and News24 seemingly without any verification. These outlets falsely reported that Apple had fired the lead designer and the team behind Liquid Glass UI.

The post Indian media picked up Apple user’s satiric tweet, ‘reported’ team behind newly launched UI had been fired appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Pawan Kumar.

Did Trump ban production of Tesla in US after fallout with Musk? No, viral video is AI-generated

Pawan Kumar — Wed, 18 Jun 2025 06:43:26 +0000

Days after the public fallout between Tesla CEO Elon Musk and US President Donald Trump over the latter’s Big Beautiful Bill, a video of Trump announcing a ban on the production of Tesla in the United States has gone viral.

In the video, added below, he says: “Today, I am here to announce that I will be banning the production of all Teslas in the United States of America, effective immediately. As everyone knows, Elon stabbed me in the back a few days ago, and lied about my involvement in the Epstein files, so I can’t have that snake Elon making money in the country while I’m president. No one likes Tesla anyway unless you’re a nerd. They catch fire and break down easily, so it’s definitely not the best electric car out there.” He also adds that he bought a Tesla to get Elon Musk’s support for the election, but he now plans to sell for $69, because that’s what it’s worth.

https://video.twimg.com/ext_tw_video/1931624443551297536/pu/vid/avc1/480x852/2R35pkA-5q7awz9e.mp4

The dramatic feud between Musk and Trump had led to a full-blown war of words on social media in the first week of June. A few days after his exit from the White House on May 28, Musk called the bill a ‘disgusting abomination’ and claimed it would significantly add to the country’s debt. He even called for the President’s impeachment and linked him to the disgraced sex offender Jeffrey Epstein on X, which he later deleted. Meanwhile, Trump maintains that Musk’s opposition is primarily owing to the proposed elimination of tax credits for electric vehicles in the bill, which would impact Tesla’s business.

X users @Shamsher__Ali, @ExSecular and @zakayonoel37, among others, shared the video between June 8 and 9.

Click to view slideshow.

Fact Check

Alt News found no credible news reports on any such announcement by Trump, which raised doubts regarding the authenticity of the video.

A closer look at the viral video also revealed discrepancies between the audio and Trump’s lip movements. Besides that, we also noticed the American national flag pin on Trump’s suit was inverted and a watermark of “@DANGEROUSAIRETURNS” on the right.

A quick search for @DANGEROUSAIRETURNS led us to an Instagram account with the same username. We found the viral video uploaded by this account on June 8, 2025. A closer look at content uploaded by this account indicates that it often shares AI-generated parody content.

We also found a YouTube channel by the same username. The channel’s description clearly says it creates parody content using AI voice-overs.

We also ran the video through HIVE’s AI detection tool. According to this, there is a 99.8% likelihood that the audio in the viral video was AI-generated.

To sum up, an AI-generated video of Donald Trump, in which he sounds a ban on the production of Tesla cars, is being shared as an actual announcement by the US President. At the time of writing this, no such ban has been announced.

The post Did Trump ban production of Tesla in US after fallout with Musk? No, viral video is AI-generated appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Pawan Kumar.

Videos of Iran’s October 2024 strikes on Israel resurface as visuals of June conflict

Shinjinee Majumder — Tue, 17 Jun 2025 10:47:20 +0000

A video showing missiles being fired into a city was widely linked to the recent conflict between Israel and Iran. Some users shared the video claiming that it showed missiles being fired into Tehran by Israel, while others shared it with ambiguous captions that it was “Iran’s ‘warning’ to Israel.”

https://video.twimg.com/amplify_video/1933348083125137409/vid/avc1/720x1266/QYxbwqAQU86WOj8J.mp4

This video is among a stream of visuals that have emerged amid escalating tensions between the two countries, after Israel attacked Iran’s nuclear facility and military structures on June 13, killing at least 78 people, including generals, scientists and civilians. Soon afterwards, Iran retaliated with long-range missiles targeting Tel Aviv.

X user Abhijit Majumder (@abhijitmajumder) shared the video on June 13 and claimed it showed bombs and missiles streaming into Tehran and hitting targets. He called Israel’s strikes #OperationRisingLion”. The social media user identifies as a journalist in his bio, but has been found amplifying misinformation on several occasions.

X handle @World_At_War_6 also shared the same video. However, this account claimed it was Iran’s ‘warning’ to Israel. At the time of writing this, the post had over 2.6 million views. (Archive)

Several other accounts shared the video with similar claims. (Archives- 1, 2, 3, 4, 5)

Click to view slideshow.

Fact Check

We noticed that yhe viral video is a compilation of two different videos.

Video 1: Some keyframes from the first visual are attached below.

Click to view slideshow.

Upon a reverse image search, Alt News was able to trace the video back to 2024. On October 1, 2024, Beirut-based media outlet Al Mayadeen shared the same video with the caption, “Scenes documenting the moment rockets fell in #Occupied_Palestine” in Arabic.

مشاهد توثق لحظة سقوط الصواريخ في #فلسطين_المحتلة #الميادين pic.twitter.com/V99vk97IwS

— قناة الميادين (@AlMayadeenNews) October 1, 2024

Video 2: Keyframes from the second video are attached below.

Click to view slideshow.

A reverse image search of these keyframes led to to a Facebook post by Mexican journalist Carlos Zúñiga Pérez from October 2024. According to the caption, the video shows Iran launching a missile attack on Israel.

Continúan los ataques entre Irán e Israel

#ASÍ: #Iran lanza un ataque con misiles hacia #Israel. Sonaron sirenas en todo el país. Se puso en operación el escudo de hierro.

#LasNoticiasAsí #AsíPasó

Posted by Carlos Zúñiga Pérez on Tuesday 1 October 2024

A keyframe from the video was also used in Indian news outlet OneIndia’s report on Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) launching a missile attack against Israel on October 1, 2024. At the time, Iran had said the missile launches were in retaliation for the deaths of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and IRGC’s Abbas Nilforushan.

Screengrab of OneIndia’s report

As it stands, a compilation of videos from Iran’s missile attack on Israel from October 2024 is being linked to the recent hostilities between the two countries.

The post Videos of Iran’s October 2024 strikes on Israel resurface as visuals of June conflict appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Shinjinee Majumder.

Man accused of indecency, harassing school girl in viral clip not Muslim; video shared with false communal claims

Abhishek Kumar — Tue, 17 Jun 2025 07:15:21 +0000

A video, of CCTV footage, in which a man behaves indecently with a school girl, is viral on social media. Those sharing the video claim that the person in the clip, who is seen lifting the girl’s school uniform and recording it on his phone, is Muslim and was arrested by the Assam Police after the incident. They also claimed that the man confessed to the wrongdoing during police interrogation and admitted that he intended to use the footage to blackmail the girl.

X user Jitendra Pratap Singh (@jpsin1), who has amplified communal misinformation on several occasions, shared the video with these claims. (Archive)

X user Riniti Chatterjee Pandey (@IRinitiPandey) also shared the video with claims that the accused youth is Muslim. (Archive)

X account Amitabh Chaudhary (@MithilaWaala) also posted the video calling the accused a “jihadi” for lifting a woman’s skirt and taking inappropriate photos. (Archive)

Fact Check

Alt News tried to find news reports on the incident to verify the claims. A keyword search using terms related to the video led us to an X post by Doordarshan News Shillong from May 29, 2025. The caption made it clear that the incident happened on May 21 in Shillong, Meghalaya, and the local police apprehended a man named Himan Gogoi from Assam for assaulting the school girl. In the video attached to the post, East Khasi Hills’ superintendent of police (SP) Vivek Syiem says that the incident the CCTV footage, which was viral, helped them trace the victim, who otherwise may not have reported the harassment.

A special team of East Khasi Hills police today apprehended one Himan Gogoi, a 24-yr-old man hailing from Jorhat in Assam, for allegedly sexually assaulting a school girl by lifting her apparel taking photographs through his mobile phone on May 21. pic.twitter.com/LWcYowibY8

— DD News Meghalaya (@ddnewsshillong) May 29, 2025

A Times of India report dated May 30, 2025 on the case also identifies the accused as Himan Gogoi, a 24-year-old man from Jorhat, Assam. Citing the East Khasi Hills SP, it said that a team of state police team led by a female sub-inspector travelled to Assam and took Gogoi into custody and confiscated the mobile phone he used for taking the pictures.

The name makes it clear that he is not a Muslim and that social media users amplified the incident with a false communal angle.

The post Man accused of indecency, harassing school girl in viral clip not Muslim; video shared with false communal claims appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Abhishek Kumar.

School teacher kidnapped in Bihar’s Begusarai for ‘forced marriage’? No; viral video is from a film shooting

Abhishek Kumar — Tue, 17 Jun 2025 06:24:54 +0000

A video showing a group of men armed with guns dragging an individual from a school while students look on as bystanders is viral on social media. Those sharing this video claimed that the incident happened at a government school in Bihar’s Begusarai district and that it shows a teacher being kidnapped for marriage.

It is worth noting that Bihar is infamous for such ‘forced’ marriages, also known as ‘Pakadwa Vivah’, in which eligible grooms with secure government jobs are often kidnapped and forced to marry women related to the perpetrators. Over the past few decades, several such cases from Bihar have come to light.

X account @thenewsbasket shared the video of the man being dragged in front of students on June 6, 2025, with the claim that a government school teacher was taken away for ‘forced marriage’ at gunpoint. At the time this was written, the post had over 800,000 views. (Archive)

बेगूसराय के एक सरकारी स्कूल टीचर को बंदूक की नोक पर पकड़वा कर शादी करवाने के लिए ले जाया जा रहा pic.twitter.com/z1jmyoSGOu

— The News Basket (@thenewsbasket) June 6, 2025

X handle @BasavanIndia also shared the video, questioning the state of law and order in Bihar. (Archive)

The video was also shared by X user @iamharunkhan who claimed this was the ‘ground reality’ in Bihar and not a ‘movie plot’. (Archive)

Fact Check

A quick search using keywords related to the video and claims led us to a March 23, 2025, report published on TV9 Bharatvarsh that had the same video. According to the report, the video was recorded at the Dularpur Math Middle School in the Teghra subdivision of Begusarai and depicts the shooting of a film named ‘Pakadwah Byaah’. The video simply shows a movie scene being shot where a teacher is forcibly dragged away. However, some had raised concerns on whether the film was shot during school hours and the District Education Officer even ordered an inquiry. The principal, cited in the report, had clarified that the filming happened on a Sunday.

We also found a video of the same scene recorded from a different angle in a March 12, 2025, Instagram post uploaded by user @rajanrddfilms, a filmmaker and actor associated with the film ‘Pakadwah Byaah’. The post’s caption also makes it clear that the video is from the shooting of the film.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Rajan Rock (@rajanrddfilms)

To sum up, social media users shared a video of a movie scene being filmed in a school in Bihar with misleading claims that a teacher of a government school in Begusarai was actually kidnapped for marriage.

The post School teacher kidnapped in Bihar’s Begusarai for ‘forced marriage’? No; viral video is from a film shooting appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Abhishek Kumar.

Iranian missile attack on Israeli airbase in 2024 falsely linked to current conflict

Abhishek Kumar — Tue, 17 Jun 2025 06:07:48 +0000

With the Iran-Israel military conflict entering the fourth day, Iran on Monday, June 16, launched a slew of missile attacks killing at least eight Israelis. Israel, on the other hand, claimed it had achieved air superiority over the Iranian capital and could fly over the city without facing major threats. It also warned residents of part of Tehran to evacuate, reported AP.

Against this backdrop, a video which appears to be captured from the rooftop of a building, and shows numerous missiles being fired simultaneously, has gone viral on social media platforms. A large number of users are sharing this video online, claiming that it is connected to the current escalations between Iran and Israel.

BJP supporter Roshan Sinha, who amplifies propaganda and misinformation on a regular basis, shared the video on X connecting it to the ongoing conflict. He later deleted the tweet. (Archived link)

X user Major Surendra Poonia also shared the same video through a tweet. In his post, he claimed that Israel was conducting targeted strikes on the residential addresses of top political and military leaders in Tehran, as well as on Iran’s nuclear enrichment facilities. This post was also later deleted. (Archived link)

Journalist Sachin Gupta also amplified the video linking it to the ongoing Iran-Israel hostility. He, too, deleted the tweet later. (Archived link)

Fact Check

We performed a reverse image search using several frames taken from the viral footage. This led us to a match with a video previously uploaded to the official YouTube channel of India’s state-run broadcaster, Doordarshan, on October 2, 2024. The caption of that video mentions that it shows a missile attack by Iran targeting the Nevatim airbase, located in Israel’s Negev desert. This confirms the viral video being circulated is not from the current Iran-Israel conflict.

In addition, a news article dated October 2024 by Dantri, a state-run news outlet in Vietnam, attributes the viral footage to an incident that occurred between October 1 and 2, 2024, during which Iran launched a massive missile attack on Israeli targets.

To sum up, a number of social media users circulated an old video showing Iran’s missile attack on Israel, falsely linking it to the ongoing military conflict between the two countries. The same video was also previously shared online in connection with the tensions between India and Pakistan in May 2025, and had been fact-checked by Alt News.

The post Iranian missile attack on Israeli airbase in 2024 falsely linked to current conflict appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Abhishek Kumar.

Did Anjana Om Kashyap apologize for her brand of journalism? No, viral video is doctored

Kinjal — Mon, 16 Jun 2025 14:36:46 +0000

A video of Aaj Tak anchor and managing editor Anjana Om Kashyap has been gathering a lot of traction on social media. In the footage, she is heard apologizing for speaking the language of politicians.

She is heard saying in Hindi, “There was a time when journalism was called the fourth pillar of democracy. Today, journalism has been sold off and is sitting on the lap of power. Hello, I am Anjana Om Kashyap and today, I am standing in front of the camera, not as a journalist, but as a human being. Today, I have come to apologize to all of you. For years you have trusted me. You have seen me, heard me. But what did I do with that trust? Instead of becoming your voice, I started speaking the language of politicians.”

Further, she purportedly remarks, “Yes, I accept that I kept quiet when I should have spoken. I closed my eyes when the truth was out in the open. And yes, I also flattered the government…those debates, that shouting. Everything was just for the TRPs. But enough is enough. I am tired of donning that fake persona. Now, I will only speak the truth. Now, I will only talk about the public’s rights. If you want to witness the rebirth of journalism, subscribe to this channel. This is a revolution, a question of your rights, and I need your support because revolutions cannot be done alone.”

X handle @indian_armada posted this 1 minute 36 second clip and wrote, “I can’t believe this!”. At the time of this article being written, the post has received more than 2 lakh views. (Archived version of the post)

मुझे तो भरोसा ही नहीं हो रहा है इसपे! pic.twitter.com/o836L207Fd

— Baba MaChuvera Parody of Parody (@indian_armada) June 13, 2025

X account @putin_pundit also posted the viral video and wrote, “Is this really Anjana Om Kashyap? I can’t believe it.” The post had garnered around 1.8 lakh views at the time of writing.

क्या सच मे ये अंजना ओम कश्यप ही है.?

मुझे तो विश्वास नहीं हो रहा.!!pic.twitter.com/StgCeiSaO7

— पुतिन पंडित (रशिया वाले) (@putin_pandit) June 13, 2025

Another X user named Chirag Patel posted the video and wrote, “The punishment for this should at least be life imprisonment, isn’t it?” (Archived link)

This video has been shared widely on X and Facebook with similar claims.

Click to view slideshow.

Fact Check

Alt News took a closer look at the viral video and found that at many points there was no lip-sync. This suggested that the clip might be tampered with or doctored.

We noticed that the words ‘indian armada’ were embedded on the frame f the video. It is worth noting that the first tweet mentioned above is by the same handle. When we took a closer look at the ‘@indian_armada’ handle, we found that it is a parody account. The bio of this X account states that it uses Photoshop and creates memes.

When we dug deeper, we found that Anjana Om Kashyap had posted a video on Instagram on December 26, 2023 in which she is seen wearing clothes similar to the one in the viral video. However, in this video, Kashyap praises Bihar. She did not make any comment regarding her journalism.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Anjana Om Kashyap (@anjanaomkashyap_aok)

Anjana Om Kashyap also posted the full video of her speech on YouTube on October 17, 2023. According to the information provided here, a group called the Indian People Forum in UAE had organized a ‘Bihar Meet’. During this occasion, Om Kashyap delivered a speech. However, did not mention anything that is heard in the viral video.

Alt News compared the viral clip and the video posted by the journalist on YouTube (first 44 seconds) side by side and found that the movement of Kashyap’s hands and body were identical in both of these videos. However, the original video has been mirrored, edited and replaced with a different audio.

To sum it up, the viral video of Anjana Om Kashyap in which she is heard apologizing for her brand of journalism is doctored.

The post Did Anjana Om Kashyap apologize for her brand of journalism? No, viral video is doctored appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Kinjal.

Late Rajiv Dixit’s false claims that ‘Satsada Island,’ near Kutch, was sold to a US company by ex-Gujarat CM viral

Kinjal — Mon, 16 Jun 2025 14:32:06 +0000

Videos of speeches by the late Indian social activist Rajiv Dixit continue to do the rounds on social media. Recently, a video of one of his old speeches, where he talks about an island called ‘Satsada Bet’ near Gujarat’s Gandhidham in the Kutch district, went viral. In this, Dixit claims that under Chimanbhai Patel, then chief minister of Gujarat, the island, spread over 60,000 square kilometres, was sold to an American company named Cargill.

We broke down the claims in Dixit’s video as follows:

Satsada Bet is a massive island located in the sea near Gandhidham, Gujarat.
The area of the island is about 60,000 square kilometres.
The island was sold by former Gujarat CM Chimanbhai Patel to Cargill.

Instagram handle ‘kutch_first’ posted this video on May 25, 2025. At the time of writing, this post had over 323,000 views. It has now been deleted. (Archive)

This video was also posted on YouTube, where it garnered more than 5.5 million views and over 80,000 likes.

Truth Contrary to Claims

Alt News first checked whether there was any island named Satsada Bet near Gandhidham in the Kutch district of Gujarat and found nothing on Google Maps. We also checked for this island on Data Web’s site, which provides information about islands in India and found no island by this name in Gujarat or anywhere else in India. Moreover, no island in Gujarat has an area of 60,000 square kilometres.

In fact, the entire Kutch district in Gujarat, which is the largest in the country, is spread across an area of 45,674 square kilometres. So, it is unlikely that an island that is part of it to be bigger than the district itself.

We also did not find any credible news reports corroborating the claim that former Gujarat Chief Minister Chimanbhai Patel sold an island to an American company.

We then tried to locate the island shown in the viral video with claims that this was the Satsada Bet or Islands.

Click to view slideshow.

A reverse image search made it clear that the place shown is actually the INS Khukri memorial located in Diu Island, near Gujarat and not Satsada Bet. It has been used in media reports and images found on the official website of the Diu government.

Click to view slideshow.

Thus, late Rajiv Dixit’s claims, now viral, that an island named Satsada with an area of 60,000 square kilometres in Gujarat’s Kutch district was sold off to an American company by a former Gujarat CM are baseless.

The post Late Rajiv Dixit’s false claims that ‘Satsada Island,’ near Kutch, was sold to a US company by ex-Gujarat CM viral appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Kinjal.

Video available online since October 2024 falsely linked to current Israel-Iran conflict

Abhishek Kumar — Sun, 15 Jun 2025 05:18:56 +0000

A video of an airstrike is going viral on social media with the claim that it is related to the current conflict between Iran and Israel.

Israel on June 13 launched blistering attacks on Iran’s nuclear and military structures from warplanes and drones killing at least 78 people including generals, scientists and civilians. Iran retaliated with long-range missiles targeting Tel Aviv, wounding at least 34 people, according to Israel’s paramedic services.

The official X handle of the Israel Defense Forces posted the video and claimed that this was the raw footage of a missile being fired on Israel. ( Archive link )

NDTV managing editor Shiv Aroor tweeted this video describing it as footage of Iranian missiles over Israel. He later deleted the post.

An account named Jat Association, which is often found spreading misinformation, also shared the video and made the same claim. ( Archive link )

A user named Mukhtar also shared the video and linked it to the ongoing conflict between the two countries and said that Iran retaliated by attacking Tel Aviv. ( Archive link )

Several other users also shared the video with the same claim.

Fact Check

We did a reverse image search of the frames of the viral video. We found this video in a tweet dated November 10, 2024. This makes it clear that this video is old and it is not from the current conflict between Iran and Israel.

ما اجمل هذا المشهد pic.twitter.com/wwuQ9SqSz1

— فدائي السيد عبد الملك الحوثي (@kkllspek) November 10, 2024

Furthermore, we found this video posted by a user named Brane Oblak Sedy on October 2, 2024, claiming it to be from Tel Aviv, Israel.

Alt News could not trace the source of this video but the dates of the above uploads make it clear that it is not from the current conflict between Iran and Israel.

Several unrelated videos are currently viral as footage from the ongoing military conflict between the two central Asian countries. Our fact checks of these videos can be read here.

The post Video available online since October 2024 falsely linked to current Israel-Iran conflict appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Abhishek Kumar.

Video of arms seized in Myanmar viral as Indian Army’s recovery of ammunition from militants in Manipur

Oishani Bhattacharya — Sat, 14 Jun 2025 16:26:23 +0000

A video showing a collection of arms, ammunition and cash laid out on the ground has been circulating on social media over the past few weeks. Those sharing the video claim the arms were recovered in the Indian army’s raid against militants in Manipur.

X user @TIgerNS3 posted the video on June 10, claiming that an armed forces raid led to the recovery of “big stocks of guns, arms and amunication with huge money from anti libration social elements of Manipur. #kuki terrorist”. (Archive)

BIG BREAKING NEWS:

Armed forces Raid reveals In Manipur that Army has recovered a big stocks of guns, arms and amunication with huge money from anti libration social elements of Manipur. #kuki terrorist #kukiTerrorists मणिपुर#Manipur #ManipurViolence pic.twitter.com/Ai3acEM09f

— TIger NS (@TIgerNS3) June 9, 2025

Nearly a month ago, X user Jitendra Pratap Singh (@jpsin1) had shared the video with a similar claim. The caption accompanying the video said, “Big Breaking. In Manipur, the Indian Army has recovered a huge cache of weapons and cash from militants. Take a look”. (Archive)

Several other users shared the viral video with similar claims. Below are a few instances.

Click to view slideshow.

Fact Check

In the viral clip, we noticed that the army camouflage uniform worn by the men had a BNRA logo. BNRA stands for Burma National Revolutionary Army, a relatively new military organisation in Myanmar established on September 9, 2023.

We found images of the BNRA insignia on the official Facebook page of the BNRA and compared these with the signage attached to the sleeves of the soldiers in the viral video. The two matched, confirming that it depicts the Burma National Revolutionary Army.

Additionally, towards the end of the video, we noticed a blue, red and green coloured flag with a white circle in the centre, with some figure drawn within it, in the frame. On running a reverse image search, we found that the flag belongs to the Chin National Defence Force (CNDF)—the armed wing of the Chin National Organisation. It is a rebel group that operates out of the Chin state in Myanmar, which shares borders with the Indian state of Manipur.

We also broke down the video into multiple keyframes and ran a reverse image search on some of them. This led us to a Facebook post from April 24, which carried the same video. The caption has been written in the Mizo language and translates to, “CB group and their ancestors defeated 268 people in Falam village and seized weapons and money”. CB group here likely refers to the Chin Brotherhood.

On probing further, we came across an April 10 Facebook post by a Myanmar-based media outlet, Khit Thit Media. The post carried the viral video and the caption in Burmese translates to: “Hundreds of thousands of weapons and ammunition seized in battle for Falam township… After the final attack and capture of the entire Falam township in Chin State on April 9, the Chin Nyinaung group has seized hundreds of thousands of weapons and ammunition from the Military Council…”

ဖလမ်းမြို့သိမ်းတိုက်ပွဲမှ လက်နက်ခဲယမ်း ရာထောင်ချီ ရရှိ (ရုပ်/သံ)

ဖလမ်းမြို့သိမ်းတိုက်ပွဲမှ လက်နက်ခဲယမ်း ရာထောင်ချီ ရရှိ (ရုပ်/သံ)

ရန်ကုန်၊ ဧပြီ ၁၀

ချင်းပြည်နယ်၊ ဖလမ်းမြို့နယ်တစ်ခုလုံးကို ဧပြီလ ၉ ရက်နေ့ အပြီးသတ်တိုက်ခိုက် သိမ်းပိုက်ရရှိပြီးနောက် စစ်ကောင်စီ၏ လက်နက်ခဲယမ်းရာထောင်ချီကို ချင်းညီနောင်အဖွဲ့က ရရှိသွားသည်။

ချင်းညီနောင်စစ်ဆင်ရေးတပ်ဖွဲ့က ဧပြီလ ၉ ရက်နေ့တွင် စစ်ကောင်စီ၏ နောက် ဆုံးလက်ကျန် တပ်ရင်း ခလရ ၂၆၈ ကို အပြီးသတ်သိမ်းပိုက်ကာ ဖလမ်းမြို့နယ် တစ်ခုလုံး စစ်ကောင်စီကင်း စင် သော နယ်မြေအဖြစ် ဖော်ဆောင်နိုင်ခဲ့ပြီဖြစ်ကြောင်း၊ တီးတိန်မြို့သို့ ဆက်လက်ချီတက်မည်ဖြစ်ကြောင်း သိရှိရသည်။

ချင်းအမျိုးသားကာကွယ်ရေးတပ် (CNO/CNDF) အထွေထွေအတွင်းရေးမှူး ဆလိုင်းဝီလီယံချင်းက “ချင်းညီနောင် စစ်ဆင်ရေး ဖလမ်းမြို့ သိမ်းတိုက်ပွဲက မင်းတပ်နဲ့အတူ ၂၀၂၄ ခုနှစ်နိုဝင်ဘာလကနေ စခဲ့တာဖြစ်တယ်။ တပ်ရင်းတစ်ရင်းတည်းမဟုတ်ဘူး။ ၃ ရင်းနဲ့ တိုက်နေရတဲ့ပုံစံဖြစ်တယ်။ အချိန်တွေ ပိုပြီးကြာသွားတယ်။ ကုန်ကျစရိတ်လည်း စစ်ဆင်ရေးမှာ အများကြီးကုန်တာရှိတယ်။ ဘာပဲပြောပြော ကျနော်တို့ရဲ တော်လှန်ရေးမှာ ပေးဆပ်မှုတွေ လွတ် မြောက်မှုအတွက် ကိုယ့်ကံကြမ္မာကိုယ်ဖန်တီးဖို့ ပေးဆပ်ရတာဖြစ်တယ်။ ချင်းပြည်ထဲမှာ တီးတိန်မြို့ကိုလည်း ထပ်ပြီးမှ ဝင်ရောက်ဖို့ရှိတယ်။ ပိုပြီးတော့ ကြိုး စားအားထုတ်ဖို့လိုတယ်။ မြို့သိမ်းရတာထက် ထိန်းရတာလည်း ခက်ခက်ခဲခဲ လုပ်ရတာဖြစ်တယ်။ စစ်ပုံကျတဲ့ အမိန့်နာခံဖို့ရှိတဲ့ Professional Army ဖြစ်အောင် ကြိုးစားရမယ်။ ဒီအောင်မြင်မှု ဖလမ်းပြည်သူလူထုတင်မဟုတ်ဘူး။ အဖိနှိပ်ခံပြည်သူလူထုအားလုံးရဲ့ အောင်မြင်မှုဖြစ်တယ်။ ၂၀၂၄ မှာ စစ်ကောင် စီ ကင်းစင်ဖို့ ရည်ရွယ်ခဲ့ပေမယ့် ၆၀ ရာခိုင်နှုန်းပဲပြီးခဲ့တယ် ။ ၄ နေရာရခဲ့တယ်။ ” ဟု တိုက်ရိုက် Live မှတစ်ဆင့် ပြောဆိုသည်။

ဖလမ်းမြို့သိမ်းတိုက်ပွဲတွင် စစ်ကောင်စီ၏ လက်နက်ကြီးများ အပါအဝင် လက် နက် ယမ်း အမြောက်အမြားနှင့် ငွေကြေးများစွာကိုလည်း သိမ်းပိုက်ရရှိခဲ့သည်။

၂၀၂၄ ခုနှစ်၊ နိုဝင်ဘာလ ၉ ရက်နေ့က ဖလမ်းမြို့သိမ်းတိုက်ပွဲကို ချင်းညီနောင်စစ်ဆင်ရေး (Operation CB) အဖြစ် ထိုးစစ်ဆင်တိုက်ခိုက်ခဲ့ရာ စစ်ကောင်စီတပ်က ဖလမ်းမြို့ မကျစေရေး အ တွက် ရှိရင်း ခလရ ၂၆၈ တပ်ရင်း အင်အားအပြင် ၂၀၂၄ ဒီဇင်ဘာလတွင် ခလရ ၈၉ မှ စစ်ကူ အင် အား ၁ဝဝ ဝန်းကျင်နှင့် ၂၀၂၅ မတ်လတွင် တပ်မ ၇၇ လက်အောက်ခံ ခလရ ၃၉၁ မှ စစ်ကူအင်အား ၁၀ဝ ခန့်ဖြင့် အင်အားအကြိမ်ကြိမ် ထပ်မံဖြည့်တင်းခဲ့ကြောင်း၊ ထို့အပြင် လေကြောင်းတိုက်ခိုက်မှု အကြိမ်ပေါင်း ၁ဝဝဝ ကျော် ဖြင့် အပြင်းအထန် ခုခံခဲ့ကြောင်း သိရသည်။

ချင်းညီနောင်စစ်ဆင်ရေး (Operation CB) ဖလမ်းမြို့ သိမ်းတိုက်ပွဲတွင် 96 Soldiers PDF ၊ Anti-Fascist Internationalist Front (AIF) ၊ Burma National Revolutionary Army (BNRA) ၊ Burmese Revolutionary Technical Front (BRTF) ၊ Generation Z Army (GZA) ၊ Giant Revolution Force (GRF) ၊ Harmonious Northern Brothers (HNB) ၊ Kalay Revolution Force (KRF) ၊ Kalay Urban Guerrilla (Kalay UG) ၊ Myingyan Black Tiger (MBT) ၊ National Liberation Army (NLA) ၊ Revolution Ambulance Wolf (RAW Medical Team) ၊ Sagaing Federal Troop (SFT-Sol) ၊ Yaw Defense Force (YDF) ၊ Zo Army (ZA) ၊ ကလေးခရိုင် ပကဖနှင့် Drone အဖွဲ့တို့ ပါဝင်ခဲ့ကြောင်း သိရသည်။

ဖလမ်းမြို့ နယ်တစ်ခုလုံး စစ်ကောင်စီကင်းစင်သော နယ်မြေအဖြစ် ဖော်ဆောင်နိုင်ခဲ့ခြင်းမှာ ချင်းညီနောင် နှင့် မဟာမိတ်အင်အားစုများ၏ မဆုတ်မနစ်သော စိတ်ဓာတ်ဖြင့် ကြံ့ကြံ့ခံထိုးစစ်ဆင် တိုက်ခိုက်မှု၊ အာရက္ခ တပ်တော်မှ ခဲယမ်းစစ်လက်နက်များအပြင် စစ်ရေးဆိုင်ရာ အကြံဉာဏ်များ ပံ့ပိုးကူညီမှုနှင့် မိဘပြည်သူများ၏ တက်ညီလက်ညီ တစိုက်မတ်မတ် ထောက်ပို့ပါဝင်မှုများ ကြောင့် သာ ဖြစ်ကြောင်း ကြေညာထားသည်။

Posted by Khit Thit Media on Wednesday 9 April 2025

Several other Myanmar-based news outlets also reported on this. These reports can be found here and here.

From the above findings, it is clear that the viral clip is from Myanmar. It has nothing to do with Manipur; social media claims linking it to the Indian state are false and baseless.

The post Video of arms seized in Myanmar viral as Indian Army’s recovery of ammunition from militants in Manipur appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Oishani Bhattacharya.

Video of missile attack on Sevastopol, Crimea, in 2024 viral as recent Iranian offensive on Jaffa, near Tel Aviv, Israel

Shinjinee Majumder — Sat, 14 Jun 2025 15:46:46 +0000

A video showing two massive explosions is being widely circulated on social media amid rising tensions between Iran and Israel. Tensions between the two countries have escalated since Friday, June 13, following Israel’s military strike against its long-standing rival. Soon, Iran launched retaliatory airstrikes against Israel, with explosions heard in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, the largest cities there.

Amid this, several images and videos are viral on social media, allegedly showing destruction on both sides.

An X user who shared the video of the two explosions suggested that this was happening in Jaffa, Israel. The caption, in Arabic, said “Breaking – Hebrew media: “Iran has gone mad on us, they are bombing us mercilessly. — Video: Jaffa is burning”. (Archive)

عاجل إعلام عبري | جن جنون ايران علينا، يقصفونا بدون رحمة.

— بالفيديو: يافا تحترق pic.twitter.com/RoN3D2pBqt

— همام شعلان || H . Shaalan (@osSWSso) June 13, 2025

Several other X users shared the same video with the same claim. (Archives- 1, 2, 3, 4)

Fact Check

Upon a reverse image search of the keyframes of the viral video, we found several instances of the same video online, going as far back as March 2024.

A March 24, 2024, report by Daily Mail featured the same video titled “Major alert as Putin fires Russian cruise missile over NATO territory for 39 seconds sparking growing concern over escalation of the Ukraine war”. The report also used a screenshot from the viral video with the caption, “Meanwhile Ukraine subjected Russian-annexed Sevastopol in Crimea to one of the heaviest bombardments of the 25-month war (pictured above: Sevastopol under missile attack)”

Click to view slideshow.

The attack on Sevastopol in Crimea was also reported by The Telegraph on March 24, 2024. The publication used the same video in its report, stating that the Ukranian military struck two Russian warships and other facilities in Sevastopol. The attack reportedly involved Storm Shadow missiles, which were supplied to Ukraine by the United Kingdom. Ukraine further claimed that Russian landing ships Yamal and Azov were hit during the mission.

Thus, the viral video being shared with claims that it shows Iran’s attack on Jaffa near Tel Aviv, Israel, is from last year and unrelated. Alt News was able to trace the purported visuals back to March 24, 2024, and found that it showed Ukraine’s attack on Sevastopol, Crimea.

The post Video of missile attack on Sevastopol, Crimea, in 2024 viral as recent Iranian offensive on Jaffa, near Tel Aviv, Israel appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Shinjinee Majumder.

Video showing aftermath of a plane crash in Philadelphia linked to Israel-Iran clash

Ankita Mahalanobish — Sat, 14 Jun 2025 15:40:27 +0000

With tensions between Iran and Israel escalating, a 37-second-long video showing debris strewn across an open area and flames in the distance, suggesting the impact of a possible explosion has gone viral. Some social media users claim the video is from Tel Aviv after Iran’s retaliatory strikes while others shared it saying that it shows destruction by Israel in Tehran.

Iran and Israel targeted each other with missiles and airstrikes early on Saturday, June 14, 2025, a day after Israel launched its biggest aerial assault in an alleged bid to stop Tehran’s pursuit of developing nuclear weaponry.

Turkey-based X account, Gündem Analizi (@GndemAnalizi), shared the video depicting the aftermath of strikes on June 14, claiming it was footage showing Iranian missiles’ strikes on Israel. (Archive)

At the time of writing this, the post had garnered over 360,000 views.

Another X account, Islamic Invitation Turkey (@islamic_turkey), shared the same video, claiming it shows the impact of ‘Iranian revenge’ in Tel Aviv. (Archive)

At the time this article was written, the post had over 420,000 views.

Bharat TV (@bharattvusa), which claims to be a media outlet on X, shared the video with a caption that there was an explosion at the army headquarters in Tehran, Iran. (Archive)

Several social media accounts have shared the same video, either claiming it to be from Tel Aviv or Tehran.

Click to view slideshow.

Fact Check

To verify the authenticity of the viral clip, we extracted several key frames and conducted a reverse image search on a few stills. This led us to a post on Instagram Threads dated February 1, 2025, with strikingly similar frames as the viral video. It was also accompanied by a caption that read, “Another crash… Reports suggest a medical transport Learjet twin-engine jet has crashed in a populated area of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Three buildings in the vicinity are reportedly damaged.”

Taking cue from this, we checked with specific keywords and landed on a YouTube short uploaded in February. At the 00:25-minute mark, the exact visuals seen in the viral video appear. The video’s description says these are scenes from the aftermath of a plane crash in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

In the viral clip, the individual recording the footage appears to be entering a Dunkin’ Donuts outlet. While the video is somewhat grainy, a Dunkin’ Donuts signboard is briefly visible. Despite the lack of clarity, the distinct shape, color scheme, and branding elements of the signage make the identification conclusive.

We geolocated the Dunkin’ Donuts outlet and confirmed that the location of the viral clip is indeed from Philadelphia.

We also found several news reports from February 1, 2025, confirming that an air ambulance (a Learjet 55) went down just after taking off from Northeast Philadelphia airport, on a busy Philadelphia street. Seven people were killed and 19 were injured in this accident.

Thus, the video shared with claims that it shows the aftermath of Iranian strikes on Tel Aviv and the destruction after Israel struck Tehran are both false. It is a 4-month-old video from Philadelphia.

Note that the same video was also shared during the recent clashes between India and Pakistan, claiming it depicts the destruction of Karachi port in Pakistan by INS Vikrant’s military actions. Even at that time, Alt News had debunked this.

The post Video showing aftermath of a plane crash in Philadelphia linked to Israel-Iran clash appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Ankita Mahalanobish.

Video showing aftermath of a plane crash in Philadelphia linked to Israel-Iran clash

Ankita Mahalanobish — Sat, 14 Jun 2025 15:40:27 +0000

At the time of writing this, the post had garnered over 360,000 views.

Another X account, Islamic Invitation Turkey (@islamic_turkey), shared the same video, claiming it shows the impact of ‘Iranian revenge’ in Tel Aviv. (Archive)

At the time this article was written, the post had over 420,000 views.

Bharat TV (@bharattvusa), which claims to be a media outlet on X, shared the video with a caption that there was an explosion at the army headquarters in Tehran, Iran. (Archive)

Several social media accounts have shared the same video, either claiming it to be from Tel Aviv or Tehran.

Click to view slideshow.

Fact Check

We geolocated the Dunkin’ Donuts outlet and confirmed that the location of the viral clip is indeed from Philadelphia.

The post Video showing aftermath of a plane crash in Philadelphia linked to Israel-Iran clash appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Ankita Mahalanobish.

Video shared in January 2025 as fireworks in Berlin now viral as visuals from Israel-Iran airstrikes

Oishani Bhattacharya — Sat, 14 Jun 2025 14:45:05 +0000

A seven-second-long clip showing an explosion near a building is viral on social media in the context of the recent escalation of tensions between Iran and Israel.

X user @RoyalIntel_ shared the video in question on June 14 with the following caption: “UP CLOSE AND PERSONAL FROM IRAN”, seemingly stating that the clip depicts Iran’s strikes on Israel. At the time of writing this report, the post has received close to 1 Lakh views. (Archive)

UP CLOSE AND PERSONAL FROM IRAN pic.twitter.com/SVsKJC6MZK

— Royal Intel (@RoyalIntel_) June 13, 2025

An Instagram user, @haitham_alwakeel, posted the same video on June 14, claiming that the visuals were from Israel’s Tel Aviv.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Haitham AlWakeel | هيثم الوكيل (@haitham_alwakeel)

Several other users shared the same video, claiming that it showed Iran’s attack on Israel. Below are a few instances.

Click to view slideshow.

Fact Check

After breaking down the video into several keyframes, we ran a reverse image search on a few of them. This led us to an Instagram post from January 2 by the page @inner.journey.diaries. The post, or a reel, shared by this page consisted of the same video clip, which is now viral as visuals from Israel. The caption of the post further mentions, “Average fireworks in Berlin”, indicating that the visuals are from Berlin, Germany.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Beyond The Inner Journey (@inner.journey.diaries)

Taking a cue from here, we ran a relevant keyword search and found several other posts from the first week of January which carried the viral clip and mentioned that the visuals were from Berlin.

Another Instagram page, @berlindeyiz.de, also posted the viral clip on January 1 and mentioned in the caption, “Here are some very unusual scenes from Berlin.. New Year’s celebrations are one of the most eagerly anticipated times in Berlin. However, with each passing year, these celebrations open the door to greater problems and cause serious damage in many areas. Buses, buildings, garbage containers, and many other things are affected by fireworks. We hope that the coming years will bring fewer problems.”

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Berlindeyiz (@berlindeyiz.de)

We also came across a report on the website etemadonline.com from January 3, which carried the viral video, and the headline said that a suspicious package exploded in front of one of the police stations in Berlin. The report further mentioned that the Berlin Police Department has issued a statement saying that two officers were injured as a result of an explosion that happened in front of one of the police stations.

We found a statement posted by Berlin police on their official X handle at 3:26 am IST on January 3. The statement in German could be translated as, “This evening, around 8:20 PM, a serious security incident occurred at the fence of our Police Precinct 12 in #Wittenau, during which a female and a male colleague were partially seriously injured while on a routine security patrol. According to initial investigations, an as-yet unidentified object detonated, causing the male officer to suffer serious injuries to his face and eye. His female colleague sustained acoustic trauma. Both are currently receiving medical treatment. Our #CriminalPolice are investigating, and the crime scene is currently being examined”.

Heute Abend gegen 20:20 Uhr kam es an der Umzäunung unseres Polizeiabschnitts 12 in #Wittenau zu einem schweren Sicherheitsvorfall, bei dem eine Kollegin und ein Kollege während eines routinemäßigen Sicherheitsgangs zum Teil schwer verletzt wurden.

Nach ersten Ermittlungen… pic.twitter.com/kDAxdO1SCA

— Polizei Berlin (@polizeiberlin) January 2, 2025

Further, we found several news reports which state that this time the New Year’s celebrations in Berlin went too far, the use of fireworks turned violent, injuring several.

We have reached out to the Berlin police via email requesting confirmation from them about the location of the viral video. This report will be updated if and when we receive a response.

To sum up, the claims connecting the viral clip with the present military escalation between Iran and Israel are false. According to multiple social media posts and some reports, the incident is from January 2025 in Berlin.

The post Video shared in January 2025 as fireworks in Berlin now viral as visuals from Israel-Iran airstrikes appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Oishani Bhattacharya.

Times Now, Republic, others published reports based on fake ‘confidential’ letter that Pakistan PM was hospitalised

Ankita Mahalanobish — Sat, 14 Jun 2025 08:15:33 +0000

A “confidential” hospital document dated April 27, 2025, with the emblem of the Pakistan prime minister’s office saying that the PM has been hospitalised in Rawalpindi, made it to several news reports and was widely shared on social media. According to this ‘letter’, the Pakistan PM was admitted to the Combined Military Hospital for medical evaluation of haemorrhoids (piles).

On May 1, Times Now World published a report titled, “Pakistan PM Shehbaz Sharif hospitalized with piles? ‘Confidential’ hospital note surfaces.” In the report, they claim that the alleged was “leaked” but, later, also mention that there was no official confirmation from PM Sharif’s office. However, despite this, the outlet went on to speculate whether “rising stress levels” were to blame in the aftermath of diplomatic unrest between India and Pakistan after the terror attack in Kashmir’s Pahalgam on April 22, 2025.

Republic also published a detailed article on the purported letter, even though they refer to it as a “rumour”. While the report mentions that the rumour has not received official confirmation, ut gives reactions of social media users.

Several other news outlets, such as NewsX, News24 Hindi, and News18 Bangla, also published reportson Sharif’s health citing this letter.

On April 28, 2025, social media users Shuvankar Biswas (@manamuntu), Jamin (@JaminrpP), (@SinghPramod2784) and @Amolk1985 also shared the alleged letter.

Click to view slideshow.

Similar claims were made by users across social media platforms.

Click to view slideshow.

Fact Check

First, we tried several keyword searches but found no credible reportage from Pakistan-based news outlets that reported on PM Shehbaz Sharif being hospitalised in April 2025.

Instead, we found several updates that indicate he was fairly active and meeting delegations throughout the last week of April. For instance, on April 26, Sharif presented awards at a ceremony in PMA, Kakul, Abbottabad.

Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif giving awards to the high achievers of 151st Long Course at the passing out Ceremony held at PMA Kakul, Abbottabad.
April 26, 2025. pic.twitter.com/PFM4X5SiWl

— Prime Minister’s Office (@PakPMO) April 27, 2025

On April 27, Sharif along with other Pakistani government officials, met a delegation of the American World Liberty Financial in Islamabad.

On April 28, he attended a ceremony acknowledging the success of the PM Ramzan relief package.

Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif addresses a ceremony to acknowledge the success of the PM Ramzan Relief Package.
April 28, 2025. pic.twitter.com/FWiQj1TbVB

— Prime Minister’s Office (@PakPMO) April 28, 2025

On April 29, the Pakistan leader addressed an investment forum in Islamabad and the following day, he chaired a meeting with investors in Islamabad.

Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif addresses the Digital Foreign Direct Investment Forum in Islamabad.
April 29, 2025. pic.twitter.com/hiBDA3sZcq

— Prime Minister’s Office (@PakPMO) April 30, 2025

Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif chairs a meeting with investors on investment opportunities in the digitisation process of FBR in Islamabad.
April 30, 2025. pic.twitter.com/XghZHtNCHy

— Prime Minister’s Office (@PakPMO) May 2, 2025

On May 1, Chinese ambassador Jiang Zaidong met Sharif and exchanged views on the current India-Pakistan situation. This was also reported on CNN News18 bulletin.

#Chinese Ambassador Jiang Zaidong met with #Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Thursday local time and exchanged views on the current #Pakistan–#India situation, according to a press release published by the Chinese Embassy in Pakistan on its WeChat account on Friday.… pic.twitter.com/Hjb9Itsf1G

— Global Times (@globaltimesnews) May 2, 2025

Thus it was clear that he was not in the hospital.

We then found that Asad Rehman Gilani, the alleged principal secretary to the prime minister (PSPM), whose signature is visible on the letter, was removed from his position on March 17, 2025, and transferred to the National Heritage and culture divison as secretary, according to a report by Pakistan-based outlet, Dawn.

Dawn’s report also said that the position of PSPM has been abolished and a Dr Tauqir Shah would serve the PM as an adviser in place of PSPM.

An official at the Pakistan PMO also told Dawn that the viral “confidential” letter and claims that Sharif was getting medical treatment were fake.

To sum up, the Pakistan Prime Minister, Shehbaz Sharif, was not hospitalised during the last week of April 2025. The alleged “confidential” letter bearing the stamp of the Pakistan PMO is fake. Despite disclaimers, news outlets reported on this based on social media posts and reactions, resulting in unverified information being amplified

The post Times Now, Republic, others published reports based on fake ‘confidential’ letter that Pakistan PM was hospitalised appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Ankita Mahalanobish.

Operation Sindoor: Grief on the ground, glory on TV screens

Oishani Bhattacharya — Fri, 13 Jun 2025 15:31:02 +0000

Trigger Warning: The story has details of deaths, including those of minors; reader’s discretion advised.

“National media showed what they had to. Our endeavour is to give you our version of the truth, as those who suffered and survived. Even if 5% of the ground reality reaches the people with every small, local news outlet’s report, eventually, when these narratives add up, at least some truth will trickle down to the people of this country who live in faraway cities and clamour for war.” These were Jamrodh Singh’s words to Alt News days after his uncle, Amrik Singh (54), was killed in Pakistani shelling in Kashmir’s Poonch.

Over a month has passed since India and Pakistan announced a ceasefire (May 10), but civilians residing near border areas are still grappling with the magnitude of their losses. Amrik Singh was among the 21 Indian civilians killed in the conflict between India and Pakistan that went on for four days. On the intervening night of May 6 and 7, shortly after India launched a military strike targeting terror bases in Pakistan, the neighbouring country retaliated with cross-border firing, hitting many civilian areas. The Indian strikes, labelled Operation Sindoor, followed the April 22 Pahalgam massacre in which 26 civilians were shot dead by terrorists with alleged links to Pakistan.

Caught unaware when the strikes happened, families of those who lost their loved ones recount how blindsided and helpless they felt. Their stories were not covered by several mainstream television channels in India that were too busy celebrating the operation’s success as a befitting revenge for Pahalgam. Even in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s address to the nation after the conflict, there was no mention of the civilian casualties, which included five children.

Alt News spoke to five bereaved families who debunked some of the falsehoods spread by media outlets and shed light on the on-ground realities of such operations, forcing us to look beyond headlines that only celebrate the military wins in the conflict.

Deaths Marred by Misinformation

On May 9, while the conflict was at its peak, a family living in Khai Pheme Ki village in Punjab’s Ferozpur had no idea their lives were about to change forever. A drone fired by the Pakistan army hit a car stationed in their garage at around 8:40 pm. Within minutes, the whole house, about 10 kilometres away from the International Border, was engulfed in flames. Sukhwinder Kaur, a woman in her late forties, who was in the kitchen at the time this happened, suffered third-degree burns. Three days later, on May 12, she succumbed to her injuries. Kaur’s husband and son, who were also present inside the house when the drone fell, also suffered serious injuries and are still recovering.

Sukhwinder Kaur

Part of the Pakistani drone that fell over Sukhwinder Kaur’s house in Ferozepur, Punjab, on May 9, 2025.

But adding to the pain of her grieving family were misreports around her death that seemed to blame the family for what happened.

“Shells were being fired, and media claimed that they were sitting with their lights on; that’s why it [the drone] hit their home. Isn’t that stupid? They are sitting elsewhere.. How do they know whether or not their lights were on at the time?” Kaur’s relative Ramandeep Singh told Alt News, the rage in his voice palpable.

“Some reported their home lights were on, some said their car lights were on [after the blackout was announced], some locals even spread the word that they were making spurious liquor, and the drone struck that cylinder, and that is how their house caught fire. They are an Amartayi parivaar [a colloquial expression to describe a family of Amritdhari Sikhs—those committed to the Khalsa code of conduct which prohibits consumption of tobacco, alcohol, or meat]. These are rumours,” he said. “Ask those who have suffered the loss, you’ll get goosebumps,” Singh added.

In fact, relatives of the family even clarified to some media outlets that the lights of their home were not on and that the drone hit the house in spite of that. Even then, the channels that broadcast this have not corrected their reports.

Kaur was among the first civilian casualties in the conflict outside of Jammu and Kashmir after Pakistan retaliated against Operation Sindoor.

Two days before Kaur’s home was struck by mortar shells, a family in Kashmir’s Poonch was similarly seething in anger.

Mohammed Iqbal was among those killed in retaliatory shelling by Pakistan in the early hours of May 7. However, the 47-year-old Qari, an honorific title given to those who specialise in recitation of Quranic verses, was labelled a terrorist by many news outlets.

“My uncle, Qari Mohammed Iqbal, was martyred in shelling by Pakistan, and news channels ran bulletins that India killed a Lashkar terrorist, the Pulwama mastermind, who was hiding in Kotli. He was a well-respected teacher and religious figure in our community. They showed an image of him in his last moments, bleeding… celebrating it as a triumph. Media is supposed be the fourth pillar of democracy, and they ran such horrific fake news regarding a martyr who is a well-respected man and a kattar Hindustani (a staunch Indian). We were already heartbroken, what they were broadcasting was like rubbing salt in our wounds,” Tariq Manzoor told Alt News from Poonch. “We really hope those channels pay the price for the hurt they have caused us. I hope these channels are shut down, actually…”

Read: His name was Qari Mohammad Iqbal. He was not a terrorist.

Manzoor also told us that Mohammed Iqbal, who taught at the local school, Zia-Ul-Uloom, for over 20 years, was trying to shift the children who showed up in school to a safer spot on a lower floor when a splinter pierced through the classroom wall and hit him. He added that it was unfortunate that a man who died doing something noble was plastered across channels as a ‘most-wanted terrorist’.

Qari Md. Iqbal

Close to where Qari Mohammed Iqbal breathed his last was a Gurudwara. When the conflict escalated, media outlets ran suggestive shows that Pakistan was targeting Sikhs’ place of worship in Poonch.

On May 7, at least two segments by the news channel Republic claimed that Pakistan killed three innocent civilians by striking the Gurudwara in Poonch. “Cowardly Pakistan is now targeting civilians and Gurudwaras… India is in complete solidarity with the families of the Gur-Sikhs and the Ragis who lost their lives… Pakistan will have to be punished,” said the show’s host.

On May 8, senior journalist and Aaj Tak’s managing editor, Anjana Om Kashyap’s segment “Halla Bol” also reiterated the same. Note that in her programmes between May 7 and May 10, Kashyap did not pose any questions to the administration regarding evacuation efforts and whether civilians could have been saved by timely intervention. Also, it’s worth noting that during the Pahalgam massacre, Kashyap dubbed the incident “Kashmir Files Part 2”.

“Look, Pakistan is exposing itself. If it attacks Amritsar, if it attacks a Gurudwara in Poonch and three people are killed, then we can understand their intentions and where they are headed,” she remarked in her show on May 8.

But these assertions stand on shaky ground. Two local journalists Alt News spoke to dismissed claims that these attacks ‘targeted’ a Gurudwara. Late Amrik Singh’s nephew, Jamrodh Singh, also countered the claim shared by news outlets. Jamrodh Singh told us that his uncle worked closely with the Gurudwara and recited verses from the holy text there.

“Yes, a shell did fall on the Gurudwara, but a shell also fell on a mosque. It hit so many homes. It’s wrong to say that communities were targeted. How is it possible? They can’t fire shells based on which community they want to target… Sardars died, Muslims died, Hindus died, children died, people everywhere died,” he said. Explaining that he comes from an army background, Jamrodh Singh said that artillery guns narrow down on the location and target, wherever the firing is coming from. This time, India likely used some advanced weaponry that was similar to a moving gun; this made it hard for Pakistan to determine the exact location, and so they fired mercilessly and hit whatever they could, he added.

Amrik Singh

Recounting his uncle’s last moments, he said that Amrik Singh went to the Gurudwara early on the morning of May 7, where he made an announcement, asking everyone to stay indoors because he had an inkling that the situation could worsen. Amrik Singh then tried to move his own family to safety in a bunker on the ground floor of his house. The street-facing side of the ground floor had a shop front. The bunker doubled up as storage.

Here, Amrik Singh breathed his last.

“He must have come to the shop to get a broom when a shell perforated through the shuttered shop and hit him,” he said, adding, “Can you imagine? The shutters were made of strong metal, it pierced through that… it was hard to believe… my uncle’s body just lay there, slumped on a chair.” Amrik Singh passed away around 7:30 am on May 7.

Jamrodh Singh shared with us more visuals that display the extent of the damage caused to the shop/bunker due to shelling by Pakistan.

Click to view slideshow.

Amrik Singh’s elder brother, Harjeet Singh, was also seriously injured in the shelling on May 7. His shop too suffered sizeable damage due to the strikes.

Jamrodh Singh and the rest of Amrik Singh’s family, like the other victims’ kin Alt News spoke with, are deeply upset with the administration. They all told Alt News that had they received some notice regarding what was about to unfold, perhaps some lives could have been saved.

But these questions were seldom raised by TV journalists of mainstream media channels. Worse, they blatantly misreported on the ground situation. On May 7, for instance, when Pakistan was retaliating with broad-range attacks, ABP’s Chitra Tripathi hosted a segment in which other anchors and the channel’s correspondents joined in to offer updates. At the 1:57-minute mark of the segment, Tripathi says that schools were closed in Poonch and Jammu because of Pakistan’s continued provocation. “We must ensure the safety of our citizens and children,” she said.

However, each of the four families from Poonch we spoke to, separately told Alt News that until the morning of May 7, schools had issued no notice of closure. Manzoor said that people in Poonch had no clue that India was going to strike and there would be retaliatory fire, so children came to the school where his uncle taught as usual that morning. Jamrodh Singh also said that many children were on their way to school early in the morning when firing intensified.

Families of three children who were killed in shelling told Alt News that the schools were preparing for a mock drill on May 7.

Among the children who breathed their last that day were 12-year-old twins Zain and Urwa. Their aunt, Maria Khan, told us that the family was planning to visit the kids’ maternal grandparents on May 6, but chose to stay in Poonch because of the mock drills that were supposed to be held in school and by the military in their area. Zain and Urwa’s parents, originally residents of Chandak, had moved to Poonch just two months ago to be closer to the school both children attended.

Zain and Urwa.

“They [Zain and Urwa’s parents] thought the kids would learn what to do in such situations in school, and they would also know how to approach such a scenario. If not for the drill, they would have left the previous day for their maternal grandparents’ home,” she told Alt News, her voice choking. “They had said it [the drill] would take place on May 7… If instead of saying a mock drill would happen, they had said that a war-like situation might take place, then may be our family wouldn’t be in this state. May be the kids would still be with us, and none of this would have happened.”

A video report by Mojo Story on the twins’ death claimed that they had “stepped out for school but never returned”. However, Maria told us that the twins died while trying to evacuate from their homes on the morning of May 7.

Shelling started around 1:30-2 am at night and seemed to intensify, which is when the twins’ mother reached out to her family, and they decided that the twins’ maternal uncle would come pick them up after 5:30 am. “The street on which they lived is congested, so he [the maternal uncle] could not get the car in. They just stepped out of the home to walk towards the car when a shell fell behind them and exploded. The splinters of the shell hit them from the back… Zoya (Urwa’s nickname), who was holding her mother’s hand, bled out and died on the spot. Zain also died right there; he had a cut the size of a palm, his intestines had fallen out of his body,” she said, adding that the father, who was also severely injured, did not know about the kids’ deaths for days.

Alt News also reached out to the family of 14-year-old Vihaan Bhargav, who attended the same school as Zain and Urwa. Vihaan was killed on May 7 at around 11:30 am after splinters from a shell fired by Pakistan struck him in the head. His father, Sanjeev Kumar, a government employee in the education department, confirmed that on May 6, authorities had announced there would be a mock drill the following day; however, he said, they launched Operation Sindoor. “It’s a fact that no mock drill was conducted. Maybe these lives could have been saved if a mock drill had happened”.

Vihaan Bhargav

Recounting what happened the day Vihaan’s life was tragically cut short, Kumar told us, “There was heavy shelling throughout the night, and nearly 70–80% of the population had started relocating to safe zones. We also decided to leave for safer areas such as Rajouri and Jammu. We were travelling in our private car and had covered three to four kilometres when a shell fell near us, causing a huge explosion. Our car was moving at a speed of 60–70 kilometres per hour when the splinters from the shell hit Vihaan on the head, and he died on the spot”. Apart from Vihaan and his parents, Sanjeev Kumar’s sister and her family were also in the car. “My brother-in-law is admitted to a hospital in Amritsar, his condition is also quite critical”, he added.

In our analysis of over eight major news channels across English and Hindi, we found that between May 7 and 10, most aired visuals of drones, shells, and artillery. But there was little or no emphasis on what happens when these shells hit the ground and damage homes, shattering the lives of those who did not see it coming. NDTV was an exception and Shiv Aroor’s ground reports from civilian areas across sectors in Kashmir and Punjab were among the few that went beyond defence gains.

Besides the misinformation clarified by the families above, news channels also went all out, launching fictional strikes on the Karachi port and Islamabad and sharing unrelated visuals from Gaza and even from video games as footage from the conflict.

READ: The fictional strikes on the Karachi port and what it says about Indian media

We also wrote about how the government’s own fact-checking unit, PIB, refrained from calling out the falsehoods spread by news channels.

READ: Op Sindoor: As Indian media made false, outrageous claims, PIB looked the other way

Misplaced Focus

Much of the coverage on the ground situation remained focused on the operation and India’s defence wins, conveniently downplaying the human cost.

For instance, ABP News’ broadcast from May 7 has anchor Megha Prasad claiming, “… Pakistan had to respond in some way. Chitra, you must understand, on our side of the border, there are many homes where people were advised to evacuate. But some families chose to stay, perhaps due to personal reasons. So when there is shelling on the border, these kinds of tragedies and casualties do happen [sic].”

Prasad’s comment here is not just inconsiderate but a blatant misrepresentation of what happened. Two journalists from Kashmir and families of five victims explicitly told Alt News that many of the casualties happened in towns with high civilian populations and that it appeared as though the government or the administration was unprepared for the scale of attacks by Pakistan.

“We did not expect shelling to take place in the town, neither were we alerted that something like this could happen….We have not seen shelling of this scale… drones reached all the way to Jammu city, imagine if you witnessed drones and shelling in Delhi-NCR, that will be unexpected, right? That’s how it was for us… This was not meant to be a war; it was an operation…” said Jamrodh Singh. “Nobody from the administration arrived to help us. There were no evacuation orders, no sirens, no warnings.”

“I am 45, in my whole life here [in Jammu and Kashmir], we have not witnessed civilians being attacked. Both sides would attack military posts, and that was it, for the first time we saw war so closely. They [Pakistan] fired without any hesitation. So much of the Poonch town has been damaged, it’s never happened before,” Tariq Manzoor explained. He added that even if the administration had announced that morning or in the middle of the night and asked people to take shelter, many could have been saved.

Vihaan’s father Sanjeev Kumar, a resident of Poonch for decades now, also reiterated that he had never seen anything of this scale before. “Before this, whenever such a [conflict or war-like] situation happened, the exchange of fire was only between the [defence] forces on both sides. I am almost 46 years old and I have never seen anything like this. In 1992 [referring to the Siachen conflict], when I was younger, I remember about three or four shells fell near our area, but nothing of this scale”.

Like the families of Zain, Urwa and Vihaan, others too tried to leave town on their own. Jamrodh Singh said that when the rest of his family tried to reach Poonch after his uncle’s passing, they saw most people desperately trying to leave. “So many were labourers who did not have their vehicles, they were willing to pay anything to just save their lives.”

An India Today report from Poonch by Kamaljit Sandhu corroborates this. One family told her that they sold their motorcycle for Rs 3,500 and cut down on food expenses to afford evacuation, yet it wasn’t enough for all members to secure a spot on the bus. They ended up stranded on the roadside, helpless. The channel also reported on a similar situation in Punjab’s Ferozepur, where people residing in the Kaluwala village were shoring up their means to find a way out.

However, apart from this, much of India Today’s coverage remained focused on India’s military capabilities. Even when civilian deaths were reported, which, anyway, received very little screentime, the conversation remained centred on Pakistan instead of urging accountability on why Indian authorities did not make rescue efforts when the situation worsened, and whether these losses could have been prevented.

Click to view slideshow.

The families we mentioned above all told Alt News that coverage by mainstream media outlets, often selective, seemed to disregard their grief, painting an altogether different picture of the ground reality.

“Even the A of administration was nowhere to be seen. Nobody was guiding anyone to safety. Each was left to their own.” He later told Alt News that officials from the administration only arrived after the ceasefire. “Nobody came when the shelling was happening to help us out. Why they were not there, we don’t know. We heard about the plane crash in Ahmedabad. You must have seen that immediately after the crash, emergency responders reached the location. However, that was not the case for people in Poonch when shelling took place.”

But the focus of news channels remained elsewhere.

Take the programme aired by Times Now Navbharat on May 7, where anchor Sushant Sinha and former army personnel Gaurav Arya were discussing Operation Sindoor and Pakistan’s next steps. During the episode, Arya said he prays that Pakistan attacks India so the country can give a befitting response. “Meri prarthana hai ki ek baar Munir [Pakistan’s army chief] attack kar de, bas mazza aa jayega”. Once they [Pakistan] attack something strategic, India will have a reason, a justification to hit back or “thoko”. While Arya’s statement was in poor taste, the channel egged him on. At one point in the show, the two even lauded India’s deception tactics. Instead of actually sounding the siren for war, they straight up did the job, Sinha said with pride. “Siren nahi baja, band baja. Bajna kahiin aur tha, baj kahiin aur gaya,” he said with a grin.

Not only are such comments on national television in poor taste, but they also show just how divorced the media is from reality. For families that lost their loved ones that morning in Poonch, any siren sounded by the government could have been a lifeline.

“There was no indication from the administration’s end that would help us understand the extent of the situation. No sirens, no security officials, no local police. Nobody alerted us or told us to stay indoors while shelling was happening or that we would be moved to safe zones. What happened due to this is that people started to evacuate since 3 am,” Vihaan’s father told Alt News.

“They told us it would be a mock drill and then declared war. Common people were under the impression that there would be a drill, and for no fault of theirs, innocent children died,” said Maria Khan, the aunt of the twins who passed away. “It’s easy to sit in other states and wish for a war, come to the border areas, stay here and see for yourself what war is like in reality.”

Families of Qari Mohammed Iqbal and Amrik Singh also blamed the administration.

“I understand the limitations that sensitive operations pose. Some things cannot be said out loud, some information cannot be divulged to all, but since there was going to be a drill, you could have called it a mock drill and gotten people to move out… Why would you let your own people die?” said an anguished Jamrodh Singh.

“If they told the public even an hour or two ahead that save yourself, find shelter, find your safe points to hide, because we are going to strike and they may hit back, the damage could have been limited. The children and older men who died could have been saved… People lay waiting for the mock drill and overnight everything changed, we were suddenly in a war zone,” Tariq Manzoor said.

Jamrodh Singh also blamed the media for the excessive but misplaced coverage on the mock drill in some parts. “In Bihar, they called photographers to shoot how they made children do the mock drills. [On news] they showed children being evacuated, sirens were played, they all hid in bunkers, they publicised this, they showed it on TV. But on the ground, in the area where this was absolutely crucial, none of this was done and nobody is questioning it,” said Jamrodh Singh.

Majority of Times Now Navbharat’s segments around that time used similar language and remained focused on damage India caused Pakistan. Likewise, throughout their panels and debates on Operation Sindoor, Republic called politicians, defence experts and former military personnel who all lauded the military win, using hypermasculine language. A lot of screen time was used to shame Pakistan with a passing mention of civilian casualties in bulletins.

Click to view slideshow.

Overall, it would be fair to say that several news channels owned by legacy media houses skipped questions on accountability by the Indian side. However, as we said before, NDTV was among the select few who raised these issues in their shows. It’s a different matter that these reports were often eclipsed by discussions on India’s defence moves. Reportage by the channel’s Hindi counterpart, however, was very different with tickers bordering on jingoism.

Click to view slideshow.

Rhetoric of Revenge

In its segments, Republic also kept reiterating how Operation Sindoor was “revenge” for Pahalgam. Even before the Indian strikes, the channel had begun using the hashtag revenge is coming. But such coverage overshadows the resentment of survivors who felt their losses were dubbed as collateral damage.

Click to view slideshow.

But Republic alone cannot be blamed for setting such a narrative when the Prime Minister’s 22-minute address to the nation also skimmed over the casualties from Operation Sindoor.

“The terrorists wiped off the sindoor of our sisters, that is why India wiped off the headquarters of terror…” Modi said in his address on May 13. While he did say Pakistan attacked civilian homes, there was no mention of how many lives were lost in the border areas of Jammu and Kashmir and Punjab.

“We are deeply sorry about the innocent lives lost in Pahalgam. This is why they launched Operation Sindoor, right? If this operation was to avenge them, what about the Indians who died in Pakistani shelling? What operation will be launched for the innocent children who died?” quipped Maria Khan, her voice breaking. She added that in her interviews with news channels, she clearly asked these questions, but her bytes were edited and conveniently not aired.

“People from Kashmir, Poonch, and almost everyone are highlighting that the PM did not even mention the area, district or even J&K in his speech, think about how we felt, our kids died. Three innocent kids died, and there was no mention of that,” she continued.

“We already lost 26 lives, and in order to avenge that, we suffered more losses. It could have been avoided,” said Manzoor.

On X, too, there has been anger about the disregard for the lives of those living near the borders. On May 13, Nasir Khuehami (@NasirKhuehami), national convenor of the J&K students association, wrote on the social media platform: “It is deeply disheartening that in the Hon’ble Prime Minister’s 22-minute address, there was not a single word about the innocent lives lost in Poonch, Rajouri, and Uri… Over 15 coffins were lowered into the ground, including that of a 12-year-old child, yet there was no word of condolence, no acknowledgement, no empathy. Are the lives on the border invisible? Do the cries from Poonch, Rajouri, and Uri not reach the corridors of power?”

With grief welling in their hearts, the victims’ families are trying to live on.

“My appeal to the government is that they create a war memorial in Poonch for those who died due to this conflict, and they should be declared as martyrs,” said Sanjeev Kumar, who is still trying to come to terms with his son’s demise. “Family members who have lost a loved one have received appointment letters [for a government job], and a relief amount has also been announced. I still haven’t had the mental bandwidth to check these things; my only child is gone,” said the grieving father.

“A few minutes before he died, my uncle recited a Punjabi line from our holy book, Guru Granth Sahib, telling my aunt that when death comes to find you, it will. That’s what happened,” Jamrodh Singh said, adding they wished it didn’t have to be this way.

The bereaved families said they have been offered financial compensation and jobs but also that official visits followed much after the incident.

Punjab victim Sukhwinder Kaur’s relative, Ramandeep Singh, told us that the family was given Rs 15 lakh as compensation, adding that several politicians paid them a visit. “The main thing is, when the blast happened at their house, nobody came. When they were being rushed to the hospital, even then, no one came. The military force visited the home only to pick up the drone debris that had fallen on their house”.

“The administration is now offering us Rs 30 lakh and a fourth-class [government] job, but can a kid’s death be compensated with money? When we were trying to arrange an ambulance and an oxygen cylinder to move Zain and Urwa’s father from Poonch to a different location, we couldn’t get hold of anything. This incident happened at 6:30 am, and we could get an ambulance only by 4:30 pm,” said Maria Khan.

“The governor announced a compensation of Rs 15 lakh and a job for those who lost their family in the conflict. This money has reached those affected. But those whose houses were majorly damaged were offered a sum of Rs 1.3 lakh; those with partially damaged homes were offered just Rs 4,000. Reconstructing some of these houses will cost several times more. In one of the houses, just fixing the damage alone will cost Rs 30 lakh; where will they get this money from? What is Rs 1.3 lakh or Rs 4,000 in comparison? Even insurance companies are washing their hands off the damage to cars because of shelling,” said Tariq Manzoor.

“Our local media [in J&K] and small news outlets have really been our strength; many came despite the circumstances and did really good coverage of what happened. This was a major miss by big TV channels… they were on a different tangent,” he added.

Editor’s Note: Images of victims, including minors, were provided by their families, who have given Alt News exclusive permission to use them for this story.

The post Operation Sindoor: Grief on the ground, glory on TV screens appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Oishani Bhattacharya.

Video from 2023 Nepal plane crash viral as last moments from inside Air India flight that crashed in Ahmedabad

Oishani Bhattacharya — Thu, 12 Jun 2025 13:42:19 +0000

A 30-second-long video showing scenes from inside an aircraft is viral on social media and is being shared as footage showing last moments before the London-bound Air India flight, AI171, crashed in Ahmedabad on June 12, 2025. The Air India flight, with 242 passengers and crew onboard, took off from the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport in Ahmedabad at 1:39 pm and crashed into a residential area (Meghaninagar) of the city within minutes of takeoff.

The Hindu reported that flight AI171 from Ahmedabad to Gatwick gave a ‘Mayday’ call to the Air Traffic Control (ATC) before getting disconnected. A ‘Mayday’ call or alert is an internationally recognised SOS or distress emergency call. A Moneycontrol report citing someone from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation said that the flight “departed from Ahmadabad at 1339 IST (0809 UTC) from runway 23. It gave a ‘Mayday’ call to ATC, but thereafter, no response was given by the aircraft to the calls made by ATC. Immediately after departure from runway 23, the aircraft fell on the ground outside the airport perimeter. Heavy black smoke was seen coming from the accident site”. Several casualties are feared, but so far, there has been no official statement from Air India or the Ministry of Civil Aviation.

The viral video, taken by a passenger shows scenes outside from the window seat before there is sudden chaos and screaming. X user @Honest_Cric_fan shared the video with claims that it was a Facebook Live that captured the plane crash in Ahmedabad. At the time of writing this, the post has received over 280,000 views. It was later deleted. (Archive)

Several other users, such as @kootpench, @thesumittewari, @Telugufeedsite, @bharatsmachar2, also shared the viral clip, claiming it shows the recent plane crash in Ahmedabad.

Click to view slideshow.

Fact Check

To verify the viral claim that the clip is of the recent crash in Ahmedabad, we did a reverse image search on some key frames. This led us to a news report by the South China Morning Post from January 19, 2023, titled “Final moments of deadly Nepal plane crash caught on passenger’s Facebook live stream” and carried a screengrab from the now-viral clip.

The screengrab showed a man in a yellow sweatshirt with the caption, “Sonu Jaiswal smiles at his smartphone camera moments before the Yeti Airlines flight from Kathmandu crashed near Pokhara, Nepal, killing all 72 passengers on board. Photo: Facebook”.

We also found that the same viral video shared by news outket Mid Day on January 16, 2023.

A sudden fire engulfs the plane as the heart-wrenching and horrifying Facebook live video of a Nepal plane crash by one of the flyers goes viral.

#watch: A sudden fire engulfs the plane as the heart-wrenching and horrifying Facebook live video of a Nepal plane crash by one of the flyers goes viral.

#MidDayNews #NepalPlaneCrash #planecrash #viralvideo #viral2023 #viral #newsupdate #news

Posted by MiD DAY on Monday 16 January 2023

On June 12, the fact-checking unit of the government’s Press Information Bureau also said that the viral video is from the plane crash in Nepal in January 2023 and has been wrongly linked to the accident in Ahmedabad.

सोशल मीडिया पर एक पुरानी वीडियो को अहमदाबाद विमान हादसे से जोड़कर साझा किया जा रहा है। #PIBFactCheck

वीडियो नेपाल में जनवरी 2023 में हुए विमान हादसे की है।

आधिकारिक स्त्रोतों से प्राप्त सूचनाओं पर ही भरोसा करें।

अहमदाबाद विमान हादसे से जुड़ी प्रामाणिक जानकारी के… pic.twitter.com/5YUtbGbsa7

— PIB Fact Check (@PIBFactCheck) June 12, 2025

Hence, the claim that the viral video shows a Facebook Live captured by a passenger on board the Ahmedabad-Gatwick flight that crashed on June 12 is false. The video shows a livestream by a flyer from 2023 and depicts moments before a Yeti Airlines flight crashed in Nepal in January 2023.

The post Video from 2023 Nepal plane crash viral as last moments from inside Air India flight that crashed in Ahmedabad appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Oishani Bhattacharya.

2022 video of Patna High Court judge reprimanding cop linked to Sharmishta Panoli case

Oishani Bhattacharya — Wed, 11 Jun 2025 11:34:18 +0000

Days after social media influencer Sharmishta Panoli was arrested over a controversial post, a clip of court proceedings where a judge schools a police officer about misusing power has gone viral.

Panoli, a 22-year-old law student, was arrested by the Kolkata police from her Gurugram residence on May 30. She was booked for promoting enmity between different groups, outraging religious feelings, insulting with intent to provoke breach of peace, and inciting public mischief after she made hateful comments against Islam and Muslims in a video. Her arrest sparked much debate on whether the legal action against her was excessive, considering she deleted her post and apologised publicly. Currently, Panoli is out on bail.

In the over 1-minute long clip that is now viral, the judge is heard saying, “This uniform that has been given to you, is it just for the sake of exercising power? People are in jail for such minor things. The sections [criminal law code or the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita] that you attach are also a matter of discussion. It’s not like before, when no one would find out what you are doing in the police station. What was the need to put handcuffs on them and to make them sit inside the car? If the same thing is done to you, if you make a mistake or if someone alleges that you have done something, and you are picked up from your house and shoved inside a car while those wearing the same uniform as you surround you, how will you feel? You are also a citizen of this country. After the age of 60, when you retire and those wearing the same uniform as you do what you are doing, then you will think about what you have given to the system. You have caused harm to [their/its] dignity, now tell me how to deal with you. If you want to get a lawyer separately to argue for you, then you can hire one. Don’t be upset later thinking that you couldn’t argue properly”.

X user Ajeet Bharti (@ajeetbharti), who identifies as a ‘journalist’ and has amplified misinformation in the past, shared the above-mentioned clip on June 9 with a Hindi caption that translates to: “Every unruly police officer needs to be reprimanded in this manner. Also, the police commissioner or SP should be kept in jail for the same number of days as others are kept, and the entire fee for fighting the case should be recovered from the state and returned. These b**tards openly indulge in hooliganism.” At the time of writing this, the post had over 235,000 views and was reshared over 4,700 times. (Archive)

Other users, such as @wokeflix_, @S_CRana_ji, @ArunKosli, @KreatelyMedia, also posted the viral video claiming that it shows the judge reprimanding Kolkata police for the arrest of Sharmishta Panoli.

Click to view slideshow.

Fact Check

After breaking down the viral clip into multiple keyframes, we ran a reverse image search on a few. This led us to a longer YouTube video from December 26, 2022 titled ‘Patna High Court Judge Motivational Video’. The viral bit was a part of what he said.

Taking cue from this, we located the full hearing on the Patna High Court’s YouTube channel, posted on November 22, 2022. At the 4:47:14-minute mark of the video, Justice Ranjan can be heard saying, “…What was the need to put handcuffs on them and to make them sit inside the car? If the same thing is done to you, if you make a mistake or if someone alleges that you have done something, and you are picked up from your house and shoved inside a car while those wearing the same uniform as you surround you, how will you feel?…” Further, at the 4:48:25-minute mark, he says, “This uniform that has been given to you, is it just for the sake of exercising power? People are in jail for such minor things… You are also a citizen of this country. After the age of 60, when you retire and those wearing the same uniform as you do what you are doing, then you will think about what you have given to the system…”

The case being heard was Nibha Sinha vs The State of Bihar through the Principal Secretary, Home Department, Govt.

We also identified the judge as Justice Rajeev Ranjan Prasad of the Patna High Court.

Thus, it is clear that the viral video is completely unrelated to the recent arrest of Sharmishta Panoli. The clip, featuring Justice Rajeev Ranjan Prasad, is from three years ago during a hearing in the Patna High Court.

The post 2022 video of Patna High Court judge reprimanding cop linked to Sharmishta Panoli case appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Oishani Bhattacharya.

‘Ya Allah. This was a fighter jet!!!!’: Pak X user’s tweet could be first ‘report’ on Operation Sindoor

Abhishek Kumar — Wed, 11 Jun 2025 10:30:39 +0000

Gone are the times when people waited for a news bulletin on TV or the morning newspaper the next day to know about an important event. With mobile phones with internet connectivity in almost everyone’s hands, major incidents, or even minor ones, are these days almost always live-reported by social media users.

The following tweet about the US raid on the Abbottabad compound housing Osama Bin Laden in Pakistan in May 2011 is the most celebrated example of such social media reporting.

Shoaib Akhtar, an IT professional working late at night in Abbottabad, heard the sound of helicopters and shared this information on X, then Twitter, barely knowing what he was talking about. Later, when the Operation Neptune Spear by US Navy SEAL Team Six killing the Al Qaeda leader became known worldwide, his tweet also received global attention as the first public user-generated information about the raid.

India launched Operation Sindoor in the early hours of May 7, 2025, targeting nine terrorist infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. At 1:44 am on that day, the Union government’s Press Information Bureau issued a statement informing the public of the same. later in the day, the Indian Armed Forces held a press conference in which Colonel Sophia Qureshi mentioned the exact timing of the operation. It took place between 1:05 am and 1:30 am.

Armed with this information, and using specific keywords and time filters we tried to find out who first tweeted and in a sense reported about Operation Sindoor.

Use of the Epoch Time Filter

Usually, Twitter advanced search only has a date filter, in which tweets between two particular days, or months or years can be searched. But to look for tweets between two different times on the same day, epoch time filter is useful. In simple language, epoch time is a single numerical format to represent any year, month, day and time. To filter tweets based on the time of the event, we have to convert the date and time of Operation Sindoor to epoch time.

For example, Operation Sindoor occurred on May 7, 2025 between 1:05 am and 1:30 am. The epoch time for this date and time can be calculated using various online epoch converters. We are using a website called vk2zay.net .

With the help of this tool, we found the epoch time of 1:05 am and 1:30 am on May 7, 2025.

The epoch time of 1:05 am on 7 May 2025 is 1746560100, while the epoch time of 1:30 am on 7 May 2025 is 1746561600.

Advanced Search

To search different keywords in a single search, they are separated by ‘OR’, while to search tweets between two moments, one has to use ‘SINCE:’ and ‘UNTIL:’ filters. In this case, our advanced search terms were: Fighter jet OR aircraft OR blast OR explosion OR Pakistan OR loud OR sound since:1746560100 until:1746561600

On searching these keywords with time filter, we found many tweets by Pakistani users which mentioned explosions and fighter jets flying.

The oldest tweet among all these was found by a user named Tahreem (X handle: @Fedfacforever), who tweeted at 1:09 am and mentioned spotting a fighter jet.

The same user went on to share more tweets on the same topic. One minute later, at 1.10 am, the user wrote, “There was light!!! This was a fighter jet Oh God People are sleeping what the hell!!! More tweets followed. At 1.14 am, they wrote, “This was a fighter jet! I can’t decide if it was Thunder or F-16”.

Readers should note that both JF-17 Thunder and F-16 are combat aircraft used by Pakistan Air Force.

To sum up, according to our findings, the 1.09am IST tweet by Pakistani X user Tehreem (@Fedfanforever) could be the first public mention of Operation Sindoor, (not by that name though). The airstrikes were thus reported on social media at least 35 minutes before the Indian government informed the public about the operation.

The post ‘Ya Allah. This was a fighter jet!!!!’: Pak X user’s tweet could be first ‘report’ on Operation Sindoor appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Abhishek Kumar.

2006 image from Odisha linked to recent anti-naxal operation in Chhattisgarh

Pawan Kumar — Tue, 10 Jun 2025 16:07:59 +0000

The central government, along with the administration in Chhattisgarh, has intensified its crackdown against Naxalism with its latest ‘Operation Kagar’. In the first four months of 2025, 197 Maoists have been killed, according to government data. This follows Union home minister Amit Shah‘s pledge last year to make India Naxalism-free by March 31, 2026.

Amidst this, on social media, a picture showing a row of women sitting next to burnt pyres covered in white was widely shared with claims that it is from Chhattisgarh. Those sharing it said it was sad that despite having Droupadi Murmu, a tribal woman, as the country’s President, over 400 innocent tribals in Chhattisgarh were labelled as Naxals (Maoists) and killed over the last six months. Additionally, they also questioned why India could not have peace talks with its own citizens when it can do so with terror groups and Pakistan.

Chhattisgarh has a fraught history with Naxalism and state action. Tribals in Chhattisgarh have, on several occasions, accused security forces of killing innocent villagers in fake encounters. (Examples here, here, here, here and here.)

Coming back to the viral image. Many shared the photo on Facebook with similar claims. (Archives 1, 2, 3)

Click to view slideshow.

On X, users Deepak Babu, Chandra Prakash Saini and Chhattisgarh Congress Sevadal shared the picture with similarly worded claims. (Archives 1, 2, 3)

Click to view slideshow.

The image was viral on LinkedIn and Instagram as well.

Note that the picture emerges after a major operation against Naxalites was carried out in the Abujhmad area of the Narayanpur district of Chhattisgarh on May 21. 27 Maoists, including the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist) general secretary Nambala Keshav Rao alias Basava Raju, were killed in this. However, readers must note that

Fact Check

Alt News did a reverse image search and found that the viral photo is actually several years old. We found a post from June 23, 2022, by social activist and Tribal Army founder Hansraj Meena, which said that 13 tribals were killed while protesting against their displacement owing to Tata Steel’s new factory in Kalinga Nagar in the Jajpur district of Odisha. They died in police firing, the post said.

The same image was also circulated on social media around October 9, 2024, by several writers and social activists following the death of Tata scion Ratan Tata, criticising the company’s actions.

Around that time, the image also resurfaced across several magazines and websites. An article from Pakshi magazine said that the photo showed funerals of 13 villagers who were killed in police firing during a protest against the Tata Steel plant in Kalinganagar on January 2, 2006.

Alt News also reached out to a senior journalist and activist from Odisha, who confirmed that the image was indeed from Kalinganagar.

Reports by BBC Hindi and The Hindu’s Frontline say that on January 2, 2006, police in Odisha opened fire on male and female tribals armed with traditional weapons (bows and arrows and axes), who were protesting the construction of a boundary wall for Tata Steel’s proposed steel plant in the state’s Kalinganagar. In less than an hour, paddy fields near the site of the incident were stained with blood and 12 people, including a 13-year-old student and three women, were killed. Demonstrators also killed a policeman.

In other words, the viral picture is not from Chhattisgarh and is unrelated to the recent anti-Naxal operation underway in the state. The image is from Odisha and shows the funerals of tribals who were killed in police firing in 2006.

The post 2006 image from Odisha linked to recent anti-naxal operation in Chhattisgarh appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Pawan Kumar.

Fan filming chat with Canadian cop in viral video is not Indian

Abhishek Kumar — Tue, 10 Jun 2025 08:00:08 +0000

After reports emerged that an Indian blogger was detained in Turkey for performing obscene acts, a video went viral on social media in which a man is seen recording his chat with a female police officer from Canada while praising her smile and physical appearance. It is written on the video that the police officer looks like an ‘OnlyFans’ model. Social media users are sharing the video criticizing the behaviour of the man, who, according to them, is an Indian.

It is worth noting that OnlyFans is an internet content subscription platform where models and creators upload their videos and in turn, their followers pay a subscription fee to get access to this content. A large number of creators often use the platform to monetise sexually explicit content.

A handle named Crime Reports India described the man recording the video as an Indian. (Archived link)

Quote-tweeting the viral video posted by another user, journalist and CEO of Rift TV Elijah Schaffer criticized Indian culture. (Archived link)

pic.twitter.com/Yoodyj1Jk0

— I,Hypocrite (@lporiginalg) June 1, 2025

Another user amplified the video and wrote that the Indian man compared a Toronto police officer to an OnlyFans model. Along with this, he also questioned why such miscreants had not been deported to their native country of India. (Archived link)

Fact Check

Alt News found the Instagram handle of the creator of this video, and the same individual who had first uploaded it. When we examined Jacojaki21’s Instagram account, we found that the user had posted several videos criticising Indians and making racist comments about them. This raises doubts about the claim that the man is an Indian.

Continuing our investigation further, we discovered that the videos uploaded by Jacojaki on Instagram also featured the username of the YouTube channel run by him named Monkey Donkey Brain. When we examined the content posted by this channel, we found that the user had uploaded several videos related to Sri Lankans living in Canada, including a Sri Lankan Fest, videos of Sri Lankans playing cricket, and videos related to a Sri Lankan Tamil mall in Canada, among others. In the video made in front of a Sri Lankan mall in Canada, Jacojaki said, “The Sri Lanka Festival is held every year in August, it is really great. I like it very much, I feel like I am in my own country.”

In addition, we also found a video uploaded on this channel on August 16, 2024. The description of the video stated, “I am a guy from Sri Lanka living in Toronto, Canada for the last 26 years.” He added that while he was aware of the potential consequences and dangers of talking to strangers, he liked the outcome of social experiments and seeing how people reacted in odd situations like his ‘monkey donkey’ behaviour.

So to sum up, many users shared a video of a man of Sri Lankan origin and falsely labeled him as Indian, using the footage to criticise Indians and question Indian culture.

The post Fan filming chat with Canadian cop in viral video is not Indian appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Abhishek Kumar.

Fan filming chat with Canadian cop in viral video is not Indian

Abhishek Kumar — Tue, 10 Jun 2025 08:00:08 +0000

A handle named Crime Reports India described the man recording the video as an Indian. (Archived link)

Quote-tweeting the viral video posted by another user, journalist and CEO of Rift TV Elijah Schaffer criticized Indian culture. (Archived link)

pic.twitter.com/Yoodyj1Jk0

— I,Hypocrite (@lporiginalg) June 1, 2025

Fact Check

So to sum up, many users shared a video of a man of Sri Lankan origin and falsely labeled him as Indian, using the footage to criticise Indians and question Indian culture.

The post Fan filming chat with Canadian cop in viral video is not Indian appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Abhishek Kumar.

Old video of police brutality from UP viral again. Action was taken against cops in 2017

Kinjal — Tue, 10 Jun 2025 07:55:47 +0000

A video depicting police brutality has surfaced on social media. In the video, two cops are seen torturing a man by placing a stick on his legs and standing on it, even as he screams in pain. The video is being shared as scenes from Uttar Pradesh and it is claimed that police under chief minister Yogi Adityanath are committing such atrocities on the public. X handle ‘Samajwadi Prahari’ posted this video with the same claim. (Archived link)

ये योगी जी का उत्तर प्रदेश है @Uppolice
और योगी जी की पुलिस है
जो जनता पर कर रही है अत्याचार https://t.co/z1wThqejhE

— Samajwadi Prahari (@SP_Prahari) June 4, 2025

X user ‘@parmanandyadavv’, who claims to be the national secretary of the student Council of the Samajwadi Party, posted this video as footage of ‘atrocities carried out by the Uttar Pradesh Police.’ (Archived link to the post)

Another X user posted this video with the claim that atrocities on the public had gone up under the BJP’s leadership.

ये योगी जी सरकार का उत्तर प्रदेश है
और योगी जी सरकार की पुलिस हैं
जो जनता पर कर रही है अत्याचार

बीजेपी सरकार में जनता पर दिन प्रतिदिन अत्याचार बढ़ता चला जा रहा है। pic.twitter.com/dPnDmHd8Q5

— DRx.Naved Raza (@NaveedR95475805) June 4, 2025

This video has also been shared on YouTube with the same claim. (Link)

Several users recently amplified the video on X as well.

Fact Check

Alt News had previously fact-checked this video back in August 2019. At the time, this footage was viral with the false claim that the ‘Gahmar Police beat up a boy for not serving them tea’.

According to a report by NDTV India dated November 19, 2017, the police had brutally beaten up the young man on charges of theft based on a woman’s complaint. After a video of the incident surfaced, the station in-charge of Paniyara police station was suspended.

Refuting the information in the viral post on June 5, 2025, the fact-checking wing of the Uttar Pradesh Police clarified that the video was actually of an incident that occurred in Maharajganj in 2017, in which appropriate action had been taken. According to a rebuttal letter by Maharajganj Police, in 2017, a woman had accused the alleged person of theft in the Paniyara district, after which he was called for questioning at the Paniyara station, with the video emerging later on. Action was taken against the sub-inspector and constable seen in the video. The police also urged people not to circulate the video of this old incident as recent.

#Maharajganjpolice
वर्ष 2017 की घटना को वर्तमान में सोशल मीडिया पर पोस्ट कर अफवाह फैलाने का प्रयास किया जा रहा है। उक्त वीडियो का वर्तमान से कोई संबंध नहीं है। https://t.co/XdrtBwF0xH
कृपया बिना सत्यापन भ्रामक पोस्ट न करें।@Uppolice @UPPViralCheck pic.twitter.com/S4y2lO1hwA

— MAHARAJGANJ POLICE (@maharajganjpol) June 5, 2025

To sum up, a video of police personnel beating up a boy on charges of theft in Uttar Pradesh’s Maharajganj is viral again with different claims. However, the incident is from 2017. The readers should note that in 2017 too, Yogi Adityanath was the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh.

The post Old video of police brutality from UP viral again. Action was taken against cops in 2017 appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Kinjal.

Old video of police brutality from UP viral again. Action was taken against cops in 2017

Kinjal — Tue, 10 Jun 2025 07:55:47 +0000

ये योगी जी का उत्तर प्रदेश है @Uppolice
और योगी जी की पुलिस है
जो जनता पर कर रही है अत्याचार https://t.co/z1wThqejhE

— Samajwadi Prahari (@SP_Prahari) June 4, 2025

Another X user posted this video with the claim that atrocities on the public had gone up under the BJP’s leadership.

ये योगी जी सरकार का उत्तर प्रदेश है
और योगी जी सरकार की पुलिस हैं
जो जनता पर कर रही है अत्याचार

बीजेपी सरकार में जनता पर दिन प्रतिदिन अत्याचार बढ़ता चला जा रहा है। pic.twitter.com/dPnDmHd8Q5

— DRx.Naved Raza (@NaveedR95475805) June 4, 2025

This video has also been shared on YouTube with the same claim. (Link)

Several users recently amplified the video on X as well.

Fact Check

Alt News had previously fact-checked this video back in August 2019. At the time, this footage was viral with the false claim that the ‘Gahmar Police beat up a boy for not serving them tea’.

#Maharajganjpolice
वर्ष 2017 की घटना को वर्तमान में सोशल मीडिया पर पोस्ट कर अफवाह फैलाने का प्रयास किया जा रहा है। उक्त वीडियो का वर्तमान से कोई संबंध नहीं है। https://t.co/XdrtBwF0xH
कृपया बिना सत्यापन भ्रामक पोस्ट न करें।@Uppolice @UPPViralCheck pic.twitter.com/S4y2lO1hwA

— MAHARAJGANJ POLICE (@maharajganjpol) June 5, 2025

The post Old video of police brutality from UP viral again. Action was taken against cops in 2017 appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Kinjal.

Give me screen time, I’ll give you fodder for communal debates: Shahabuddin Razvi’s give & take with news channels

Abhishek Kumar — Mon, 09 Jun 2025 16:34:42 +0000

Of late, ‘Maulana’ Shahabuddin Razvi Bareilvi, who claims to be the president of the All India Muslim Jamaat, has emerged as a favourite of several mainstream media channels, by dint of his consistency in making controversial statements. Keen to establish himself as a representative voice of Muslims, Shahabuddin often makes comments about the community which suit a particular political narrative. These statements are amplified on social media by news agencies, and lapped up by the TRP-hungry TV anchors. Prime-time ‘debates’ are then conducted on those bizarre and controversial topics. Once the uproar about one comment dies down, this cycle repeats itself.

Alt News ran a deep-dive investigation tracking Razvi’s comments and uncovered a pattern in how news channels used his statements to manufacture news, drive news cycles and spur communal debates. The chronology is as follows:

Initial contact: News agencies cover Shahabuddin Razvi Bareilvi’s controversial remarks. This makes it a topic of discussion.
Sensationalization through tweets: News agencies then tweet Bareilvi’s statement to ensure it gets circulated quickly. This leads to social media users resharing and reacting to it.
Reaction by politicians: News agencies approach religious leaders and members of various political parties to cover their reactions to Bareilvi’s statement and further sensationalize the issue.
Syndicated feed gets used by media outlets: The statement is then distributed to syndicated media partners, further increasing its reach across various platforms. This makes it a trending topic of discussion and guarantees wide circulation.
Prime-time programmes/debates: The remarks become a hot topic in prime-time TV debates/programmes, where news channels invite so-called religious experts and politicians to discuss Bareilvi’s comments. This often fuels further polarization.

Once, the debates and ‘news’ cycles born out of contentious remarks by the self-proclaimed ‘Maulana’ acquire a life of their own, they shape newer narratives around the Muslim community, often presenting them in a poor light. The media, as readers can see, plays a key role in this process of creating public opinion through sensational and communally charged stories.

Here are a few cases in example from the several instances that Alt News tracked:

Case 1: Maha Kumbh Held on Waqf Land

In a controversial statement to the media, Shahabuddin Razvi Bareilvi claimed that the Maha Kumbh, a religious festival and gathering of Hindus in Prayagraj, was being held on Waqf land. The media amplified Shahabuddin’s statement by tweeting it. The claim sparked a lot of debate and reactions on social media, with many people generalising Muslims and criticising an alleged divisive ploy behind of Shahabuddin’s statement.

Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh: National President of All India Muslim Jamaat, Maulana Shahabuddin Razvi says, “Muslims have always shown a big heart and there are many examples to prove it. In the context of Kumbh, when Akhara Parishad, Nagari sanyasis, and Swami Babas imposed… pic.twitter.com/rDu1cKJSBr

— IANS (@ians_india) January 5, 2025

News agency ANI then sought reactions from various religious Hindutva outfit leaders and politicians, including VHP spokesperson Vinod Bansal, Durga Vahini chief Sadhvi Ritambara, BJP MP Giriraj Singh, Hindu religious leader Rambhadracharya. Their reactions fueled further debates, and the media used these leaders’ comments to disseminate Shahabuddin Razvi Bareilvi’s narrative. The media’s role in this entire news cycle was crucial, that of a catalyst and amplifier.

#WATCH | On All India Muslim Jamaat president Maulana Shahabuddin Razvi Barelvi reportedly supporting the claim that the Maha Kumbh is being organised on Waqf land, VHP national spokesperson Vinod Bansal says, “…The ‘Namazwadi Party’ and the ‘Namazwadi Gang’ – one is saying… pic.twitter.com/rtnyqwtIK1

— ANI (@ANI) January 5, 2025

#WATCH | Mumbai, Maharashtra: On All India Muslim Jamaat president Maulana Shahabuddin Razvi Barelvi reportedly supporting the claim that the Maha Kumbh is being organised on Waqf land, Sadhvi Rithambara says, ” Everybody should attend the Maha Kumbh. After 12 Kumbhs, such… pic.twitter.com/GiT9iO40ZJ

— ANI (@ANI) January 5, 2025

#WATCH | Patna, Bihar: On All India Muslim Jamaat president Maulana Shahabuddin Razvi Barelvi reportedly supporting the claim that the Maha Kumbh is being organised on Waqf land, Union Minister Giriraj Singh says, “Some extremist Muslims want to disrupt the environment… The… pic.twitter.com/4gyrj3CpAn

— ANI (@ANI) January 6, 2025

#WATCH | Prayagraj, UP | On All India Muslim Jamaat president Maulana Shahabuddin Razvi Barelvi reportedly supporting the claim that the Maha Kumbh is being organised on Waqf land, Jagadguru Swami Rambhadracharya says, “… They are lying, Prayagraj belongs to us… Only… pic.twitter.com/qswIkLtyx1

— ANI (@ANI) January 8, 2025

Eventually, the topic reached prime-time bulletins leading media channels where absurd communal debates are the order of the day. Some of the big names among them included the state-run DD News, Zee News, News18, Times Now, and India Today.

#DoTook | Muslim Cleric Claims Maha Kumbh Being Held On Waqf Land!

Samajwadi Party spokesperson Bhuvan Bhaskar Joshi speaks regarding this type of comments regarding Maha Kumbh

Catch Debate Live: https://t.co/E1LIVacofD @AshokShrivasta6 | @BhuvanProf | #WaqfBoard |… pic.twitter.com/pa4Rtu3fCK

— DD News (@DDNewslive) January 6, 2025

Case 2: Cricketer Mohammed Shami Sipping Energy Drink

In another statement to a media outlet, Shahabuddin Razvi Bareilvi called cricketer Mohammed Shami a ‘criminal’ for consuming an energy drink during a match during the month of Ramzan. The comment attracted a lot of attention when the agency tweeted it, following which social media was flooded with reactions. Many people shared their views on social media and criticised it, including several Islamic scholars who termed Shahabuddin’s statement absurd.

#WATCH | Bareilly, UP: President of All India Muslim Jamaat, Maulana Shahabuddin Razvi Bareilvi says, “…One of the compulsory duties is ‘Roza’ (fasting)…If any healthy man or woman doesn’t observe ‘Roza’, they will be a big criminal…A famous cricket personality of India,… pic.twitter.com/RE9C93Izl2

— ANI (@ANI) March 6, 2025

The media agency also sought reactions from various religious leaders and politicians, including UP minister Danish Azad Ansari, Deobandi cleric Maulana Qari Ishaque Gora, BJP leader Chalavadi Narayanaswamy, BJP leader R Ashok, JDS MLC SL Bhojegowda, Karnataka Congress MLA Sharath Bachegowda, Congress MLA Rizwan Arshad, and Jama Masjid Imam Shahban Bukhari. These reactions contributed significantly to the ongoing debate. Once again, the media played a key role in amplifying Razvi’s comments.

#WATCH | Lucknow, UP: On President of All India Muslim Jamaat, Maulana Shahabuddin Razvi Bareilvi’s statement on cricketer Mohammed Shami, BJP leader Mohsin Raza says, ” This is a matter between the person and Allah and Mulla has no right to say in between. He (Mohammed Shami)… pic.twitter.com/Jwu6JzCSNu

— ANI (@ANI) March 6, 2025

#WATCH | Lucknow | On Maulana Shahabuddin Razvi Bareilvi’s statement on cricketer Mohammed Shami, Uttar Pradesh Minister Danish Azad Ansari says, “The whole of India and Muslims are with Mohammed Shami. Islam is a beautiful religion, and we should definitely think before saying… https://t.co/mPd1Mgbws6 pic.twitter.com/NO0KA8SAkA

— ANI (@ANI) March 6, 2025

#WATCH | Saharanpur, UP | On Maulana Shahabuddin Razvi Bareilvi’s statement on cricketer Mohammed Shami, Patron of Jamiat Dawat Ul Muslimeen and Deobandi ulema, Maulana Qari Ishaq Gora says, “…It is a rubbish and bogus statement. People have their own situations. If a person is… pic.twitter.com/UfSLOAqSig

— ANI (@ANI) March 6, 2025

#WATCH | Bengaluru | On Maulana Shahabuddin Razvi Bareilvi’s statement on cricketer Mohammed Shami, LoP in Legislative Council and BJP leader Chalavadi Narayanaswamy says, “I condemn the statements made by the Maulvis. Practising Islamism is different from sports. Shami is an… pic.twitter.com/yX5xBJ01ey

— ANI (@ANI) March 7, 2025

#WATCH | Bengaluru | On Maulana Shahabuddin Razvi Bareilvi’s statement on cricketer Mohammed Shami, Karnataka Assembly LoP and BJP leader R Ashok says, “He is representing India, not any community. He needs strength to play against another country, so I condemn the statement… pic.twitter.com/8t33S8Dyew

— ANI (@ANI) March 7, 2025

#WATCH | Bengaluru | On Maulana Shahabuddin Razvi Bareilvi’s statement on cricketer Mohammed Shami, JDS MLC S. L. Bhojegowda says, “Shami is an international sportsman. He has to go to other countries and his diet is also important… There are a lot of patients in the hospitals… pic.twitter.com/gi2vDlZ2Xr

— ANI (@ANI) March 7, 2025

#WATCH | Bengaluru | On Maulana Shahabuddin Razvi Bareilvi’s statement on cricketer Mohammed Shami, Karnataka MLA Sharath Bachegowda says, “The exact details of how the fast (Roza) was broken has not come out. As someone who is representing our country and helped us gain vistory… pic.twitter.com/Es7cA6509T

— ANI (@ANI) March 7, 2025

#WATCH | On Maulana Shahabuddin Razvi Bareilvi’s statement on cricketer Mohammed Shami, Congress MLA Rizwan Arshad says, “Shami is fulfilling dreams of millions of people and his primary duty is to play for the country. In Islam, when people are travelling or are unwell, they do… pic.twitter.com/xFo5Fmkp6L

— ANI (@ANI) March 7, 2025

#WATCH | Delhi | On Maulana Shahabuddin Razvi Barelvi’s statement on cricketer Mohammed Shami, Imam Shahban Bukhari of Jama Masjid says, “…He (Mohammed Shami) should not be trolled. Shariat allows us both ways – if he (Mohammed Shami) is on a journey, he can keep Roza (fast) or… pic.twitter.com/JXrmY4NXx1

— ANI (@ANI) March 7, 2025

As expected, the issue was widely covered by various media outlets through the news agency’s syndicated feed, increasing its reach. As the controversy gained momentum, it eventually made it to TV shows, where media coverage turned one person’s comments into a larger social issue. Two anchors from the news channel Times Now, Pratibha and Navika Kumar, mentioned Shahabuddin’s absurd statement in separate programmes. Two anchors from News24 also aired Shahabuddin’s statement in two separate TV programs. IBC24 also published a special report on Shahabuddin’s statement. News18 followed up with a program on Shahabuddin’s subsequent comment on the issue within a few days.

Indian pacer #MohammedShami targeted for ‘not keeping roza’

In Islam, fasting is a duty… If someone deliberately skips the fast, they are sinners. Cricketer Mohammed Shami also didn’t observe a fast; he has committed a sin…: Maulana Shahabuddin Barelvi, President, All India… pic.twitter.com/cogpYk5yOR

— TIMES NOW (@TimesNow) March 6, 2025

Case 3: Controversy over Salman Khan’s Ram Janmabhoomi Edition watch

Bareilvi, in another controversial comment to a news agency, criticised Bollywood actor Salman Khan for wearing a Ram Janmabhoomi Edition watch and called it ‘haram’ and un-Islamic. This comment, like his earlier statements, was amplified by the agency on X (Twitter), which led to a public reaction.

#WATCH | Bareilly, UP: On Actor Salman Khan, President of All India Muslim Jamaat, Maulana Shahabuddin Razvi Bareilvi says, “Salman Khan is a very famous personality in India… Salman Khan has been seen wearing a Ram edition watch to promote Ram Mandir… If any Muslim, even if… pic.twitter.com/nCGSGhddLM

— ANI (@ANI) March 28, 2025

Like in the earlier instances, the news agency then sought comments from politicians like Uttar Pradesh minister Danish Azad Ansari and Jaiveer Singh on Shahabuddin Razvi Bareilvi’s statement on Salman Khan, manufacturing a communal debate.

#WATCH | Lucknow | On Maulana Shahabuddin Razvi Bareilvi’s statement on Salman Khan, Uttar Pradesh Minister Danish Azad Ansari says, “India is moving towards Viksit Bharat 2047 and every community has an important role to play in this… We should focus on permissible things and… pic.twitter.com/o4M7i3FKxj

— ANI (@ANI) March 29, 2025

#WATCH | Lucknow | On Maulana Shahabuddin Razvi Bareilvi’s statement on Salman Khan, Uttar Pradesh Minister Jaiveer Singh says, “Radicalism is dangerous, whether from Muslim or from Hindu… What someone wears or eats is one’s personal matter and imposing religion on this is not… pic.twitter.com/ZYa2eXKLtH

— ANI (@ANI) March 29, 2025

As this piece of ‘news’ acquired a life of its own on social media and started getting viral, it helped create a public perception of Muslims in general as fanatics who are against individual expression.

Eventually, this matter, too, found coverage in prime-time TV programs, in which channels like News18, India Today, and News Nation played an important role in turning the remarks of a person known for controversial opinions into a wider social debate. News18 went a step further. They not only ran programs on it through Hindi channel News18 India, English channel CNN News18, News18 MP-Chhattisgarh, News18 UP Uttarakhand, News18 Bihar Jharkhand, and many other units, but also sought the reaction of everyday Muslims, as well as organising TV debates featuring politicians.

Case 4: Mohammed Shami’s Daughter Playing Holi

In another controversial statement reported by news agency PTI, Shahabuddin Razvi called the celebration of Holi by Indian bowler Mohammed Shami’s daughter ‘illegal’ and ‘against Sharia law’.

News agencies IANS and ANI recorded reactions on it from Madhya Pradesh minister Vishwas Sarang.

Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh: On National President of All India Muslim Jamaat, Maulana Shahabuddin Rizvi criticizing the daughter of Cricketer Mohammed Shami for playing Holi, Minister Vishvas Sarang says, “The way Maulana Shahabuddin Rizvi has threatened Mohammad Shami’s daughter is… pic.twitter.com/y2VTIkKQbK

— IANS (@ians_india) March 17, 2025

#WATCH | Bhopal: Madhya Pradesh minister Vishwas Sarang says, “The way Maulana Shahabuddin Razvi has threatened Mohammed Shami’s daughter is objectionable… How far will he go in his extremism? First, he targeted Mohammed Shami for drinking water during the match. Every religion… pic.twitter.com/YrbS0UIscz

— ANI (@ANI) March 17, 2025

Following this, Shahabuddin’s controversial statement was aired on various media outlets through PTI’s syndicate feed. And as usual, this statement eventually found space in the prime-time programmes of major news outlets including Aaj Tak, Times Now Navbhart, Republic Bharat, India Today, CNN News18, Zee News, ABP Ganga, NDTV, and Bharat 24. Times Now sensationalized it more than any other channel with at least three of its anchors, Swati, Pratibha and Priya Bahal conducting separate programmes on this issue.

Flurry of Fatwas

There are many other instances in which Shahabuddin Razvi Bareilvi has made bizarre statements and issued fatwas (a formal ruling or interpretation on a point of Islamic law given by a qualified legal scholar known as a mufti) that have not only fueled communal debates, but also contributed to a stereotyped portrayal of Islam and freedom of expression under it. These incidents again show how the media gives screen space to the self-proclaimed Maulana, amplifies such statements, and thereby generates a news cycle based on reactions from prominent figures. Here are some examples of fatwas that have influenced the public perception of this community.

In a statement to the media, Shahabuddin Razvi Bareilvi issued a fatwa against Muslims celebrating New Year on January 1, saying that it was for Christians and it was strictly forbidden for Muslims to observe any un-Islamic ritual.

#WATCH | Bareilly | National President of All India Muslim Jamaat, Maulana Shahabuddin Razvi Barelvi says, “Chashme Darfta Bareilly has issued a fatwa regarding the celebration of New Year… The young men and women who celebrate New Year have been instructed in this fatwa that… pic.twitter.com/jAiDdD4w6r

— ANI (@ANI) December 29, 2024

Issuing another fatwa for Muslim women, Shahabuddin Razvi Bareilvi told the media that after marrying non-Muslim men, they should not wear sindoor, kalawa and bindi as these were against the principles of Islam.

Maulana Shahabuddin Razvi Barelvi, president of All India Muslim Jamaat (#AIMJ) and well-known Islamic scholar, has issued a fatwa that says Muslim women who wear ‘sindoor’, ‘kalava’ and ‘bindi’ after marrying non-Muslim youth, are going against the tenets of Islam. pic.twitter.com/kAKFOuqlSz

— IANS (@ians_india) March 5, 2023

He also issued a fatwa against SP MLA Naseem Solanki for worshipping in a Shiva temple and lighting diyas during Diwali, saying that idol worship was considered haram in Islam. Apart from this, he advised Solanki that if he had done so unknowingly, he was guilty in the eyes of Shariat and should undergo repentance, adding that strict rules applied to those who knowingly engaged in such worship.

Kanpur: A fatwa was issued by Maulana Mufti Shahabuddin Razvi Barelvi, the national president of All India Muslim Jamaat, against SP candidate Naseem Solanki, who performed worship and lit diyas in a Shiva temple during Diwali.

He says, “Idol worship is forbidden in Islam. If… pic.twitter.com/CIfOU7CkE7

— IANS (@ians_india) November 2, 2024

Note that all these statements were covered by news agencies.

Social media also plays a key role in orchestrating news cycles around these statements. News agencies use X or Twitter to amplify Shahabuddin’s statements quickly, ensuring that they reached a large section of the audience. The tweets serve as the initial spark, generating reactions and reshares from social media users, which then turn into a full-blown blaze through syndicated feeds of various media platforms and prime-time programmes/debates.

Muslim Religious Leaders Reject Razvi’s Comments

During a press conference, Ittehad-e-Millat Council chief Maulana Tauqeer Raza remarked in March 2025 that Shahabuddin, who hailed from Bahraich, falsely described himself as a Bareilvi ulema. Raza said that Shahabuddin had no connection with Bareilly Markaz and accused him of trying to tarnish the reputation of Bareilly. He also accused the ‘Maulana’ of dragging Shariat into every big or small issue, adding that he should refrain from making statements that fueled unnecessary controversy. In response to Shahabuddin’s comments on Salman Khan’s Ram Mandir watch, Maulana Tauqeer Raza said that it was nit right to link such matters to Sharia and unnecessarily create controversies.

Speaking to Alt News, S M Yasin, joint secretary of Anjuman Intezamia Masjid committee, which manages the Gyanvapi Mosque, said that Razvi had no connection with Bareilly, yet wrote his name as Bareilvi (from Bareilly). He added, “He has nothing to do with the dargah of Bareilly. He is a very controversial man. He said that the Maha Kumbh which was happening recently, was on Waqf land, which I responded to, saying it was false. Similarly, he keeps giving some or the other statement every day which becomes news.”

Building Pro-BJP Narratives

Critics of Maulana Shahabuddin Razvi Bareilvi point to numerous instances in which Razvi’s comments, often interpreted as attempting to delegitimize dissenting voices, help bolster pro-BJP narratives, directly or indirectly.

Speaking about Bareilvi, Shaukat Ali, the Uttar Pradesh president of the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen, pointed out that Razvi’s comments often benefitted the BJP. Ali stated, “He works at the behest of the BJP, that is why he keeps making absurd statements every day. The BJP gets an opportunity to defame the image of Islam and Muslims, and the party easily succeeds in creating a Hindu-Muslim divide. In this way, the BJP gets benefited during the elections. Shahabuddin Razvi is not a resident of Bareilly, he was expelled from Dargah Aala Hazrat because of these absurd statements. He has also written letters to Yogi Adityanath several times requesting that he is made a member of the state Madrasa Board.”

In some instances, Razvi has openly supported the agenda of the BJP government. Before the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, Shahabuddin Razvi had appealed to the Muslims of India not to oppose Narendra Modi in the Lok Sabha elections.

‘Do not oppose PM Narendra Modi in elections’ – calls for self-reflection amid shifting political landscape: Mufti Shahabuddin to Muslims pic.twitter.com/oN1wZnbjKh

— IANS (@ians_india) February 25, 2024

He told Muslims that it was not the time to go for a clash with Narendra Modi, and urged them to extend a hand of friendship as he (Modi) wanted to ‘connect’ with Muslims.

Bareilly: National President of All India Muslim Jamaat, Maulana Mufti Shahabuddin Razvi Barelvi says, “Muslims should stop opposing Prime Minister Modi, he wants to connect with Muslims, now is not the time for conflict, extend the hand of friendship” pic.twitter.com/8IOeO348vE

— IANS (@ians_india) May 15, 2024

He also issued a statement in September 2024 on the Waqf (Amendment) Bill opposed by Muslims across the country and said that if the Bill was passed in the upcoming session, Muslims would welcome it. Not only this, Maulana Shahabuddin spoke against the appeal made by the All India Muslim Personal Law Board to all Muslims to wear a black band on Jumu’atul-Wida in protest against the Waqf (Amendment) Bill in March 2025, and told Muslims not to do so.

Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh: National President of All India Muslim Jamaat, Maulana Shahabuddin Razvi on AIMPLB’s appeal to all Muslims to wear black bands on Jumu’atul-Wida in protest against the Waqf (Amendment) Bill says, “…These religious leaders should understand that the… pic.twitter.com/qXnmUuqx9L

— IANS (@ians_india) March 28, 2025

He also commented on the results of by-elections held in Uttar Pradesh and elections held in Maharashtra, saying, Indian Muslims liked Prime Minister Narendra Modi, which is why they had openly supported the BJP in the polls.

Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh: Maulana Mufti Shahabuddin Razvi Barelvi, National President of the All India Muslim Jamaat, says, “…The Muslims of India prefer Prime Minister Narendra Modi, which is why in this election, Muslims have openly supported the Bharatiya Janata Party…” pic.twitter.com/kFEQBLliZ2

— IANS (@ians_india) November 23, 2024

Welcoming the notification of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), he had said that protests against this legislation from previous years occurred due to the misinformation spread by political entities among Muslims. He added that every Muslim of India should welcome the CAA. It is worth noting that nationwide protests were held by Muslims and civil society organizations against this law.

#WATCH | Bareilly, UP: On CAA notification, All India Muslim Jamaat President Maulana Shahabuddin Razvi Bareilvi says, “The Govt of India has implemented the CAA law. I welcome this law. This should have been done much earlier… There are a lot of misunderstandings among the… pic.twitter.com/6FSfPeTivR

— ANI (@ANI) March 12, 2024

Commenting on the distribution of ‘Saugat-e-Modi’ kits on Eid, Shahabuddin praised the Prime Minister and said that his aim was to develop positive relations with the Muslim community.

Bareilly: On the ‘Saugat-e-Modi’ Eid kits, All India Muslim Jamat’s chief, Maulana Shahabuddin Rizvi Barelvi, says, “Prime Minister Narendra Modi wants to maintain good relations with Muslims, and since becoming Prime Minister, he has visited Muslim-majority countries and Arab… pic.twitter.com/kt5A28GHdX

— IANS (@ians_india) March 26, 2025

While giving a statement on Jammu and Kashmir elections, he promoted the agenda of the BJP and praised Narendra Modi and Yogi Adityanath, saying that both these personalities were capable of fulfilling the dream of an ‘Akhand Bharat’.

Uttar Pradesh: Maulana Mufti Shahabuddin Razvi Bareilvi, National President of All India Muslim Jamaat, says, “Elections are currently underway in Jammu and Kashmir. During this time, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath made a strong statement, asserting that “India… pic.twitter.com/emvQCTPtmY

— IANS (@ians_india) September 28, 2024

Taken together, it is clear that Shahabuddin Razvi Bareilvi and his statements are a good example of how ‘news’ and communal debates are manufactured by the Indian media. When his controversial statements are amplified and a news cycle is generated, it not only leads to polarization in society, but often portrays the Muslim community in a negative light, and plays a role in shaping people’s perception of the community overall. It surely points to a nexus between him and these news outlets.

However, Razvi’s bizarre statements, which often align with the ruling party’s agenda, also raise questions about the motives behind his self-aggrandizement. Is he merely a part of a news manufacturing business run by media companies, or is he being used as a tool with political purposes? If at the end of the day, his remarks almost always benefit the ruling dispensation, one can’t help wondering how deep the nexus runs.

Alt News Spoke to the ‘Maulana’

Alt News spoke to ‘Maulana’ Shahabuddin over phone. Here are a few excerpts from the conversation:

Question: Your statements are constantly making headlines in the media. Does the media approach you or do you inform the media that you want to issue a statement?

Answer: There are many issues on which I have my own viewpoint which I want to present, so I record the statement myself and send it to the media, or in some cases I call up media persons. Sometimes it also happens that on many issues, people from the media come to me and ask for my views and reactions, which I then respond to. I present my views on whatever I feel is right and in the interest of my society and country.

Question: In many cases, a pattern has been observed that when the media obtains a statement from you on an issue, it also approaches different leaders to get their reactions on your statement, and your statement is coloured in such a way that it appears as the view of the entire Muslim community.

Answer: These are the responsibilities, likes and dislikes of these people. I cannot stop anyone. People are free, and every person has the right to state their opinion as per their wish. Whatever the media persons do is their choice, I cannot say anything to them.

Question: Don’t you think you are being used as a medium, where the reactions of others are sought on your statement and it is then converted into a controversy so the topic can become a prime-time debate? For example, when you issued a statement on Salman Khan’s Ram Mandir edition watch, the media sought the reactions of different people on it…

Answer: Getting statements and reactions is the media’s job, its responsibility. They fulfill their responsibility, and everyone should fulfill their responsibility. I do not compromise with anyone in the matter of Shariat, whether someone is powerful or not, even if it is myself. If someone questions me on it, I will answer. Shariat is not dependent on whether someone is powerful or not. Kings and rickshaw drivers are equal before it. I do not compromise with anyone when it comes to the matter of Shariat. I will say whatever I feel is right and true openly.

Question: In your statements that get covered by the media, you have issued multiple appeals to support Narendra Modi. Even during the Lok Sabha elections, you said that Muslims should not oppose Narendra Modi. Many people keep accusing you regarding this, like AIMIM Uttar Pradesh chief Shaukat Ali, who stated that you worked at the behest of the BJP and you wanted to become a member of the Madrasa Board. Apart from this, he also alleged that you are not a resident of Bareilly.

Answer: I have also opposed the BJP, Mr. Yogi and Mr. Modi on many occasions. I affirm that since my birth, I have been living in Bareilly, and it has been some 40 years. No person can prove that I have ever appealed to the people to support the BJP. May Allah curse those who lie. It is very easy to accuse others, but when proof is demanded, people start looking here and there. I hope Allah gives them wisdom and understanding and brings them salvation.

Question: S M Yasin of the Gyanvapi Mosque stated that your remarks create controversy and they ae meant for making headlines. For example, you spoke about the Kumbh Mela being held on Waqf land.

Answer: The Kumbh Mela was being held on thousands of bighas of land, out of which 55 bighas of land is Waqf land. The context behind that statement was that when the Akhada Parishad had announced that shops belonging Muslims would not be set up there. I had responded that while Muslims were showing their big hearts and generosity, members of the Akhada Parishad were demonstrating lack thereof. They should have also shown their generosity. The area which forms part of the 55 bighas of Waqf land in the Kumbh Mela is called Jhunsi. There is a Sufi scholar there, a dargah, and a tomb which has a Waqf in its name, and 189 is its Waqf number. I had said this then, and even today I stand by my statement.

Question: There are many statements of yours which are used to paint all Muslims in the same colour. While your statements are your personal opinion, the media presents them in a way that suggests that those are the opinions of all Muslims in general. What do you have to say about such geenralization?

Answer: Shariat has its own rules. If any Muslim, young or old, speaks against Shariat, works against it, or breaks its rules, he will be punished. It is my responsibility to warn him, tell him that he has done something that violates the Shariat. I did the same with Mr. Shami who, in the month of Ramzan in broad daylight, drank a cold drink in front of thousands of people on the cricket ground. Fasting is compulsory, it has an important place in Islam. First, he did not fast. Then, despite being in front of everyone, whether it was a need or a compulsion, Mr. Shami drank the cold drink in broad daylight. This was an insult to fasting, so I spoke out on that issue. I did not say anything about his marital affairs, that he was on the verge of divorce from his wife, or what he eats at home. Neither did I comment on what he wears, be that underwear or a half-shirt, or suggest that he does not read Namaz. I did not say anything else about what he practices, I only spoke on the issue of Shariat. I am a religious leader, a scholar, and it is my responsibility to stop a Muslim from going down the wrong path. No one should feel bad about this. Similarly, Salman Khan and Mr. Shami being public figures does not mean they do not come under the purview of Shariat. In Shariat, there is no one big or small, its order applies equally to everyone. If anyone acts against Shariat, they will be caught, and informing them is my responsibility.

Question: Religion is a personal matter, including how one prays and connects with Allah. The way your statement was aired in the media, don’t you think it constitutes an attack on someone’s personal freedom, because the relationship between God and an individual is personal? This relationship is considered very pure or sacred. The way your statement was peddled in the media to create a public debate out of this, was it not an attempt to publicly embarrass him?

Answer: What can I do to the media within my rights? I cannot do anything, I cannot tie the hands and feet of the media. I do not have any such authority. All I can do is that if someone asks me about an issue, I will tell them, as this is my responsibility. I studied in a Madrasa for 12 years for this very reason. If I had not studied in a Madrasa for 12 years, I would have worn pants and a shirt and I would have gone somewhere to start a business or do a job, and my responsibility would have ended. Allah has made me aalim-e-deen, so I will keep talking about these issues. You can object as much as you want or do whatever you want, write against me or write in my support, I do not care. I will keep talking about Shariat, this is my responsibility.

The post Give me screen time, I’ll give you fodder for communal debates: Shahabuddin Razvi’s give & take with news channels appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Abhishek Kumar.

AI clip of man’s narrow escape from lioness viral as real incident; Republic, News18 misreport, later tweak story

Ankita Mahalanobish — Mon, 09 Jun 2025 16:13:39 +0000

Late-night CCTV footage showing a lioness walking on the streets and sniffing a man sleeping on the road before walking away from him has shocked internet users. The video was widely shared on social media, leaving many stunned at the man’s narrow escape. A few news outlets also published reports based on the viral clip, suggesting this happened somewhere in India.

On June 7, 2025, Republic published an article titled ‘Lion Roams On Street, Sniffs Man And…: Terrifying Video Is Not A Movie Scene‘. “A chilling video has surfaced on social media, showing a fully grown wild lion walking on the streets and sniffing a man sleeping on the footpath,” it said. “While the location of the incident remains unclear, the video surely leaves us with goosebumps. The viral video also shows the thin line between survival and danger when faced with nature’s most fearsome predators,” the report added.

On the same day, News18 also published a report titled ‘Lion Spared Sleeping Man’s Life In Bizarre Street Encounter‘.

Local news outlet MaharashtraTV24 also shared the video on its YouTube channel.

X users SilencedSirs (@SilentlySirs) and Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) also shared the purported video, claiming that a man sleeping by the road had a narrow escape. At the time of writing this, @SilentlySirs X post had over 2.5 million views.

X account Update News (@UpdateNews724), which claims in its bio that it serves global news and real-time updates, also shared and amplified the video, claiming an Indian man sleeping on the street survived a lion attack. The post had over 22.5 million views at the time of writing this.

Several other social media users shared the video with similar claims.

Click to view slideshow.

Fact Check

To verify the video, we watched it a few times. This revealed several discrepancies that raise doubts about whether the footage is of an actual incident. For instance, we noticed that the words appearing on the banner of the storefront near the sleeping man are gibberish; they look similar to the Devanagari script but do not form a word in Hindi or Gujarati. Also, the posture of the man lying on the ground seems unnatural; the placement of the leg is odd, and it folds near the thigh instead of the knee. We have highlighted these below.

We then did a reverse image search on a few key frames from the video. This led us to a YouTube short, uploaded by a Brazilian channel named ‘The world of beasts’. The video caption roughly translates to, ‘Lion finds a man sleeping on the street in Gujarat’.

The video’s description explicitly says that the content is altered or synthetic. It reads: “Sound or visuals were significantly edited or digitally generated.”

The description of the YouTube channel also says that it shares content and designs that are generated using artificial intelligence.

We then analysed the video using an AI-detection tool, which claimed that it was 90% likely that the footage was generated using AI.

Also, note that both Republic and News18 later updated their articles. Republic updated its report to: ‘Lion Roams On Street, Sniffs Man And…: Chilling Video Surfaced On Social Media Is AI Generated?’ while the revised headline of the News18 report reads: ‘Lion Spared Sleeping Man’s Life In Bizarre Street Encounter? Video Goes Viral.‘ The latter also added that they were unable to verify the authenticity of the video independently.

To sum up, the widely circulated video of a lioness roaming the streets at night and sniffing a man sleeping on the roadside before walking away is AI-generated. It does not depict an actual incident that happened in India.

The post AI clip of man’s narrow escape from lioness viral as real incident; Republic, News18 misreport, later tweak story appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Ankita Mahalanobish.

Misa Bharti’s luxurious house? Alt News traces viral video to Turkmenistan-based realtor’s TikTok account

Shinjinee Majumder — Mon, 09 Jun 2025 15:57:12 +0000

In the run-up to the Bihar assembly elections scheduled later this year, a video of a hijab-clad woman showcasing a luxury house has gone viral on social media with claims that the house belongs to Rashtriya Janata Dal MP Misa Bharti, daughter of former Bihar chief minister and veteran RJD leader Lalu Prasad Yadav.

X user @abhi_tripati tweeted the viral video, sarcastically remarking that the viral video was of Yadav’s “exploited, backward, utterly poor daughter showing her broken, dilapidated hut”. The tweet garnered over 6.5 Lakh views at the time of this report being written. (Archive)

लालू की अति शोषित, अती पिछड़ी , अत्यंत गरीब पुत्री अपनी टूटी फूटी झोपडी दिखाते हुए
pic.twitter.com/eR6STwW916

— अभिषेक त्रिपाठी (@abhi_tripati) June 5, 2025

Another X user, @rose_k01, tweeted the viral video with the same claim. The tweet, which was later deleted, garnered over 6 Lakh views. Here is an archive.

Several other users also made the same claim while sharing the video. (Archives- 1, 2, 3)

Click to view slideshow.

The video is also viral on Facebook with the same claim.

Click to view slideshow.

Fact Check

We ran the viral video through Google reverse image search and found the same video uploaded by a Nigerian Facebook user. We also reviewed other videos on his profile and found two more clips featuring the same woman taking viewers around two different houses in a similar fashion. Here and here are the links to those videos.

We performed a reverse image search using keyframes from one of the other videos. We were subsequently led to a TikTok account with the username @musa_realtor. One of the pinned videos of the TikTok profile was the viral video with 11 million views. The video had been posted on June 1, the earliest instance of this particular video.

We noticed that several videos on this particular TikTok account featured the woman seen in the viral video. The profile was also filled with house-tour videos, indicating that it belonged to a real estate-focused social media account. We ran the phone number listed on the account through Truecaller and found that it was based in Turkmenistan. The Truecaller ID also included the word ‘realtor’.

In one of the videos, the woman seen in the viral clip is shown celebrating with a cake. This video offers a closer look at her, allowing us to confidently ascertain that she is not Misa Bharti.

Moreover, Bharti took to Twitter to deny the claims made about her. In a sarcastic response to X user @rose_k01, she asked them to share the address of the house so that she could visit it herself.

As it stands, several X users shared a video of a woman showing a luxurious house claiming that the house belonged to RJD MP Misa Bharti. In reality, we were able to trace the video to a Turkemnitsan-based real estate TikTok account.

The post Misa Bharti’s luxurious house? Alt News traces viral video to Turkmenistan-based realtor’s TikTok account appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Shinjinee Majumder.

Kangana Ranaut was not shown the middle finger at a performance; viral video is from an event in Pakistan

Ankita Mahalanobish — Fri, 06 Jun 2025 05:21:36 +0000

A video, seemingly taken by someone in the audience during a public performance, in which event attendees are showing the middle finger to someone on stage has gone viral. Those sharing the video on social media claim that these gestures were made at Bollywood actor and filmmaker Kangana Ranaut during a concert. Ranaut is affiliated with the Bharatiya Janata Party and represents Himachal Pradesh’s Mandi district in the lower house of the Parliament.

On June 3, X user Amit Yadav (@Amityad6389) shared the viral video and claimed that members affiliated with Hindu organisations, upset with her over something, showed her the middle finger in public. (Archive)

बड़ी खबर

खबर रोमांचक है बीजेपी से कंगना रनौत किसी शो में गई हुई थी।

उन्हें किसी बात को लेकर हिंदू संगठन के लोगो ने मिडिल फिंगर दिखा कर विरोध किया।

कंगना रनौत ने ये सब देखते ही कहा कि कैमरा मैंन अच्छे से दिखाइए और इन लोगों को वायरल कर दीजिए।

फिर क्या था वायरल तो होना ही… pic.twitter.com/Ft9H1iBOhn

— Amit Yadav (@Amityad6389) June 3, 2025

On June 4, media outlet LocalTak (@localtak) also shared the purported video alleging that members of a Hindu organisation protested against Ranaut during a show by showing her the middle finger. (Archive)

was attending a show when members of a Hindu group showed her the middle finger in protest!

Instead of reacting with anger, Kangana calmly turned to the cameraman and said, “Zoom in properly and make them viral.”
Well… viral it definitely went!#kanganaranaut #middlefinger… pic.twitter.com/mDVZmbdaPz

— LocalTak (@localtak) June 4, 2025

Another X user, Amock (@amock2029), also shared the clip, claiming that the actor-turned-politician was disrespected. (Archive)

Kangana Ranaut Itni beijjati pic.twitter.com/iee8GCQQPq

— Amock (@amock2029) June 3, 2025

Several other social media users have shared the same video with similar claims.

Click to view slideshow.

Fact Check

We watched the video closely several times and noticed the words ‘Q High Street’ displayed on the stage in the video. Q High Street is a commercial property in Lahore, Pakistan.

During our investigation, we also found that Q High Street had organised an automotive event, Pak Wheels Auto Show, on May 25. The event featured a performance by Young Stunners, a popular hip-hop duo in Pakistan.

We found several posts on Q High Street’s Instagram page, featuring Young Stunner’s performance. Noticeably, the backdrop of the videos here was identical to the one that went viral.

Click to view slideshow.

Taking cue from this, we looked for full videos of the performance and found one on YouTube uploaded on May 29, 2025. At the 3:15-minute mark of the video, the same woman who is seen in the viral clip appears as the event’s emcee. It’s fairly clear that she is not Kangana Ranaut.

Here’s the video:

To sum up, the viral video is from an event in Lahore, Pakistan. It does not depict members of a Hindu organisation showing the middle finger to Kangana Ranaut. The woman appearing in the video is not the Bollywood actor.

(With inputs from Diti Pujara)

The post Kangana Ranaut was not shown the middle finger at a performance; viral video is from an event in Pakistan appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Ankita Mahalanobish.

‘Jihadis’ pelting stone at paramilitary convoy in Kashmir after India-Pak ceasefire? Old video, false claim

Pawan Kumar — Wed, 04 Jun 2025 05:04:27 +0000

A video in which a group of people are seen throwing stones at vehicles passing through a valley has been doing the rounds on social media. Sounds of gunshots are also heard in the background amidst cries of ‘मारो-मारो’ (Hit them). Social media users are sharing the video and claiming that following the ceasefire between India and Pakistan, CRPF and CISF convoys were returning to Jammu & Kashmir when ‘jihadis’ started pelting stones at them. It has also been claimed that security forces were forced to to fire in the air, during which a stampede occurred and nine stone pelters purportedly died after slipping and falling down the slopes.

X handle @maheshyagyasain, which identifies itself as a ‘fan of Godse’, made a similar claim while sharing the video. (Archived link)

X User @sanatani_6, who has been found sharing misinformation on several occasions in the past, and numerous other X users also shared the videos with similar claims. (Archived link 1, link 2)

Same Video, Different Claims

We found that a Facebook page named Utishtha Bharata had shared the same footage targeting the Muslim community. The caption says, “Jihadis pelted stones on a convoy going to visit Vaishno Devi”. (Archived link)

X users Amitabh Chaudhary, who have been known to amplify communal propaganda and misinformation, and BJP supporter KV Iyyar also shared the video claiming it showed people in PoK ‘welcoming’ Pakistan army personnel. (Archived link 2, link 3)

Click to view slideshow.

Fact Check

We performed a reverse image search on a few frames taken from the viral video. We found the source video uploaded on a Facebook page named Indian Military Updates – IMU on May 15, 2024. In other words, this video is more than a year old. The caption states that it shows Kashmiris pelting stones at a convoy of Pakistani security forces in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir.

Along with this, we came across another similar video on the same Facebook page, which stated that Kashmiris pelted stones at vehicles carrying Pakistani security forces (Rangers) in Pakistan occupied Kashmir’s Muzaffarabad.

Using this information as a clue, Alt News performed a keyword search. This led us to a report by Al Jazeera published on May 14, 2024, which talks about a protest rally by a group called Jammu Kashmir Joint Awaami Action Committee (JAAC), which had been marching towards Muzaffarabad in PoK since May 11, demanding subsidised flour and electricity, among other things.

“Our protesters were completely peaceful but the government’s decision to call in rangers meant that they wanted to use force against us, and now we see that three people were killed,” JAAC Chairman Shaukat Nawaz Mir told Al Jazeera.

India Today and The Free Press Journal also reported that protests against the rising prices of food, fuel, and electricity in PoK intensified and slogans of azadi (freedom) were raised.

We also found a report on the official YouTube channel of Pakistani media outlet Dawn News titled, “Video of stone pelting on Rangers from hills in Azad Kashmir.”

In May 2024, a user on reddit.com shared the same video identifying Lohar Gali as the location where the stone-pelting occurred.

We searched for Lohar Gali, Muzaffarabad on Google Maps to verify the location. This led us to a view of a winding road similar to the one seen in the viral video as well as a Street View snapshot near a bridge constructed over flowing waters. This makes it clear that the incident is indeed from Lohar Gali, Muzaffarabad in PoK.

To sum it up, a one-year-old video of stone pelting on vehicles belonging to Pakistani security forces (Rangers) by protesters in Muzaffarabad, PoK, was falsely circulated with several misleading claims.

The post ‘Jihadis’ pelting stone at paramilitary convoy in Kashmir after India-Pak ceasefire? Old video, false claim appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Pawan Kumar.

UN modified resolution on Pahalgam? Kiran Bedi shares unverified, false claims ‘based on a shared post’

Kinjal — Tue, 03 Jun 2025 11:57:24 +0000

Days after terrorists shot dead 26 civilians in the picturesque Baisaran Valley, in Pahalgam, Kashmir, several claims regarding the United Nations condemning the terrorist attack have been doing the rounds on social media. One such claim, being widely shared as a message across social media platforms, says that in the UN’s condemnation resolution, Pakistan was able to get a clause inserted that terrorists did not kill civilians after asking about their religious identity. Pakistan reportedly showed X posts and videos from 12 of India’s Opposition leaders to China, including Congress’s chief spokesperson Pawan Khera and Supriya Shrinate, Samajwadi Party’s Akhilesh Yadav, and Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, among others to prove their point.

Following this, China, using its veto power in the UN, got the bit about terrorists killing people after enquiring about their faith removed from the condemnation resolution.

Former IPS officer Kiran Bedi (@thekiranbedi) posted this message on X on May 22, 2025. At the time of writing this, it had over a million views. (Archive)

Based on a shared post.

In the condemnation resolution presented by the United Nations on the Pahalgam attack, Pakistan was successful in getting a clause inserted that

“The terrorists did not kill after asking about religion…!”

To do this, Pakistan showed the tweets and…

— Kiran Bedi (@thekiranbedi) May 22, 2025

On May 2, 2025, X user ‘@mr_pathakshiv’ also shared this message.

Vivek Pandey, whose bio says he is the general secretary of Kisan Morcha Varanasi, BJP, blamed Opposition leaders. (Archive)

अखिलेश यादव,सुप्रिया श्रीनेत ,सिद्दारमैया के ट्वीट के कारण पाकिस्तान ने UN में पहलगाम हिंदु नरसंहार निंदा प्रस्ताव से ये हटाने में सफल रहा कि आतंकियों ने धर्म पूछकर कपड़े उतरवाकर गोली नहीं मारी ।

— Vivek Pandey (@INDVivekPandey_) May 3, 2025

The message was widely shared on X and Facebook. Alt News also received several requests to fact check this message on our WhatsApp helpline number (+91 76000 11160).

Click to view slideshow.

Fact Check

Alt News examined the United Nations’ condemnation resolution on the Pahalgam terror attack. However, we did not find anything in the press statement on the clause that Pakistan reportedly inserted regarding terrorists not killing civilians after asking about their faith. Alt News also checked the United Nations’ daily briefing, but there was no mention of it here either.

The viral post also claims that Pakistan was able to get the clause that “terrorists did not kill people by asking their religion” added by showing statements from 12 Opposition leaders. The message includes Congress chief spokespersons Pawan Khera and Supriya Shrinate, Samajwadi Party’s Akhilesh Yadav, and Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, among others.

In April, Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah had said he was not in favour of war. His statement did not go down well with some camps and many news outlets called it contentious. Soon after this, another state leader, RB Timmapur, had claimed, “When they were carrying out the terrorist attack, I think they did not ask about religion. If they did, then politicising the issue based on religion by using his statement [Siddaramaiah’s] is madness”. (News reports 1, 2, 3)

Siddaramaiah had clarified that all he meant was that war should be a nation’s last resort. But opposition leaders from the BJP had called the statements by the two leaders insults to the victims’ families. Besides this controversy, Alt News found no news reports that corroborate that Khera, Shrinate, Yadav or Siddaramaiah said anything along similar lines. Thus, the claim that Opposition leaders made statements that “terrorists did not ask about religion before they killed” is also not true.

In fact, on May 23, Pawan Khera had even responded to Kiran Bedi’s X post, saying, “I expected better than this from you. If an educated person like you can fall prey to fake propaganda without verifying facts, how can we expect anything from those who have a degree in entire political science? Apologise and delete or be prepared to face legal action.”

I expected better than this from you. If an educated person like you can fall prey to fake propaganda without verifying facts, how can we expect anything from those who have a degree in entire political science?
Apologise and delete or be prepared to face legal action. https://t.co/eH2iohvdSM

— Pawan Khera (@Pawankhera) May 23, 2025

After Khera’s post, Bedi had also replied to her own tweet that someone mentioned in the viral message had informed her that the contents of the post were factually incorrect. She added that she urged him to counter the message, but did not delete her post.

I have been informed by someone mentioned in the above forward that the contents in the message are factually incorrect. Am happy to hear if it is. It’s a relief.
I have requested him to counter the message in all fairness, and tag me too for larger reach.

— Kiran Bedi (@thekiranbedi) May 23, 2025

Note that this is not the first time Kiran Bedi has posted unverified claims on social media ‘based on shared posts’. Alt News has documented this before. Read: Compilation of Kiran Bedi’s fake WhatsApp forwards

The post UN modified resolution on Pahalgam? Kiran Bedi shares unverified, false claims ‘based on a shared post’ appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Kinjal.

A beef over buff: Vigilantes in Aligarh assaulted Muslims over buffalo meat, booked them for cow slaughter

Shinjinee Majumder — Tue, 03 Jun 2025 10:08:57 +0000

A strange series events unfolded in Uttar Pradesh’s Aligarh in the last week of May. A mob with links to Hindutva groups brutally thrashed four Muslim men over suspicion of transporting cow meat. Horrific videos of the assault showed the victims in a bloodied state, stripped as they were beaten black and blue. Lab reports later found no trace of cow meat being transported. However, the police complaint filed by one of the assailants against the victims, invoking the state ban on cow slaughter, remains.

The incident raises several concerns. One, the unchecked rise of cow vigilantism in the country, which seems to be turning into an extortion racket. Two, the state of law and order in Uttar Pradesh. Three, the basic knowledge regarding different kinds of bovine meat and the legal implications of consuming or transporting them, which seems to evade many so-called cow protection activists or gau rakshaks. And lastly, just how easily cow protectionism can be used to target a community.

On May 24, a mob associated with a Hindutva group assaulted four Muslim men, Akeel, Kadeem, Akil and Arbaaj, near Aligarh’s Alhadadpur village for allegedly transporting beef. According to a first information report (FIR) filed by the victims, they were transporting meat from the Al Ammar Meat Factory in Aligarh to Atrauli town in a pickup truck as part of their daily routine.

The Assault

The complaint filed by the victims alleged that Ramkumar Arya, a resident of Harduaganj, and Arjun alias Bholu, allegedly conspired and sent several people as soon as their vehicle reached the road from Paneethi to Sadhu Ashram. These people stopped the vehicle, pulled out these four Muslim men and demanded a sum of Rs 50,000. When two of the men transporting the meat, Akeel and Arbaaj, refused to pay, two men—later identified as Ravindra alias Bunty and Luvkush—ordered the others to beat them up. This mob attacked the transporters with iron rods, sticks, batons, and sharp weapons, besides looting cash and mobile phones. Their vehicle was also set ablaze.

According to the FIR, the victims were in a critical, near-death condition while being held hostage. The assailants allegedly fled from the scene after the police arrived.

Note that the men were transporting meat from one of the factories of Al Ammar Frozen Foods Exports Pvt. Ltd, an Aligarh-based meat company authorised by the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority to transport and export buffalo meat. The FIR, filed by the father of one of the victims, also alleged that those accused in this case had similarly tried to stop a vehicle from the Al Ammar meat factory 15 days ago and tried to extort a sum of Rs 50,000 then too. At the time, the Akrabad police rescued the vehicle, it said.

Sections 3(5) (common intention), 109 (abetment of offences), 190 (liability of members of unlawful assembly), 191(2) (rioting), 191(3) (rioting with deadly weapons), 308(5) (extortion by threat of death or grievous hurt), and 310(2) (dacoity) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita were invoked in the FIR filed on behalf of the victims at Harduaganj police station. Those named as accused in the case are Ramkumar Arya, Arjun (Arjun Singh Bholu), Chetan Lodhi, Shivam Hindu, Ravindra alias Bunty, Luvkush, Anuj Thakur Bhoora, Vijay, Girish Kumar Singh Pradhan, Ankit Mahmoodpur, Rana Ahladpur and Vijay Kumar Guma. There were about 20-25 unnamed assailants.

Update: FIR was registered against VHP leader Ramkumar Arya, BJP leader Arjun Singh, Shivam Hindu and many others for assaulting, looting cash and demanding extortion of Rs 50,000 from meat suppliers. pic.twitter.com/6wCDdjnqpg

— Mohammed Zubair (@zoo_bear) May 25, 2025

Interestingly, an FIR was filed against the victims by a man named Vijay Bajrangi, accusing them under sections of the U.P. Prevention of Cow Slaughter Act, 1955. In this FIR, Bajrangi said he received a tip-off regarding beef being transported on the morning of May 24. He then followed the vehicle on Panaithi Road, Alhadadpur village. Bajrangi alleged that the vehicle tried to crush his bike and he lost balance. Upon seeing this, local labourers and farmers ran towards the spot, and the four men attacked them. Bajrangi claimed he spotted seven decapitated cows in the vehicle. He alleged that the four men were smuggling cow meat after bribing the police with a sum of Rs 3 lakh. He also claimed the same vehicle was brought to the police’s attention 15 days ago for transporting beef.

Bajrangi was among the three people arrested in the case by the Aligarh police on May 26.

Not Cow, Buffalo Meat

On May 28, four days after the incident, Aligarh police revealed that meat from the vehicle was sent for testing and lab reports confirmed it was not cow meat. A Times of India report, citing the Food Science Laboratory’s report, said that the men were transporting buffalo meat. By then, the police had made one more arrest in the case.

थाना हरदुआगंज- अवगत कराना है कि दिनांक 24.05.25 को पनैठी साधु आश्रम मार्ग पर मीट व्यापारियों के साथ मारपीट की घटना कारित की गई, पुलिस टीम द्वारा तत्काल मौके पर पहुँचकर पीडितों को निकालकर अस्पताल में भर्ती कराया गया, दोनो ही पक्षों की तत्काल एफआईआर पंजीकृत की गई, मारपीट करने वाले… pic.twitter.com/454L86TJlz

— ALIGARH POLICE (@aligarhpolice) May 28, 2025

Under Section 5 of the U.P. Prevention of Cow Slaughter Act, 1955, which was amended through Ordinance in 2020, selling, transporting or offering to sell or transport beef or beef products (beef here refers to cow meat or cow flesh) is banned in the state and is a punishable offence, unless for medicinal reasons. Meat can be imported in sealed containers under certain conditions.

Section 5A of the Act says nobody can transport or offer to transport or cause a cow, bull or bullock to be transported from anywhere within Uttar Pradesh to outside the state, except under a permit issued by an officer authorised by the state government through a notified order and only by the terms and conditions of such a permit. Penalty for breaking the law is punishable with imprisonment for three to 10 years and a fine between Rs 3 lakh to Rs 5 lakh.

Note that the state has not banned the sale, transport, export or consumption of buffalo meat (buff) or carabeef. In fact, UP contributes significantly to buffalo meat exports from India. However, a crackdown by cow vigilantes, such as those in Aligarh, has threatened to disrupt business and law and order several times in the past. Armed by the sentiment around cow protectionism without realising the difference between different bovine meats, vigilantes have often attacked certain groups with impunity.

One of the videos of the Aligarh incident that surfaced online precisely illustrates this. The video showed that the vehicle was laden with skinned meat and bovine carcasses. Since these weren’t live animals, the vigilantes had no way of conclusively determining that it was cow meat. However, they still targeted the men transporting it and allegedly tried to extort money. This is not the first instance of cow vigilantes mistaking buffalo meat for beef and targeting a certain community without proof. Something similar happened in Maharashtra last year where an old Muslim man was attacked and threatened on a local train.

On May 31, the Indian Express reported that the Aligarh police would remove sections of cow slaughter from the FIR against the victims. “The provisions related to cow slaughter will be removed since the FSL report confirmed that it was buffalo meat. But if we find other lacunae in meat transportation, permission or under the Cruelty to Animals Act, the relevant sections will be added to the FIR,” Aligarh superintendent of police (rural) Amrit Jain told the publication.

The Assailants

Alt News found that at least two individuals among the assailants named in the FIR had links to the Bajrang Dal and the Vishwa Hindu Parishad.

One of them is Ramkumar Arya. His Facebook profile bio says he is with the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, Harigarh. In 2023, a resolution to rename Aligarh as Harigarh was passed in the Municipal Corporation and sent to the state government for consideration.

Arya has another Facebook profile in which he has shared photos of him at events by the Bajrang Dal.

Another video of the Aligarh incident shows a man making a video of the spot where the victims were assaulted. He identifies himself as Chetan from the Bajrang Dal. In the video, towards the end, Chetan says that the carcasses of cows have been found. Referring to those caught as “mullon” (a derogatory term for Muslims), he said they weren’t admitting to their deeds.

After the Aligarh violence, Right-wing groups Vishwa Hindu Parishad and the Bajrang Dal have distanced themselves from the incident. In a press conference held on May 26, VHP’s department minister Mukesh Rajput said the organisation had nothing to do with the incident. VHP Braj’s social media chief Pratik Raghuvanshi also condemned the allegations levelled against VHP and Bajrang Dal and demanded strict action against those defaming the organisation.

The post A beef over buff: Vigilantes in Aligarh assaulted Muslims over buffalo meat, booked them for cow slaughter appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Shinjinee Majumder.

Republic used Indian creator’s satiric reel on prime time; claimed Pakistani civilians were slamming their country

Prantik Ali — Mon, 02 Jun 2025 15:11:23 +0000

Social media users are sharing a video of a man ridiculing Pakistan’s claims of victory in the recent four-day conflict with India, which was the most serious military crisis between the two neighbouring countries in decades.

The man in the video ridicules Pakistanis for celebrating an apparent ‘victory’ in the flare-up which saw intense cross-border missile strikes. He states that Pakistan has attained victory, not with regard to technological advances, but with their capacity to tell lies. He further lampoons Pakistan by calling out news agencies and their propensity to spread misinformation. The video is embedded with a caption which reads: “Pakistani influencer exposes Pakistani army and media with brutal satire, reveals ground reality.’

Verified X user Chota Don (@choga_don) posted the viral video, claiming that the man speaking on camera was from Pakistan. This tweet has gathered 10 Lakh views and more than 3,500 re-shares. (Archive)

Dheere dheere Pakistanio ko realise ho rha h, kya hua tha unke sath pic.twitter.com/5riyw82TcL

— Chota Don (@choga_don) May 25, 2025

The same claim was amplified by several other X users. (Archived links: 1, 2, 3, 4)

Click to view slideshow.

The official Instagram handle of the Rajasthan unit of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) also posted the viral video.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by RSS Rajasthan (@rssrajasthanorg)

Fact Check

We ran a reverse image search on one of the key-frames from the viral video, which led us to this Instagram reel, uploaded by comedian and model, Anil Singh, on May 19. This is the same video that went viral.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by ANIL SINGH (@anil_singh_0009)

By going through his profile, we could discern that the original reel, which featured Singh performing a comic monologue in character, was part of a series of sketches that lampoon political rhetoric in the subcontinent. In this particular video, he plays the character of a Pakistani man.

A link provided in his Instagram bio led us to his YouTube channel, where it is mentioned that Anil Singh is from India.

So, to sum up, an Instagram reel uploaded by an Indian model and content creator by the name of Anil Singh, has gone viral, with users on social media claiming that he is a Pakistani civilian admitting to the deplorable state of affairs in Pakistan.

There is more, and this is where it gets interesting.

Republic TV Ran The Video as Confession of a Pakistani Man

In a blatant case of reporting without any verification, Republic Bharat aired this satirical reel, falsely presenting it as a real confession by a Pakistani civilian.

The clip, originally intended as a comedic skit, was stripped of its context, and repurposed as a confession during a prime-time broadcast, named ‘Yeh Bharat ki Baat Hai’, on May 23.

The comedian, Anil Singh, posted another Instagram reel on May 24, which showed footage of the Republic Bharat broadcast of May 23, which had been aired at 8:56 PM. The anchor, Syed Suhail, says: “Toh Pakistan yeh jashn isliye mana raha hai ki unke awaam ko bata sake – hum haare nahi hai, jeete hai. Lekin awaam unki sab janti hai. Suniye uni ke zubaani kya keh rahi hai – Pakistan jeeta hai ya haara.” (Translation: “Pakistan is celebrating in order to show its people that they didn’t lose, but won. However, their people know the truth. Listen to what they themselves are saying – did Pakistan win or lose?”)

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by ANIL SINGH (@anil_singh_0009)

Alt News was able to locate the timestamp of the episode where the satirical reel was broadcast, but the section has since been edited out (starting at the 3:40 timestamp).

Anil Singh uploaded another Instagram reel on May 26 which called attention to a corrigendum issued by Republic Bharat, on the May 24 broadcast of the same show. The anchor, Syed Suhail, clarifies that the man shown on the Instagram reel was no Pakistani, and asserts that the show had made no insinuation towards the testimony being that of a Pakistani’s. This is, however, a false claim. The anchor clearly said what he was going to show was a statement from “पाकिस्तान की अवाम” (the common people of Pakistan).

He then ends by issuing an apology, considering that audiences might have leapt to false ideas about that person’s nationality.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by ANIL SINGH (@anil_singh_0009)

The post Republic used Indian creator’s satiric reel on prime time; claimed Pakistani civilians were slamming their country appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Prantik Ali.

Assam Police beating up ‘pro-Pakistan Bangladeshis’? Old video from Bengal shared with misleading communal claims

Pawan Kumar — Mon, 02 Jun 2025 07:57:48 +0000

On May 12, 2025, Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma tweeted that three more people had been arrested in his state on charges of sedition, bringing the tally to a total of 56 arrests in Assam since the Pahalgam attack on April 22.

Against this backdrop, a video went viral on social media in which policemen could be seen lathi-charging some people even as they tried to flee. Users shared this video and claimed that Assam Police was teaching a lesson to Bangladeshis who supported Pakistan.

BJP supporter and X user Dilip Dhanraj Gupta shared the video and called it a big breaking news story, writing sarcastically, “The Assam Police is serving Bangladeshis who support Pakistan.” (Archived link)

BIG BREAKING NEWS

Assam Police servicing Pro Pakistani Bangladeshis.#NuclearLeak #OperationSindoor pic.twitter.com/oaur8ICaeO

— DILIP D GUPTA दिलीप धनराज गुप्ता (@dilipguptamp) May 17, 2025

The handle @VoiceOfAxom, followed by PM Narendra Modi, and X user @SaffronSunanda, both of which have been found sharing communal propaganda and misinformation on several occasions, made similar claims while sharing the video. (Archived link 1, link 2)

Click to view slideshow.

Many X users, including KV Iyyer and Chandan Singh, made the same claim. (Archived link 1, link 2)

Fact Check

Alt News took a closer look at the viral video. We found that both the motorcycles seen in the video had license plates that began with the letters ‘WB’, i.e. ‘West Bengal’.

Further on in the video, we also noticed a green house which had ‘Gopalpur Satsang Club’ written on it in Bangla. Gopalpur is a town in Nadia district of the Indian state of West Bengal. This incident is likely to have taken place in Gopalpur, Nadia, West Bengal.

We performed a reverse image search using some frames taken from the video. We found the same video uploaded on a Facebook page called Kokborok Memes on September 7, 2020. However, there is no specific information attached to the video, as to what the matter was.

Wansa rok bujakmani…
Miya
Swi kobor parawo…

Posted by Kokborok memes on Monday 7 September 2020

The same video was shared in 2021 on the YouTube channel Sayem Nabatati as footage of a “police chase during lockdown”. It is worth noting that the policemen seen in the video are seen wearing masks.

Alt News cannot confirm the incident the video relates to, however it has been circulating on social media since at least September 2020. Furthermore, our investigation revealed that this could be an incident from Gopalpur in West Bengal’s Nadia district.

To sum it up, social media users made misleading claims about the Assam Police beating Pakistan supporters by sharing a five-year-old video and falsely stating it was from Assam.

The post Assam Police beating up ‘pro-Pakistan Bangladeshis’? Old video from Bengal shared with misleading communal claims appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Pawan Kumar.

Dhaka women’s ‘friendship march’ video falsely shared as West Bengal, inviting filthy comments

Kinjal — Mon, 02 Jun 2025 06:42:33 +0000

A video clip of a group of women raising slogans on the roadside has been gathering a lot of traction on social media. The women in the video are seen holding placards and chanting in Bengali, “চেয়েছিলাম হিসসা, হয়ে গেলাম বেশ্যা’ (We asked for our rights, but we were called prostitutes).

Indian social media users have shared the video with the caption, “Guess which state”, obliquely implying that the clip is from West Bengal. Among them is the X handle of propaganda account Kreately Media. (Archived link)

Guess the state pic.twitter.com/lfxkBTYTZQ

— Kreately.in (@KreatelyMedia) May 24, 2025

Quote-tweeting this post, a number of users directly claimed that the visuals were from West Bengal. One user also suggested that they could tell this was West Bengal without even opening the video. (Link 1, Link 2, Link 3)

Click to view slideshow.

Right-wing user Amitabh Chaudhary, who shares disinformation and propaganda on a regular basis, also posted this clip with the same caption of ‘Guess the state’. In comments, users have made filthy remarks targeting women of West Bengal. (Archived link)

X user @satyaagrahindia also promoted this video. (Archived version)

Fact Check

Alt News performed a reverse image search using frames taken from the video on YouTube. We discovered that Bangladeshi news channel ‘Voice24NEWS’ had posted this video on May 17, 2025. The words ‘নারীর ডাকে মৈত্রী যাত্রা’ (Friendship March convened by Women) are embedded on the clip. The caption also says the same.

The march was held along Manik Mia Avenue in Dhaka, a major thoroughfare on the south boundary of the national parliament house Complex. Several media reports covered the event held on May 16 of this year to demand equality for women. (Link 1, Link 2)

Here is a screengrab from BBC Bangla’s video report covering the march:

Bangladeshi newspaper ‘আজকের প্রতিদিন’ also posted a video about the initiative on Facebook. This video report also contains the video clip in question.

নারীর ডাকে মৈত্রী যাত্রা

চেয়েছিলো হিস্যা হয়ে গেলো বে”শ্যা, নারীর ডাকে মৈত্রী যাত্রা
#news #viralvideo #womensmovement #womensrights

Posted by আজকের প্রতিদিন on Thursday 22 May 2025

To sum up, social media users falsely claimed that a clip of a demonstration led by women in Bangladesh was from West Bengal, India.

The post Dhaka women’s ‘friendship march’ video falsely shared as West Bengal, inviting filthy comments appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Kinjal.

Dhaka women’s ‘friendship march’ video falsely shared as West Bengal, inviting filthy comments

Kinjal — Mon, 02 Jun 2025 06:42:33 +0000

Guess the state pic.twitter.com/lfxkBTYTZQ

— Kreately.in (@KreatelyMedia) May 24, 2025

Click to view slideshow.

X user @satyaagrahindia also promoted this video. (Archived version)

Fact Check

Here is a screengrab from BBC Bangla’s video report covering the march:

Bangladeshi newspaper ‘আজকের প্রতিদিন’ also posted a video about the initiative on Facebook. This video report also contains the video clip in question.

নারীর ডাকে মৈত্রী যাত্রা

চেয়েছিলো হিস্যা হয়ে গেলো বে”শ্যা, নারীর ডাকে মৈত্রী যাত্রা
#news #viralvideo #womensmovement #womensrights

Posted by আজকের প্রতিদিন on Thursday 22 May 2025

To sum up, social media users falsely claimed that a clip of a demonstration led by women in Bangladesh was from West Bengal, India.

The post Dhaka women’s ‘friendship march’ video falsely shared as West Bengal, inviting filthy comments appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Kinjal.

Republic, Times, TV9 et al amplified morphed video of Preity Zinta hugging Vaibhav Suryavanshi

Pawan Kumar — Mon, 02 Jun 2025 06:38:36 +0000

Amid military tensions between India and Pakistan, the managers of the Indian Premier League (IPL) on May 9 announced the postponement of the 18th season of the IPL for a week. The first match after the break was played between Rajasthan Royals and Punjab Kings at Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur on May 18, in which Punjab Kings won by 10 runs.

Right after this, some media channels ran visuals of Bollywood actress and Punjab Kings owner Preity Zinta embracing Rajasthan Royals’ 14-year-old sensation Vaibhav Suryavanshi, who had played an explosive cameo of 40 runs from 15 balls in the match.

In an article on its website, Republic Bharat stated, ‘After the match, Preity Zinta came to meet Vaibhav Suryavanshi and during this time she shook hands with Vaibhav and hugged him’. The channel also shared it on its official X handle @Republic_Bharat. The outlet has now deleted this article.

Click to view slideshow.

The Times of India’s Maharashtra Times, TV9 Gujarati, and Jagbani Punjab Kesari also published news reports making similar claims.

Click to view slideshow.

The photos are widespread on Instagram, Facebook, and X with similar claims.

Click to view slideshow.

Fact Check

Alt News noticed that Preity Zinta had replied to Republic Bharat’s post taking umbrage at the outlet amplifying a ‘fake news’ and a ‘morphed photo’. She wrote, “I am surprised that now news channels are also using morphed images and featuring them as news items.”

To crosscheck the actor’s claim, we looked for the post-match video uploaded on May 19 on the official X handle of Rajasthan Royals, @rajasthanroyals. In it, Preity Zinta and Vaibhav Suryavanshi are seen shaking hands and talking. However, the two are not seen hugging each other in the video.

We found a longer video on the YouTube channel of one of the staff working for IPL 2025. In the video, Zinta is seen going up to Vaibhav Suryavanshi, shaking hands with and talking to him, after which she is seen going back to members of her own team to greet them.

Alt News examined the viral images.

We found that Vaibhav Suryavanshi is often seen with a black thread tied on his right hand and a watch on his left hand, while the viral photos show the exact opposite.
Apart from this, the brand logo of Tata IPL 2025 and Jio is also inverted (mirrored).
We compared it with the Rajasthan Royals team jersey. We found that the team jersey has the Jio and Tata IPL 2025 logo on the right sleeve and the Red Bull logo on the left sleeve.
In the viral photos, the Jio and Tata IPL logos are seen in inverted letters on the left hand.

To sum up, the viral photos are morphed. Edited and distorted images were circulated to claim Preity Zinta hugged Vaibhav Suryavanshi. A number of prominent media houses shared it as ‘news’ without any verification. There are clear signs in the viral image of it being morphed, and they are hard to miss, yet it was used by these outlets.

Editor’s Note: While one may question what is newsworthy in the image of two persons hugging, and what is the need to sensationalize it, we understand that it remains a matter of editorial choice. Running a morphed image involving a minor (Vaibhav is 14), however, is lousy and unjustifiable.

The post Republic, Times, TV9 et al amplified morphed video of Preity Zinta hugging Vaibhav Suryavanshi appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Pawan Kumar.

Op Sindoor: As Indian media made false, outrageous claims, PIB looked the other way

Shinjinee Majumder — Sat, 31 May 2025 11:43:32 +0000

The second week of May was a busy time for fact-checkers at Union government’s Press Information Bureau (PIB) as it put out 68 fact-checks related to Operation Sindoor. While examining the tweets on PIB Fact Check’s official X handle between May 7 and May 16, Alt News noticed a distinct pattern in their selection of who to fact check and who not. One category that was conspicuous in its almost total absence in PIB’s body of work in this crucial period was falsehoods amplified by the Indian mainstream media.

India announced the launch of Operation Sindoor in the early hours of May 7, targeting nine terror bases in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK). Tensions escalated quickly into intense cross-border drone and missile strikes, leading to deaths of at least 21 civilians in Jammu and Kashmir in four days. On May 10, India and Pakistan reached an understanding of ceasefire and agreed to stop all firing and military action.

The Indian mainstream newsrooms, where hyper-nationalistic rhetoric bordering on jingoism has been the norm for quite some now, went absolutely berserk in these four days of armed conflict. Anchors and self-proclaimed defence experts made outrageous claims such as the destruction of the Karachi port by the Indian Navy, India attacking Islamabad, and even Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif surrendering to Indian forces. On innumerable occasions, they showed unrelated, old visuals in adrenaline-driven prime-time shows, falsely linking them to the ongoing conflict, without any verification.

A detailed study of PIB fact checks from this period by Alt News shows that it chose not to call out media outlets for making false, baseless and misleading claims regarding Operation Sindoor. Out of 68 fact checks shared on its official X handle, only two concerned media outlets.

The PIB fact-check unit was set up in 2019 following the then Vice-President of India, Venkaiah Naidu, expressing concern over the spread of ‘fake news’. The official website does not mention the methodology or scope of PIB’s fact-checking work. The Facebook page states that it debunks misinformation related to government policies and schemes.

The ministry of electronics and information technology (MeitY) on January 17, 2019, uploaded a new draft of amendments to the IT (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, which proposed that information identified as ‘fake or false’ by the PIB or any other agency authorized by the Union government be taken down by ‘intermediaries’.

At the time, Alt News had reported on the glaring gaps in PIB’s work in the domain of fact-checking. For instance, we noticed that while PIB had fact-checked misinformation by Opposition leaders such as Rahul Gandhi and activist-turned-TMC MP Saket Gokhale several times, not once did they fact-check a claim by any BJP leader. We also documented how PIB had flagged multiple YouTube channels and videos which were anti-BJP in nature.

Alt News noted a similar pattern during the post-Operation Sindoor India-Pakistan conflict.

The graphic below shows that during the flare-up PIB skipped fact-checking false claims by media houses, while independent outlets (Alt News, Boom Live and WebQoof by The Quint) did debunk misreports by these houses. The yellow column shows whether the media house in question has been fact-checked at least once by either Alt News, Boom Live, or WebQoof. The white column shows whether the media house in question has been fact-checked by PIB.

As readers can see, PIB fact-checked media outlets all but twice.

One of the two was a fact-check of claims about the “temporary closure of services on the Delhi-Mumbai airline route.” The accompanying tweet featured a screenshot from an NDTV news bulletin carrying the same claim, stamped with the word “Fake.”

It is being claimed that there is a temporary closure of services on Delhi-Mumbai airline route.#PIBFactCheck

This claim is #FAKE

The Airports Authority of India has extended the temporary closure of 25 segments of Air Traffic Service (ATS) routes within the Delhi &… pic.twitter.com/jdC630a1BA

— PIB Fact Check (@PIBFactCheck) May 9, 2025

The second was a quote-tweet of a post by the official handle of the district collector and magistrate of Jaipur, debunking a video shared by Times Now. The channel had claimed that explosions were heard at Jaipur airport. The collector clarified that the claim was false, and PIB amplified the statement.

Jaipur Airport is Safe

Claims are circulating that explosions were heard at #Jaipur Airport.#PIBFactCheck

These claims are FAKE

Here is the clarification from the District Collector & Magistrate, Jaipur

https://t.co/qqbbFgGZ7x pic.twitter.com/rijeLipwhY

— PIB Fact Check (@PIBFactCheck) May 9, 2025

To Name or Not to Name, That is the Question

We also noticed something interesting in a tweet by PIB fact check on May 15, in which they pointed out that Union external affairs minister S Jaishankar had been misquoted by “several news channels and social media posts” regarding claims that Chinese satellites had been aiding Pakistan. The tweet included a screengrab of a India Today bulletin, but the channel’s name and logo had been blurred out.

Several news channels and social media posts have claimed that External Affairs Minister @DrSJaishankar stated Chinese satellites helped Pakistan.#PIBFactCheck:

EAM is being misquoted and he has not made this statement

Remain vigilant and avoid falling for deceptive… pic.twitter.com/qc5pUn98Wi

— PIB Fact Check (@PIBFactCheck) May 15, 2025

Several X users urged the agency to reveal the name of the outlet. The comparison below clearly establishes that it was India Today. We found several similar graphics, with the same header saying ‘Operation Sindoor’, the same font of text and the same red background on India Today’s YouTube channel.

In contrast, PIB explicitly named the international media outlet Al Jazeera in two recent fact checks. On May 12, it debunked Al Jazeera’s claim that an Indian female pilot was in Pakistani custody. Earlier, on May 10, it called out the outlet again for reporting that 10 explosions had occurred near Srinagar airport following a ceasefire announcement.

Another glaring example of PIB’s selective fact-checking was its focus on viral gaming footage shared as visuals from the war, while ignoring similar misreports by mainstream media. In a thread, PIB asked its readers to be vigilant and not “fall prey to such propaganda posts” of gaming footage being circulated as visuals of war. At the same time, Aaj Tak aired gaming footage claiming it showed missiles being fired from India, which was not fact-checked by PIB.

A Glimpse of What PIB Chose not to Fact-check

On May 9, several mainstream Indian news channels dramatically reported that the Indian Navy had destroyed Karachi port. The coverage was presented as exclusive breaking news, replete with sirens, distant artillery sounds, and dramatic visuals.

Aaj Tak’s Anjana Om Kashyap said on air, “…Karachi par bhi Bharatiya navsena ki bhishan hamla. Yeh saaf bata rahaa ki chaari taraf se-ab hum sagar ke bhi taraf se gherna mein kamyaab ho rahe hai…” (Translation: Shweta, there has been a fierce attack by the Indian Navy on Karachi as well. This clearly shows that we are now succeeding in surrounding them from all sides, including from the sea.) Two visuals were shown on Aaj Tak as the attack on Karachi, and both videos were found by Alt News to be old, unrelated footage.

A similar tone of reporting was adopted by Zee News anchor Ram Mohan Sharma, who said “breaking news” just came in that Karachi port had been destroyed. “Is waqt ek bohot badi khabar mil rahi hai, samundar se Pakistan par ek bada action liya gaya hai… Is waqt ki bohot badi khabar, badi jaanakari iss waqt ki Karachi port tabah kar diya gaya hai! Navsena ne, Navy ne Karachi port ko tabah kar diya hai…” (Translation: We’re getting a major update at this moment. A significant action has been taken against Pakistan from the sea. Breaking news right now, important information coming in… The Karachi port has been destroyed. The Navy, the Indian Navy, has destroyed the Karachi port.)

The Karachi port had been ‘destroyed’ in several other newsrooms on the night of May 9, including India Today, TV9 Bharatvarsh and ABP News. The following morning, around 8:40 am, the Karachi Port Trust issued an official statement calling the Indian media reports “completely false and baseless,” and confirmed that the port was “operating normally and securely.”

The Karachi port claim is only the tip of the iceberg, as far as media misreports go. For instance, Zee News, News18, News18 Bihar Jharkhand, OneIndia and propaganda outlet Sudarshan News all claimed that Islamabad was under attack by the Indian armed forces, which soon turned to Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s house being under attack. Zee News even claimed that Sharif had surrendered. However, there is not a single credible source from either country confirming the attacks on Sharif’s house. Nor is there any report or credible information on PM Sharif surrendering.

Several mainstream media outlets, including Republic, CNN News18, ABP News, and Zee News, reported that a Lashkar terrorist named Qari Mohammad Iqbal had been killed during Operation Sindoor. The reports went to the extent of claiming that Iqbal was in hiding in Kotli, Pakistan, one of the locations targeted by the Indian armed forces in the operation. However, Alt News found that Iqbal, a resident of Poonch in Kashmir, was one of the civilians killed during the cross-border shelling by Pakistan. He was a teacher at a local high school in Poonch. Iqbal’s family also issued a statement condemning the blatant misinformation that was amplified by media channels. Our detailed report can be read here.

Click to view slideshow.

News outlets Mathrubhumi, DNA, OneIndia and Great Andhra published articles claiming Asim Munir, chief of the army staff, Pakistan, had resigned and was to be replaced by General Sahir Shamshad Mirza. Like the aforementioned examples, there was not a single credible source that affirmed this. Fact-checking outlet BoomLive spoke to Pakistani news outlet Dawn’s deputy editor Zahrah Mazhar who said that there was no indication of Munir’s resignation.

ALSO READ: Mass resignations in Pakistan army after Pahalgam attack? Media outlets’ reportage based on fabricated letter

Media outlets Firstpost, NDTV, Free Press Journal and The Statesman also reported on a deepfake video showing Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry, the director general of inter-services public relations (ISPR) of the Pakistan armed forces, admitting to losing two fighter jets amidst an escalating military conflict as a real statement.

Alongside these, several unverified videos and images were aired by mainstream media outlets. For example, a four-year-old video of Israel’s air defence system, the Iron Dome, was played by news channels with varied claims. Zee News, Times Now Navbharat and others aired the video linking it to the purported Karachi port destruction, while some others, like Aaj Tak, aired the clip claiming it to be visuals from the attack on Jaisalmer.

Again, a video broadcast by ABP Ananda and TV9 Bangla, among others, purportedly showing the situation in Pakistan after a strike by the Indian armed forces turned out to be three-month-old footage from a jet crash site in Philadelphia.

For reasons unknown, PIB Fact Check chose not to debunk any of these, though these falsehoods were consumed by crores of Indian television viewers. When one considers that most of these channels run pro-government propaganda in the name of news round the year, one begins to wonder if there was a method in the madness.

Even as the Indian mainstream channels drew flak from the international media for incessantly putting out false information during the conflict, BJP platformed Sushant Sinha, the consulting editor of Times Now NavBharat, to justify the blatant lies. In a video tweeted from the official X handle of BJP, Sinha slammed the ‘propaganda’ by those who called out misreports by the mainstream media. The falsehoods should be acceptable in national interest, Sinha observed, repeatedly referring to those who exposed outrageous falsehoods peddled by the media as a ‘two-rupee ecosystem’. With each passing minute in the 9-minute monologue, Sinha’s desperate defence of fake news, though fervent, became more and more bizarre. The ‘consulting editor’ went to the length of saying that when a ‘breaking news’ would come in, if the anchor would be live on air, he would have no time to verify it. Even if it turned out to be false, asking counter questions was an ‘anti-national’ agenda’, he declared.

ALSO READ: The fictional strikes on the Karachi port and what it says about Indian media

The post Op Sindoor: As Indian media made false, outrageous claims, PIB looked the other way appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Shinjinee Majumder.

News outlets first publish, then delete reports based on fake video of Pak’s Ahmed Sharif ‘confirming’ loss of jets

Ankita Mahalanobish — Sat, 31 May 2025 08:34:12 +0000

In a viral video, Pakistan’s lieutenant general Ahmed Sharif Chaudhary, who is the director general (DG) of the inter-services public relations (ISPR) for the country’s armed forces, admitted that two JF-17 aircraft belonging to Pakistan were lost in combat after India launched Operation Sindoor.

In the video, Sharif addresses the press as saying, “Thank you for being with us today, following the developments of Operation Sindoor, we find it’s important to offer transparency and reaffirm our enduring commitment to regional stability. The operation saw intense engagement along the Eastern corridor. We regret to confirm that two JF-17 aircraft were lost during active duty. Yeh ruksaan hamare liye sirf numbers nahi ek jazbaati dhakka hai. (This loss is not just about numbers for us—it’s an emotional blow). We also suffered damage to civilian infrastructure and casualties among our brave service members. Shaheedo ke gharwaalon ke liye hamari duaen hai. (Our prayers are with the families of the martyrs). Their sacrifice will always be honoured. In the Pahalgam axis, significant tactical shifts were observed. The situation is still developing and we are monitoring it closely. Strategic consequence saamne aa rahe hai (are coming to light) and we are prepared to respond accordingly. Let me say this clearly, Pakistan does not believe in war. Humne har dafa sabr se kaam liya hai, (We have always exercised patience) despite serious provocation. Our aim has never been escalation but stability and peace. Sovereignty ka tahafoos hamari zimmedaari hai (Protecting sovereignty is our responsibility). But so is our role in ensuring a peaceful future for our region. We urge our counterparts to choose dialogue over aggression. Jang ka bojh sirf sipahi nahi, har ghar uthaata hai. (The burden of war is not borne by the soldier alone—but their whole family). Pakistan stands for regional peace, mutual dignity and the principles of international conduct. Aman ka rasta mushkil zaroor hai lekin zaroor. (The path to peace is certainly difficult — but necessary)…”

On May 8, News18 Bangla shared a portion of this clip on their broadcast, stating that Pakistan officials confirmed the loss of two JF-17 aircraft. The video has now been taken down.

The same day, Times of India also published a report titled “Pakistan admits India shot down 2 of its JK-17 jets”. However, since then, the news outlet has tweaked the report’s headline and content. The URL, which was generated from the old headline, remains the same. Screenshots below of archived versions suggest that ToI first published and then modified the headline and content of the story entirely.

Click to view slideshow.

Another news outlet, The Statesman, also published an article with a title, “India downs Pak’s two JF-17, DG ISPR admits to the loss”. The story seems to have been taken down because the URL redirects to the Statesman’s homepage now. Similarly, the Free Press Journal published a piece titled “Ek jasbati dhakka hai: Pakistan army admits India shot down 2 JF-17 Jets (WATCH)”. This story, too, has been taken down now. Below are screenshots of archived versions (Statesman archive, FPJ archive).

Several social media users, including X users Gaurav Singh (@Gaurav_Shade), Sudhir (@seriousfunnyguy), Ocean Jain (@ocjain4) shared versions of the video with similar claims. On YouTube, channel TheJaipurDialogues also shared it. (Archives 1, 2, 3)

Pak agree to two JF17 lost#Jammu #DroneAttack pic.twitter.com/BkGYJe9Cqs

— Gaurav Singh (@Gaurav_Shade) May 8, 2025

It is to inform our readers that Ocean Jain has been fact-checked several times by Alt News for spreading misinformation on social media platforms.

A Facebook page, The Trident: Military and Space, also uploaded a 1:37-minute video and echoing similar claims. (archive)

Breaking News

पाकिस्तान के दो एफ-16 लड़ाकू विमान मार गिराए गए

पाकिस्तान को अब तक कुल नुकसान

1. 2 चीनी JF 17
2. 1 F16
3. 8-10 पाक मिसाइलें
4. 30+ ड्रोन pic.twitter.com/nnXwVInwRC

— Ocean Jain (@ocjain4) May 8, 2025

Several others also shared his video with similar claims.

Click to view slideshow.

Fact Check

We examined the full 1:37-minute video and noticed several discrepancies in the lip sync while Sharif was speaking. This raised concerns that the video may potentially be manipulated. We conducted a reverse image search on several key frames to verify the video’s authenticity. This led us to a Facebook live video by a Pakistani news outlet “News Alert” from December 27, 2024.

ڈی جی آئی ایس پی آر لیفٹیننٹ جنرل احمد شریف چودھری کی اہم پریس کانفرنس

ڈی جی آئی ایس پی آر لیفٹیننٹ جنرل احمد شریف چودھری کی اہم پریس کانفرنس

Posted by News Alert on Friday 27 December 2024

We then found the same video on the YouTube channel of the ISPR. On December 27, 2024, Ahmed Sharif had addressed the media during a press conference focused on key national security and regional developments.

On looking closely, we were able to confirm that this was the original video that has been manipulated and is being circulated after Operation Sindoor was launched.

At the 0:39-minute mark of the 1:37-minute version of the viral video, several journalists can be seen taking notes. We compared this frame with a similar one from the December 27, 2024 video and found striking similarities: the same group of journalists, wearing identical outfits and seated in the same order. The comparison below outlines this:

We then used Hive Moderation, an AI-detection tool, to analyse the video. The result revealed that the audio in the video was 99% AI-generated, whereas the visuals were likely to be 3% AI-generated and mostly real.

Click to view slideshow.

To sum up, the viral video of lieutenant general Ahmed Sharif, Pakistan’s DG-ISPR, “confirming” the loss of two of their JK-17 aircraft during active duty is fake and doctored. The visuals in the video are sourced from a press conference held by the ISPR in December, 2024 and the audio is most likely AI-generated, our findings show. Several news outlets first reported based on this fake video and later took them down.

The post News outlets first publish, then delete reports based on fake video of Pak’s Ahmed Sharif ‘confirming’ loss of jets appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Ankita Mahalanobish.

AI-generated video of Donald Trump ‘roasting’ Indian Air Force goes viral

Ankita Mahalanobish — Fri, 30 May 2025 15:15:06 +0000

A YouTube short in which United States President Donald Trump is taking a swipe at Indian Air Force pilots over reports of Rafale jets being struck down by Pakistan in the latest conflict is being widely circulated on social media. In the video, Trump quotes French officials as saying, “It’s not the jets, it’s the pilots.” He then adds it may be time for India to take some “flying lessons or at least read the manual”. “You don’t win wars with price tags, you win with skill and leadership,” he says.

His remarks came after the latest flare-up between India and Pakistan. Days after a terror group with alleged links to Pakistan killed 26 civilians in Kashmir’s Pahalgam India launched military strikes targeting several terror bases in the neighbouring country. Following the Indian strike on May 7, labelled Operation Sindoor, Pakistan retaliated with heavy shelling. Conflict between the two countries escalated in the next few days before a ceasefire was announced on May 10. Amid the skirmishes, there were some reports that Pakistan had struck down Indian fighter jets and that some wreckage was found in border areas. Manufactured by France‘s Dassault Aviation, Rafales are key combat aircraft deployed by the Indian Air Force, among other fighter jets.

In the viral video, titled ‘Trump Roasts Indian Air Force: Rafales Got Smoked – France Blames the Pilots!’ the US President claims that Pakistan took down these aircraft with ease, comparing the scene with the video game Call of Duty. Note that the Indian defence forces did say they suffered some damage to equipment and facilities, but neither confirmed nor denied reports that they lost Rafale jets.

On May 28, veteran journalist Tavleen Singh shared the video on X. She said that if the video was not fake, Trump’s stance on Operation Sindoor was worth taking note of. (Archive)

If this is not a fake we should be clear that Trump is not impressed with Operation Sindoor.
Trump Roasts Indian Air Force: ‘Rafales Got Smoked – France Blames the P… https://t.co/Dr1YPygWm8 via @YouTube

— Tavleen Singh (@tavleen_singh) May 28, 2025

At the time of writing this, the post garnered 250,000 views.

Another X user, BaconEinstein (@PhotonFiasco), also shared the YouTube video with a caption suggesting that Trump’s stance was not like an ally’s. (Archive)

This Mf #Trump is a friend of India or the biggest enemy?! At least his recent series of activities suggest so!

Trump Roasts Indian Air Force: ‘Rafales Got Smoked – France Blames the P… https://t.co/jY1V4l9SIV via @YouTube

— BaconEinstein (@PhotonFiasco) May 24, 2025

Facebook user Bhagwan Jotwani shared the video on May 17, alleging that Trump keeps changing his position, calling him “unpredictable”. (Archive)

Several other social media users also shared the video, making similar claims.

Click to view slideshow.

Fact Check

We first looked for news reports using keywords from Trump’s statements, but this did not yield any credible results.

We then carefully looked at the video and noticed that Trump appears only in the first four seconds. We also found evident discrepancies in the lip sync.

Next, we checked the description of the video. Here, it clearly says that the video is generated using artificial intelligence and for entertainment.

We then looked at other videos on the channel, EZ Money, and found several ones where Trump is making controversial remarks on India and Pakistan.

Click to view slideshow.

The description of the YouTube channel explicitly says that it makes videos of imagined speeches, “where famous voices speak the words the world wants to hear”.

To sum up, the video is AI generated and does not depict a real instance. Donald Trump did not make any such statement publicly, at least till this article was published. Also, although renowned columnist Tavleen Singh did add a disclaimer saying, “If this is not a fake…” she still shared it, which may have resulted in many believing it or several others amplifying it.

The post AI-generated video of Donald Trump ‘roasting’ Indian Air Force goes viral appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Ankita Mahalanobish.

Not a pro-Pakistan rally in Kerala, these videos are of Indian Union Muslim League’s protests against Waqf Act

Ankita Mahalanobish — Thu, 29 May 2025 17:15:59 +0000

A video of men in green jerseys sloganeering in Malayalam is being dubbed as pro-Pakistan activism in Kerala by social media users. In the video, the men are waving green flags that have a crescent moon and a star.

X user Anoop Antony Joseph (@AnoopKaippalli), former national secretary of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM), BJP’s youth wing, shared the video on April 19, 2025, with a snide comment on secularism in the state. (Archive)

‘Secular Kerala!’ pic.twitter.com/4C8kirSuOy

— Anoop Antony Joseph (@AnoopKaippalli) April 19, 2025

The post had garnered 145,000 views at the time of writing this.

Pro-Right X user, Raushan Sinha (@MrSinha_), also shared the video, urging people to notice the jersey, flags, and the Islamic slogans. “No this isn’t Pakistan, or Bangladesh but Kerala…. Yes an Indian state…We are doomed,” he wrote. (Archive)

Look at their clothes, flags, Islamic slogans….
No this isn’t Pakistan, or Bangladesh but Kerala…. Yes an Indian state…

We are doomed…pic.twitter.com/HyO98HvvwW

— Mr Sinha (@MrSinha_) April 19, 2025

The post had racked up over 800,000 views at the time of writing this.

Note that Alt News has fact-checked misinformation shared by this user on multiple occasions.

Another X account, Rocket Scientist (@Rockumon), shared the purported video and alleged that the men in the video wore wearing Pakistan-linked jerseys, waved Pakistani flags, and yet Kerala is called secular. (Archive)

The dress is Pakistani, the flag is Pakistani, the soul and voice echo Pakistan — all in the name of religion. Yet they still call it secular Kerala. pic.twitter.com/GDqrutlCIT

— Rocket Scientist (@Rockumon) April 19, 2025

Pakistan-based X user @lmrankhanISP1, whose account is currently withheld in India, shared a similar video on April 25, claiming that Kerala stood with Pakistan. The slogans used by demonstrators in this video were slightly different from the ones above. (Archive)

Alt News received several requests to fact check the video and claims on WhatsApp (+91 7600011160).

Click to view slideshow.

Fact Check

We first asked someone familiar with the language to translate what the sloganeering was referring to.

It roughly translates to:

“We are raised in green
Let us say it clearly
We are CH’s blood
We are CH’s kids
We are the kids from/of Panakkad
Green indeed, we are green
We are raised in green
Let us say it clearly
We are CH’s kids
We are CH’s blood
Muslim League… Muslim League…”

The person who translated this also told us that CH here refers to C H Mohammed Koya, former leader of the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML).

Slogans in the second video shared by the Pakistan-based account translate to:

“The star of Panakkad that god created for this community
Ya Sayyad Sadiq Ali Thangal, you
Lead us with courage…”

Sayyad Sadiq Ali Thangal is the leader of IUML in Panakkad. Thus slogans used by the demonstrators in both videos have no mention of Pakistan.

Second, we took a close look at the jerseys in the two videos and found “Arangadi” written on them. This is a village in the Kanhangad municipality of Kasaragod district in Kerala. So, the jerseys don’t have a Pakistan link.

Thirdly, the green flags in the demonstrations were of the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) and not Pakistan. The Pakistan flag, while also green and bearing the crescent moon and star, has a white band on the left.

Fourthly, to understand what the demonstration in the videos was about, we did a reverse-image search on some key frames. This led us to an Instagram account @arangadi_official_page that had uploaded a video on April 16, 2025, with the caption ‘Kozhikode’. Note that this is the official page of the IUML Arandagi and the video was identical to the one shared by the Pakistan-based account.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by ARANGADI (@arangadi_official_page)

While going through this Instagram page, we also found a video shared on April 25 where the same people in the viral clip are seen from a different angle. The caption translates to, “It’s sad to see so many idiots who don’t even know which (is the) league’s flag (and which) is Pakistan’s. Try to comment only after you understand what this demonstration is for. The idiots are misleading you, be careful ”

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by ARANGADI (@arangadi_official_page)

We compared the viral clip and the one on this page for clarity below:

We also found a poster shared by the same account on April 15, 2025, asking people to join a rally against the amendment of the Waqf Act the following day (April 16).

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by ARANGADI (@arangadi_official_page)

To corroborate that the demonstration was related to the passage of the Waqf Bill (now Act), we looked for news reports from around that time. A Times of India report said that on April 16, the IUML staged a major Waqf protection rally in Kozhikode. Note that there were nationwide protests against the Waqf Amendment Bill around that period. On April 16, Maktoob Media also reported that many people joined the IUML protest against the new Waqf law in Kozhikode.

So, the rally or demonstration was related to the Waqf (Amendment) Act, 2025, that was approved by the Parliament in the first week of April. It had nothing to do with Pakistan.

To sum up, the two viral clips showing men in green jerseys and waving green flags sloganeering are not of a pro-Pakistan demonstration in Kerala but of protests by members of the Indian Union Muslim League, Arangadi. The protests were regarding the amendments to the Waqf Board and Council that was approved by the Parliament. Also, the flags in the footage are IUML flags, not Pakistan and the jerseys, too, are unrelated to the neighbouring country.

The post Not a pro-Pakistan rally in Kerala, these videos are of Indian Union Muslim League’s protests against Waqf Act appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Ankita Mahalanobish.

Wailing woman in viral clip is not the one in the Manohar Lal Dhakad sex video

Prantik Ali — Thu, 29 May 2025 07:30:31 +0000

Days after the video of Manohar Lal Dhakad’s middle-of-the-road sexual act went viral, another video of a wailing woman is being widely shared on social media. She narrates how she has been mistreated by the police. The woman also adds that her entire family is under threat, and implores viewers to protect them.

The video comes with an embedded text which connects it to the controversy surrounding Manohar Lal Dhakad, a political figure with BJP links from Madhya Pradesh’s Mandsaur district. Dhakad’s video, in which he was seen engaging in sexual acts with a woman on the Delhi-Mumbai Expressway, began circulating online around May 22. The incident had occurred on May 13, and was captured by CCTV cameras installed along the expressway. Dhakad was arrested on May 25.

Users on social media have suggested that the woman seen wailing in the video is named Lubna Qureshi, and she is the same woman who is seen in the viral video with Dhakad.

A verified X user, @riddle4uforever, posted the viral video. At the time of this article being written, the post has managed to gather around 2.75 Lakh views, and has been re-tweeted almost 350 times. (Archive)

यही हैं वो मनोहरलाल धाकड़ के साथ हाईवे वाली लुबना कुरैशी अब रो रही हैं
ये पहले सोचना चाहिए था रोड़ शो करने से पहले!#लुबना_कुरैशी pic.twitter.com/4QqeKjyWmq

— AK (@riddle4uforever) May 27, 2025

Another verified X user, @Ra_Bies, shared the viral video with the same claim. (Archive)

I feel bad for this woman. Iss bechari ki kya galti hai
pic.twitter.com/JHfjH4HsXa

— Ra_Bies 3.0 (@Ra_Bies) May 27, 2025

The same video was shared with similar claims by other users as well. (Archived links: 1, 2, 3)

Click to view slideshow.

Fact Check

We ran a reverse image search on one of the key-frames from the viral video, and were led to an Instagram post from August 22, 2024 by a user named bikaner_ki_sherni_sonu. This post has the same video that is now viral. The user has over 1 million followers.

Here is a screenshot of the post:

Here is the video. The viral part begins from the 00.28-minute mark.

We probed further to find out more about the woman in the clip, and came across this news report, published by the Rajasthan unit of Zee News , on August 22, 2024. It states that the woman, whose real name is Monika Rajpurohit, was apprehended by police for promoting narcotics by making reels with opium on social media platforms. Bikaner Police also carried out a raid on Monica Rajpurohit’s house on suspicion of drug smuggling, following which around 200 grams of poppy husk was discovered at her house.

We came across several other reports, from NewsTak, The Lallantop, and Aaj Tak, that corroborated our findings.

Click to view slideshow.

Moreover, the official X handle of Bikaner Police (@Bikaner_Police) had also tweeted about the arrest, on August 21, 2024.

सोशल मीडिया पर अफीम का प्रचार करना पड़ा महंगा,
– 200 ग्राम डोडा पोस्त सहित गिरफ्तार
– jnvc पुलिस ने की कार्यवाही
#social_media_पर_बीकानेर_पुलिस_की_#पैनी_नजर #Rajasthanpolice #Bikanerpolice #Tejaswanigautam pic.twitter.com/FqB5JLmGSW

— Bikaner Police (@Bikaner_Police) August 21, 2024

Readers should also note the identity of the woman seen in the video with Manohar Lal Dhakad has not been ascertained yet, according to publicly available information. A Times of India report says that the authorities were yet to identify the woman. It adds that the police, despite interrogating Dhakad for a few hours, were unable to get any details on who he was with that night.

To conclude, a video, showing a woman breaking down, and entreating viewers to help protect her family, is falsely viral in the context of the Manoharlal Dhakad controversy. Users on social media have suggested that the woman is named Lubna Qureshi, and was involved in the sexual act with Dhakad, footage of which went viral around May 22, 2025. However, in reality, the video dates back to August 2024, and shows a social media content creator named Monica Rajpurohit who was implicated on charges of possession of opium, after a reel showing her consuming opium went viral on the internet.

The post Wailing woman in viral clip is not the one in the Manohar Lal Dhakad sex video appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Prantik Ali.

Allegations that same person posed as porter on one occasion and DU student on another with Rahul Gandhi baseless

Prantik Ali — Thu, 29 May 2025 06:32:36 +0000

In a veiled attack on Congress, several social media users implied that party leader Rahul Gandhi was giving the false impression of interacting with different sets of people. Comparing his interactions from two separate occasions, they said the same person could be seen sitting with Gandhi, once dressed as a coolie or railway porter and then appearing as a student of Delhi University.

Verified X user (@BeingPolitical1) shared the images of his interactions side-by-side, alleging that the same person was doubling as a porter and a student on different days. At the time of this article being written, the post racked up nearly 800,000 views and was reshared 5,000 times. (Archive)

Rahul Gandhi Drama Company

Ek din Coolie
Ek din Du ka student pic.twitter.com/u1hyGX5Xln

— Being Political (@BeingPolitical1) May 27, 2025

The pro-Right X handle, Hindutva Knight (@HPhobiaWatch), also shared the images with a similar claim. Alt News has previously called out this user for amplifying communal misinformation. (Archive)

US Polo shirt wearing DU student on odd days
Adidas shoe wearing Coolie on even days

This is how India became 4th largest economy under Modi Govt pic.twitter.com/rOiesqt9hm

— Hindutva Knight (@HPhobiaWatch) May 27, 2025

Another X user, Jitendra Pratap Singh (@jpsin1), also posted the comparison images with the same claim. (Archive)

वही कभी कुली बन जाते हैं वही कभी डियू के स्टूडेंट बन जाते हैं।

साला इसमें भी घोटाला
pic.twitter.com/8UQPQDg9ua

— Jitendra pratap singh (@jpsin1) May 27, 2025

Other X users, such as @rahuldev2, @BesuraTaansane and @ChandanSharmaG also amplified these allegations. (Archives 1, 2, 3)

Click to view slideshow.

Fact Check

To verify the authenticity of the claims, we first looked for the source images used in the comparison.

On March 1, 2025, Rahul Gandhi shared some images from his meeting with porters at the New Delhi Railway Station. The Congress leader was thanking them for their service following the stampede that took place at the station on February 15, when the Maha Kumbh Mela was underway, in which at least 18 died, and many were injured.

अक्सर सबसे अंधकार भरे समय में ही इंसानियत की रोशनी सबसे ज़्यादा चमकती है।

नई दिल्ली रेलवे स्टेशन पर भगदड़ के दौरान कुली भाइयों ने इंसानियत की मिसाल पेश करते हुए कई यात्रियों की जान बचाई थी। इसके लिए मैंने देशवासियों की ओर से आज उनका धन्यवाद किया।

लेकिन ऐसे हादसों से सीख लेना… pic.twitter.com/w4DHfrGEdH

— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) March 1, 2025

We also found a video of this interaction uploaded on Rahul Gandhi’s official YouTube channel on March 5.

The other picture, which allegedly shows the same person appearing to be a student, has been taken from a meeting between Rahul Gandhi and the Delhi University Students Union (DUSU). The official X handle of the Indian Youth Congress (@IYC) had posted about this meeting on May 27.

LoP Shri @RahulGandhi interacted with DUSU students and united in the fight against BJP/RSS’s anti-reservation agenda.

“Not Found Suitable” (NFS) is the new face of Manuvad , a deliberate tool to exclude SC/ST/OBC candidates from education and leadership roles.

At Delhi… pic.twitter.com/o6zHdFSDu1

— Indian Youth Congress (@IYC) May 27, 2025

A video of this interaction was also shared on Gandhi’s YouTube channel on May 27.

Based on these images and videos, we closely examined the two people that social media users claimed were the same person. The comparison below clearly shows that these allegations do not hold water.

Alt News was also able to confirm the identity of the person highlighted in the DUSU meeting. He is Lokesh Choudhary, the joint-secretary of the student body (@Lokeshnsui9). On May 28, Choudhary also responded to the viral claims, calling them claims spread out of fear by Right-wing social media users and the BJP.

Thus, claims implying that Rahul Gandhi and the Congress employed ‘actors’ to pose as different people for their interactions are baseless. Alt News was able to verify that the two people social media users claimed were the same are, indeed, two different individuals, with one of them being Delhi University student body secretary Lokesh Choudhary.

The post Allegations that same person posed as porter on one occasion and DU student on another with Rahul Gandhi baseless appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Prantik Ali.

Shashi Tharoor’s scathing remarks on Trump: 2024 video falsely linked to Op Sindoor global outreach

Shinjinee Majumder — Wed, 28 May 2025 11:20:01 +0000

Soon after the Shashi Tharoor-led delegation of MPs had reached the United States on May 24 as part of India’s global outreach on Operation Sindoor, a 1.20-minute clip of Tharoor ‘taking on’ Donald Trump went viral on social media. In the video, the Congress MP comments that Trump’s ‘personal manner’ is not entirely ‘agreeable or pleasant’ for a distinguished American statesman. He also mentions that Trump lacks the class, political heft, statesman-like gravitas and intellectual quality found in former US presidents.

While Trump claimed a stake in India and Pakistan reaching a ceasefire agreement after the flare-up earlier this month, India made it clear that the decision was bilateral and denied the USA’s role in de-escalating tensions.

Media outlet NewsX aired the purported clip of Tharoor against the backdrop of the all-party delegation’s visit to the US. The anchor is heard saying, “Let’s also shift our focus to more developments. Congress MP Shashi Tharoor and his team members of the all-party delegation on Operation Sindoor are in the United States. On the US soil, Tharoor has made a statement on Donald Trump. In fact, that has been going viral on social media. Let’s take a look”, before playing the clip.

The same clip was reported as recent by Hindi media outlet Prabhat Khabar. (Archive)

Verified X handle @mohitlaws shared the video and remarked that this was “how you take on a bully like Donald Trump.” The tweet has garnered close to 4 Lakh views. (Archive)

This is how you take on a bully like Donald Trump. pic.twitter.com/1bGn3anEC9

— Mohit Chauhan (@mohitlaws) May 25, 2025

Verified X user @nkk_123 tweeted the viral clip and said “…This is how we expect laser eyed JJ to take on Trump and respond to the bully…”. Here, JJ is a sarcastic jibe at Union external affairs minister S Jaishankar. Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi was the first to take this dig at Jaishankar. (Archive)

Shashi Tharoor taking on Donald Trump in USA.

This is how we expect laser eyed JJ to take on Trump and respond to the bully.
RT if you want JJ to take tutions from ⁦@ShashiTharoor⁩ on how to handle Foriegn affairs. pic.twitter.com/wF5ZQqJXAs

— ηᎥ†Ꭵղ (@nkk_123) May 24, 2025

Another handle, @ragiiing_bull, also tweeted the video, praising Tharoor and suggesting that this was why he had been entrusted with a prominent diplomatic role representing India in the US. The tweet garnered close to a million views. (Archive)

Several other users on X, including INC aligned handle @AshishSinghKiJi, Far-Right propaganda account @KreatelyMedia, pro-Pakistani propaganda account, @IntelPk_, amplified the video. (Archives- 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)

Click to view slideshow.

Fact Check

We noticed that several tweets containing the viral video were seemingly a screen-recording of an Instagram video, collaboratively posted by @asiasociety and @shashitharoor. Alt News found that the video had been originally posted by the official Instagram handle of the Asia Society Museum on September 24, 2024, months before Operation Sindoor and the armed conflict between the two countries.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Asia Society Museum (@asiasociety)

According to the caption, the Congress MP was speaking at the Jaipur Literature Festival. Taking a cue from this, we looked for the full video of Tharoor’s interview at the JLF. We found it on the YouTube channel of the Jaipur literature Festival.

Tharoor made the now-viral remarks on September 10, 2024, in New York, in a conversation with the chairman and editor-in-chief of the India Today Group, Aroon Purie. The viral portion of the interview appears around the 12:36-minute mark in the clip below.

It is pertinent to note that Donald Trump was sworn in as the President of the United States for the second time on January 20, 2025. At the time of Tharoor’s interview, Joe Biden was the president of the United States.

Besides, Alt News could not find a single credible report wherein Tharoor is seen passing such ‘scathing remarks’ on Trump during his recent US visit.

While speaking at a public interaction at the Indian Consulate in New York on May 24, the Thiruvananthapuram MP specified how India’s calibrated military strikes during Operation Sindoor, launched on May 7, sent a clear and precise message to the perpetrators of Pahalgam attack and their backers. Tharoor also stated that the time had come to set a “new bottom line” in India’s dealings with Pakistan. “We have tried everything – international dossiers, complaints, everything has been tried,” he added. He said that Pakistan had remained in denial, with “no convictions, no serious criminal prosecutions, and no genuine attempt to dismantle” its terror infrastructure. “The persistence of safe havens…you (Pakistan) do this, you are going to get this back,” he remarked.

To sum up, the viral video of Congress MP Shashi Tharoor critiquing US President Donald Trump is not recent and it is not connected to the Tharoor-led team of MPs’ visit to the US post Operation Sindoor. The video is from September 2024, and from a talk show which was part of a Jaipur Literature Festival session in New York.

The post Shashi Tharoor’s scathing remarks on Trump: 2024 video falsely linked to Op Sindoor global outreach appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Shinjinee Majumder.

After Manohar Dhakad’s arrest for obscenity on highway, unrelated video of woman in hijab goes viral

Ankita Mahalanobish — Wed, 28 May 2025 11:01:22 +0000

After the arrest of Manohar Lal Dhakad, who was caught on camera indulging in sexual activities on the Delhi-Mumbai expressway, a clip of a woman in a hijab has gone viral. In the 17-second long video, full of expletives, the woman tells a man holding a mic, “Mera jism, meri marzi” (my body, my choice).

Dhakad, who has links to the BJP and is national secretary of the Dhakad Mahasabha registered in Madhya Pradesh’s Ujjain, was arrested by the state’s Mandsaur Police on May 26, 2025. The viral video of Dhakad in a compromising position with a woman on a public highway was captured on May 13; soon after it went viral, several cases were registered against him and the woman at Bhanpura police station.

Those sharing the video of the hijab-clad woman on social media after his arrest claimed that she was the one seen in the CCTV footage with Dhakad that night and identified her as Lubna Qureshi.

X user Jitendra Pratap Singh (@jpsin1), who counts Prime Minister Narendra Modi among his followers, shared the clip of the woman on May 27 and quipped, “If the hero of the film is arrested, why is the heroine released?” (Archive)

धाकड़ के हाईवे की फिल्म की हीरोइन लुबना कुरैशी

ये कह रही है मेरा जिस्म मेरी मर्जी चाहे मैं हाईवे पर या ओयो में

तुम कौन होते हो मुझे रोकने वाले

पुलिस को इसको भी अश्लीलता फैलाने की जुर्म में गिरफ्तार करना चाहिए था

फिल्म के हीरो को गिरफ्तार कर लिया तो हीरोइन को क्यों छोड़… pic.twitter.com/5BHTb71VjV

— Jitendra pratap singh (@jpsin1) May 27, 2025

At the time of writing this, the post had garnered 550,000 views.

X user Ocean Jain (@ocjain4) also shared the video, referring to the woman as “highway heroine”. (Archive)

मेरा जिस्म मेरी मर्जी, मै धन्दा करू तुम्हें क्या ?

लुबना कुरेशी हाइवे फिल्म की हीरोइन pic.twitter.com/ymosPZeQ3z

— Ocean Jain (@ocjain4) May 27, 2025

At the time of writing this, the user’s post had racked up over 800,000 views.

Similarly, another X user, Deepak Sharma (@SonOfBharat7), also shared the video, claiming ‘Lubna Qureshi’, Dhakad’s partner on the highway that night, was publicly acknowledging what she did. The user also snuck in a snide communal remark: “This hijab clad woman is very open-minded”. (Archive)

Readers should note that Ocean Jain, Jitendra Pratap Singh, and Deepak Sharma are notorious for amplifying false and misleading information. Alt News has fact checked posts by the three users several times in the past.

Besides these three, other social media users also shared the video and amplified the claims.

Click to view slideshow.

Fact Check

We broke down the video of the hijab-clad woman into key frames and ran a reverse image search. This led us to a TikTok account @ghdvcvjfe5u, which uploaded three similar videos of the woman’s interaction on May 21, 2025.

The TikTok videos can be seen below.

We tried more reverse image searches from key frames in these videos and found a longer video from the same incident uploaded on August 8, 2023—nearly two years before the expressway incident.

Note that the long YouTube version also began and ended abruptly and did not have the 17-second clip that was viral. However, on close examination of the visuals and based on the context from the TikTok videos, we were able to determine that it was indeed the same woman and the same incident. The comparison below makes it amply clear.

Thus, we were able to ascertain that the viral video is at least two years old.

To be sure, we also looked up several news reports on the Dhakad case but nowhere was the religious identity of the woman divulged. A Times of India report said that the authorities had yet to identify the woman seen in the video. It added that the police, despite interrogating Dhakad for a few hours, were unable to get any details on who he was with that night.

To sum up, the viral video is unrelated and we found longer, similar footage of the woman from almost two years before the expressway incident. The claims made by social media users that the woman in the video is the same one seen with Dhakad in the viral CCTV clip are false and misleading.

The post After Manohar Dhakad’s arrest for obscenity on highway, unrelated video of woman in hijab goes viral appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Ankita Mahalanobish.

Not Operation Bunyan Marsoos, image held by Pakistan PM, army chief Asim Munir shows old Chinese military drill

Oishani Bhattacharya — Tue, 27 May 2025 16:47:56 +0000

On May 24, Pakistan’s chief of army staff, Syed Asim Munir, hosted a dinner party “to honour the political leadership, steadfast commitment of the Armed Forces” during Operation Bunyan Marsoos, the offensive launched by Pakistan to counter India’s Operation Sindoor. One of the images from that party shows Munir and Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif holding a framed picture of artillery in action. A metal badge attached to the frame says, “OP BUNYAN-UM-MARSOOS; Geljed Maki Launch Rocket Regiment of Pakistan Artillery”.

It wasn’t clear who was presenting the image to whom but it was certainly linked to the latest India-Pakistan conflict. Pakistan’s operation, launched on May 10, targeted at least six Indian military bases. Meanwhile, the Indian armed forces have maintained that their strikes, launched on May 7, targeted only terror bases in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK).

News outlets such as the Times of Karachi, Daily The Spokesman, Khabar Kada, Pakistan Today, and Daily Pakistan carried the image. The public relations wing of the armed forces, the Inter Services Public Relations Pakistan, also used the image in its press release

Click to view slideshow.

Besides PM Sharif, President Asif Ali Zardari was also present along with the Pakistan’s deputy PM and foreign minister. Others in attendance included the national assembly speaker, ministers, governors, chief ministers, chiefs of air force and navy, senior political leaders, high-ranking government officials, and senior officers from the armed forces.

Images from the party were also shared by X handle Pakistan Armed Forces News (@PakistanFauj). (Archives 1, 2)

Click to view slideshow.

Fact Check

Several social media users pointed out on X that the framed image of artillery action was old and not related to Pakistan’s Operation Bunyan Marsoos. Some even pointed out that the image was of a Chinese military drill.

Click to view slideshow.

To verify this, we ran a reverse image search of the framed picture and found a report by Indian Aerospace Defence News (IADN) that featured an image very similar to the one Pakistan’s army chief and PM Sharif were holding. The four-year-old report was titled: “China deploys long-range rocket launcher as deterrent to India”. A watermark on the image said “China Military”.

The report also mentioned that China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) had deployed an advanced long-range rocket launcher to the Himalayas to strengthen border defences and deter India.

Taking a cue from the above, we ran a relevant keyword search, which led us to a 2019 blog post by China’s Ministry of Defence where the same image was used. The post made it clear that the image was from August 18, 2019.

We then compared the framed image that Pakistan’s army chief Munir and PM Sharif were holding with the one issued by the Chinese milutart and noticed several similarities, such as the smoke pattern and the angle of the launcher. We highlighted the comparison below:

Our findings indicate that the image on the left was most likely edited with two more launchers added to the original image. The angles of the three launchers on the left image and how they emit fire is identical and seem duplicated.

Hence, the framed image that Pakistan’s army chief Asim Munir and PM Sharif were holding was edited and had nothing to do with Operation Bunyan Marsoos. It is five years old and completely unrelated to the recent India-Pakistan conflict.

The post Not Operation Bunyan Marsoos, image held by Pakistan PM, army chief Asim Munir shows old Chinese military drill appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Oishani Bhattacharya.

India is not the fourth-largest or a $4-trillion economy yet; NITI Aayog CEO’s claim citing IMF data misleading

Diti Pujara — Tue, 27 May 2025 14:40:34 +0000

“We are the fourth-largest economy as I speak. We are a $4 trillion economy, and this is not my data—it’s IMF data,” Niti Aayog’s chief executive officer BVR Subrahmanyam said during a press briefing on May 24, 2025.

He was addressing reporters after the 10th governing council meeting of the Niti Aayog, a government think tank. The theme for this meeting, Subrahmanyam said, was ‘Viksit Rajya for Viksit Bharat’ which meant states must present their own growth visions in order for India to be a developed economy.

“It is only US, China, Germany, which are larger than India and if we stick to what is being planned and what is being thought through, in 2.5-3 years, we will be the third largest economy,” he added.

Subrahmanyam’s statements created a wave of euphoria. On May 27, even Prime Minister Narendra Modi hailed the achievement, emphasising how India moved from being the 11th-ranked economy to the 4th-ranked economy during his tenure.

#WATCH | Gandhinagar: Prime Minister Narendra Modi says “On 26th May 2014, I took the oath as the Prime Minister for the first time. At that time, India’s economy was at the 11th position…Today, India has become the world’s fourth-largest economy. It is a matter of pride for… pic.twitter.com/OFNMPEKXvq

— ANI (@ANI) May 27, 2025

Some prominent personalities who reiterated Subrahmanyam’s claims on social media include Bollywood actor Amitabh Bachchan, Mahindra Group chairperson Anand Mahindra, RPG Group chairperson Harsh Goenka, tech entrepreneur Kunal Bahl who has appeared on Shark Tank India and Mamaearth CEO Ghazal Alagh. Several BJP leaders, or politicians associated with BJP allies and some journalists also parroted the statements, celebrating India’s growth trajectory. Note that most social media posts on this also shared a graphic where the source was IMF’s World Economic Outlook Report, April 2025.

Click to view slideshow.

Fact Check

Alt News first thoroughly looked at International Monetary Fund’s latest publication, the World Economic Outlook Report, that was released on on April 22, 2025. Nowhere in that report does it say that India is the fourth-largest economy or that it has surpassed Japan.

We also found no statistical chart in the 190-page report that ranked countries’ gross domestic product (GDP) as indicated in the social media posts. Note that GDP is the sum total of the value of goods and services produced by a country annually and is often used to refer to the size of an economy.

However, the World Economic Outlook (WEO) section allows downloading economic database by country. Alt News downloaded the database for gross domestic product (at current prices expressed in US dollars) for all countries. The excel sheet mentioned the countries alphabetically and gave us the GDP (in US$) for all countries between 2022 and 2029. However, for India, the GDP figures after 2024 were estimates.

Also, note that for India, the year 2025 refers to the financial year 2025-26 or FY26 (April 2025 to March 2026), for which GDP numbers are estimates because we’re barely two months into this financial year. It does not refer to the calendar year 2025 (January to December). This is clarified in the report and in the statistical index.

Click to view slideshow.

So, in 2024 or financial year 2024-25 (FY25), India’s GDP was $3.91 trillion, going by IMF’s World Economic Outlook data. According to the same IMF data, India is estimated to reach $4.187 trillion at the end of FY26.

We compared the data with Japan. Even for Japan, data after 2024 are all estimates. In the calendar year 2024, Japan’s GDP was $4.03 trillion. At the end of 2025, Japan’s GDP is estimated to reach $4.186 trillion.

A close reading of International Monetary Fund’s data clearly shows that India has not yet surpassed Japan, in terms of gross domestic product. According to estimates, it may overtake Japan at the end of financial year 2025-26 or FY26. Again, these are estimates and even then, the difference in the GDP of the two is fairly narrow. Currently, India remains in the fifth position

According to IMF’s WEO data, based on official GDP figures for 2024 (which we sorted in descending order; IMF gives data alphabetically), countries with the highest GDP are (1) the United States of America, (2) China, (3) Germany, (4) Japan, (5) India and the (6) United Kingdom (in that order). Rows 1-5 in the screenshot below are not rankings but appear on top owing to lack of data (denoted by n/a).

It’s strange then that Niti Aayog CEO Subrahmanyam, an Indian Administrative Service officer since 1987, who has served in several government positions, including at the PMO, and had a stint at the World Bank, used projections to refer to current rankings. We say this because other members of the policy think tank, such as Arvind Virmani, were careful to say that India would become the fourth-largest economy only by the end of 2025.

“India is in the process of becoming the fourth largest economy, and I am personally confident that will happen by the end of 2025 because we need (data) of all 12 months GDP to say that, you know, to assert that. So to say till then, it remains a forecast,” Virmani told news agency PTI. On Niti CEO BVR Subrahmanyam’s remark that India is already there, he said: “…I really do not know what the words anybody has used. Perhaps there was some word which was missed or something.”

Note that the IMF presents data from government figures and estimates and makes projections based on these. It does not collect or gather data on its own.

Also, even if we do surpass Japan in terms of GDP, experts have warned against reading too much into it or using that data as the marker of a country’s progress. That’s because a roaring GDP does not guarantee an overall high per capita income, nor does it take a holistic view of income inequalities and unemployment. That, however, is a much longer discussion.

To sum up, Niti Aayog CEO BVR Subrahmanyam’s claim that India is currently the fourth-largest and a $4-trillion economy, citing IMF data, is misleading. India is currently the fifth-largest in terms of GDP. Projected estimates suggest that it could surpass Japan by the end of the 2025-26 fiscal.

The post India is not the fourth-largest or a $4-trillion economy yet; NITI Aayog CEO’s claim citing IMF data misleading appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Diti Pujara.

Akhilesh with arrested YouTuber Jyoti Malhotra? No, it’s an edited image

Pawan Kumar — Tue, 27 May 2025 13:34:29 +0000

Haryana YouTuber Jyoti Malhotra was recently arrested for allegedly spying for Pakistan and sharing sensitive information. Meanwhile, a photo of Jyoti Malhotra with former Uttar Pradesh chief minister and Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav is going viral on social media.

X user Arun Yadav took a dig at Samajwadi Party for being Muslim supporters and wrote, “What is this traitor Jyoti doing with Samajwadi Party supremo, friends?” (Archived link)

In another tweet, Arun Yadav again made a similar claim by quoting a tweet from Samajwadi Party. (Archived link)

BJP supporter Dilip Kumar Singh also amplified the image. (Archived link)

This photo is being widely shared on X and Facebook with the same claims.

Fact Check

We performed a reverse image search of the viral photo and came across news reports from NDTV and Indian Express dated January 22, 2017. Among them was a picture that looked similar to the viral picture, but the woman seen next to Akhilesh Yadav is not Jyoti Malhotra, but Dimple Yadav, Akhilesh’s wife.

According to the report, this picture is from on January 22, 2017, when Samajwadi Party released its manifesto for the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections.

Thhe same photo is also included in a report in The Times of India, which has several images from the event.

We also found several pictures of this programme on the website of gettyimages. The captions state that on January 22, 2017, during a press conference at the Samajwadi Party office in Lucknow, Akhilesh Yadav was seen releasing the Samajwadi Party manifesto along with his wife and Lok Sabha member Dimple Yadav.

Comparing the viral picture and the actual original picture, it is clear that Jyoti Malhotra’s face has been superimposed on Dimple Yadav’s.

To sum up, Akhilesh Yadav and Dimple Yadav released Samajwadi Party’s state election manifesto in 2017. The photo taken during that time was edited and YouTuber Jyoti Malhotra’s face was added to it. And it is being shared with misleading claims.

The post Akhilesh with arrested YouTuber Jyoti Malhotra? No, it’s an edited image appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Pawan Kumar.

Arrested YouTuber Jyoti Malhotra in BJP, AAP election caps? Fake photos viral

Pawan Kumar — Tue, 27 May 2025 07:47:39 +0000

Recently, Jyoti Malhotra, a YouTuber from Hisar, Haryana, was arrested by the NIA on charges of spying for Pakistan and sharing sensitive information. Meanwhile, two pictures of Malhotra wearing BJP and Aam Aadmi Party election caps and scarves are viral on social media. The pictures also have the logo of Aaj Tak news channel. Many users are sharing it on social media believing it to be true.

X user @Shizu____4evr shared a picture of Jyoti Malhotra wearing a cap and scarf with the BJP symbol and wrote, “Jyoti you are a traitor.. the BJP stands with you..” (Archived link)

ज्योति तुम गद्दारी करो..
बीजेपी तुम्हारे साथ है..!!#JyotiMalhotraArrested pic.twitter.com/s4hqnNdrkz

— ✼ ҉ ҉ ҉ ҉ 𝑺𝒉𝒊𝒁𝒖 ҉ ҉ ҉ ҉ ✼ (@Shizu____4evr) May 17, 2025

Several ex-handles @kachaaalloo, @bamboo_cell, @SCR4India and Samajwadi Party national spokesperson IP Singh also shared this viral picture.

Sakshi Gupta, who claims to be the district president of AAP Mahila wing Delhi on X, also shared a picture of Jyoti Malhotra wearing a BJP cap, in response to which some users shared a picture of Jyoti Malhotra allegedly wearing an AAP cap and scarf.

आतंकियों की बहन तो ज्योति मल्होत्रा निकली।
सोफिया कुरैशी तो भारतीयों की बहन है जनाब pic.twitter.com/6LVo2nkPUm

— Sakshi Gupta AAP (@SakshiGupta_AAP) May 18, 2025

X handles @arpit637163, @ChamkeeleChuze, and @Deepak25189 also shared another picture of Jyoti wearing an Aam Aadmi cap and scarf.

Fact Check

Alt News scoured all social media platforms of Aaj Tak News to fact-check the viral images. We found news reports related to YouTuber Jyoti Malhotra’s arrest and alleged spying for Pakistan. But we did not find the viral images anywhere.

We compared the viral image with other pictures (templates) posted on Aaj Tak’s social media handle. We noticed a significant difference between them, in terms of layout and style.

Besides, the lighting seen in the viral photos seem unnatural, and the design of the cap and scarf worn by Jyoti Malhotra is different from that of the election caps and scarves used by the BJP and Aam Aadmi Party.

We uploaded the first viral photo on the AI detector tool sightengine.com. According to the results obtained from this, there was a 99% chance of this photo being AI generated.

The AI detector tool sightengine.com said that there was a 99% chance of the second photo being created with the help of AI as well.

To sum up, both the viral photos of YouTuber Jyoti Malhotra which are being shared on social media targeting the Aam Aadmi Party and the BJP are fake and AI generated.

The post Arrested YouTuber Jyoti Malhotra in BJP, AAP election caps? Fake photos viral appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Pawan Kumar.

Old, unrelated images shared as visuals of Col. Sofia Qureshi, IAF’s Vyomika Singh’s vandalised homes

Pawan Kumar — Sat, 24 May 2025 18:00:43 +0000

After the recent India-Pakistan conflict, an image of a vandalised home was shared on social media alongside a picture of Colonel Sofia Qureshi. Those sharing the image claimed that Colonel Qureshi’s house in Belagavi, Karnataka, was attacked by RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh) goons.

Facebook pages Abdul Rasheed Azad and Funny Pakistani Police shared the image and claimed that RSS goons targeted the Muslim Indian Army officer by vandalising her house in Belgaum in the middle of the night. They also claimed that Colonel Qureshi’s son, Sameer, was brutally beaten, while her daughter Hanima survived the horror because she was in Delhi. (Archives 1, 2)

Click to view slideshow.

X handles @JN_Araain and @BattlesInsight also shared the picture with similar claims. (Archives 1, 2)

Similar claims that Bajrang Dal goons threatened and vandalised the house of Indian Air Force Wing Commander Vyomika Singh’s elderly parents also did the rounds on social media. (Archive)

Fact Check

Image 1: Alt News did not find any media reports suggesting that Colonel Sofia Qureshi’s home was vandalised by RSS workers. However, we came across several news reports where the Belagavi police denied viral claims that RSS activists attacked Colonel Qureshi’s house.

According to Zee Kannada, in a press conference, Belagavi Superintendent of Police Dr Bhimashankar Guled called the viral claims of RSS attack on Colonel Sofia Qureshi’s house fake and said that tight security was being provided to her family.

We then performed a reverse image search, which led us to a Deccan Herald article dated April 26, 2024, that used the viral photo. It stated that “residents of the Indiganatha village in Hanur taluka of Chamarajanagar district boycotted polls, and protested by pelting stones and damaging electronic voting machines at a booth under Mahadeshwar Gram Panchayat limits, halting the polling process.”

The caption of the photo said, “Electronic voting machines and furniture were damaged in a stone-pelting incident in the Hanur taluk of Chamarajanagar district.”

Second image

Image 2: A reverse image search led us to a Newark Advertiser report dated February 22, 2018 in which the same image was used. The picture is from an incident of vandalism at a house in Lincoln Court, Newark, UK.

Alt News also did not find any news reports that said Bajrang Dal members attacked the IAF officer’s house.

To sum up, social media users shared false claims that homes of Indian Army Colonel Sofia Qureshi and IAF Wing Commander Vyomika Singh were vandalised by Hindutva outfits. The viral images are old and unrelated and there is no truth to these claims.

The post Old, unrelated images shared as visuals of Col. Sofia Qureshi, IAF’s Vyomika Singh’s vandalised homes appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Pawan Kumar.

Arrested ‘spy’ Jyoti Malhotra with PM Modi? Photo viral with false claims

Priyanka Jha — Sat, 24 May 2025 14:22:48 +0000

A photo is viral on social media where a group of young men and a woman are seen with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. It is being shared with the claim that the woman in the image is YouTuber Jyoti Malhotra, who was arrested for allegedly spying for Pakistan. The face of the woman is circled in red in the vial photo.

Facebook user Jamshed Khan shared the picture and wrote, “Spy Jyoti Malhotra is a seasoned player.” (Archived link)

X User Anamika also shared the image and wrote, “What is this sister to terrorists doing with the leader of blind bhakts?” (Archived link)

Many other users also shared this picture with the same claims. (Link 1, Link 2, Link 3)

Click to view slideshow.

ALSO READ: Viral photos of Rahul Gandhi with Jyoti Malhotra are morphed

Fact Check

We performed a reverse image search of this picture, and found multiple other versions where it is mentioned that PM Modi had an interaction with online gaming influencers. All of these posts are from last year.

On April 13, 2024, a video of the PM’s meeting with gamers was shared on the official YouTube channel of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The description of the video also mentions the name of the gamer as Payal Dhare and tags her YouTube channel. At the 31:36 mark in the video, a frame that looks similar to the viral picture is seen.

Alt News noticed that Payal Dhare had also posted a video of her meeting with PM Modi on April 13, 2024 on her YouTube channel. According to a report by News18, she hails from the Umranala village in Chhindwara, Madhya Pradesh and is an award-winning gamer.

Apart from this, we could not find any news reports to corroborate any meeting between Jyoti Malhotra and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. We took a screenshot from Malhotra’s YouTube channel and compared it with this image of Payal Dhare. The two are clearly not the same.

To sum it up, the viral image is of gamer Payal Dhare and not of Jyoti Malhotra, but it is being used to claim that Malhotra met the Prime Minister Modi.

ALSO READ: Viral image of Akhilesh Yadav with Jyoti Malhotra, arrested on charges of ‘spying’, is fake

The post Arrested ‘spy’ Jyoti Malhotra with PM Modi? Photo viral with false claims appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Priyanka Jha.

Arrested ‘spy’ Jyoti Malhotra with PM Modi? Photo viral with false claims

Priyanka Jha — Sat, 24 May 2025 14:22:48 +0000

Facebook user Jamshed Khan shared the picture and wrote, “Spy Jyoti Malhotra is a seasoned player.” (Archived link)

X User Anamika also shared the image and wrote, “What is this sister to terrorists doing with the leader of blind bhakts?” (Archived link)

Many other users also shared this picture with the same claims. (Link 1, Link 2, Link 3)

Click to view slideshow.

ALSO READ: Viral photos of Rahul Gandhi with Jyoti Malhotra are morphed

Fact Check

To sum it up, the viral image is of gamer Payal Dhare and not of Jyoti Malhotra, but it is being used to claim that Malhotra met the Prime Minister Modi.

ALSO READ: Viral image of Akhilesh Yadav with Jyoti Malhotra, arrested on charges of ‘spying’, is fake

The post Arrested ‘spy’ Jyoti Malhotra with PM Modi? Photo viral with false claims appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Priyanka Jha.

Photo from 2023 IAF lane crash peddled by Pakistani social media users as Indian pilot captured

Kinjal — Sat, 24 May 2025 10:44:29 +0000

At the height of the India-Pakistan armed conflict, several Pakistani X accounts on May 10 shared a picture of a woman in army uniform. It was claimed by users who shared the photo that Pakistan had captured an Indian female pilot. X user Dr. Taha posted this picture with the same claim. (Archived Link)

Indian female pilot captured pic.twitter.com/NaAMfxGE2E

— Dr. Taha چیمہ (@MuhammadTahaCh1) May 10, 2025

X account Chand Sitara also posted this picture with the same claim. However, the user deleted the post later. (Archived link)

Another X account shared this picture with a similar claim.

Numerous X users also posted this picture taking a dig at India.

What is the Truth Behind the Image?

While investigating the viral image, Alt News came across a video report by The News Minute dated June 1, 2023. The video contained visuals of the wreckage of a plane crash along with the viral image. According to the caption, the visuals depicted an Indian Air Force (IAF) Kiran training aircraft which crashed on June 1 in the Bhogpur village of the Chamarajanagar district of Karnataka. However, before the crash, flight instructor Wing Commander Tejpal and trainee pilot Bhumika were able to safely evacuate from the aircraft.

The Indian Air Force had also tweeted about this on June 1, 2023.

A Kiran trainer aircraft of the IAF crashed near Chamrajnagar, Karnataka today, while on a routine training sortie. Both aircrew ejected safely. A Court of Inquiry has been ordered to ascertain the cause of the accident.

— Indian Air Force (@IAF_MCC) June 1, 2023

Star of Mysore published an article covering this and shared pictures of the incident, which also included the viral image.

PIB Fact Check, the fact-checking wing of Union government’s press information bureau, shared a tweet explaining the truth behind the photo.

To sum up, the viral picture is of an IAF aircraft crash that took place in a village in Karnataka on June 1, 2023. It is being falsely shared by Pakistani users who claim that a Indian woman pilot had been captured.

At the same time, another video clip was being widely shared with the same claim. In the video, a person is seen stuck in a tree with a parachute. Alt News found this clip in a post by Samachar First dated March 16, 2025. Hence, this clip also has nothing to do with the recent armed conflict between India and Pakistan.

The post Photo from 2023 IAF lane crash peddled by Pakistani social media users as Indian pilot captured appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Kinjal.

Viral photos of Rahul Gandhi with Jyoti Malhotra are morphed

Priyanka Jha — Sat, 24 May 2025 09:49:39 +0000

After Haryana YouTuber Jyoti Malhotra was arrested for espionage and leaking intel to Pakistan, her pictures with Congress leader Rahul Gandhi went viral on social media. Users sharing these images questioned her association with Gandhi and insinuated that traitors of the country are often seen with him.

Sharing two images on X, user Manoj Srivastava (@ManojSr60583090) wrote, “Jyoti Malhotra, caught spying for Pakistan, is with traitor Rahul Gandhi, it is a strange coincidence that every traitor is seen with Rahul Gandhi.”

Another X user, Jayant Rokde (@jayant_rokade), also shared the pictures with a similar caption.

Several others also linked her to Rahul Gandhi. (Archives 1, 2, 3)

Click to view slideshow.

Fact Check

Image 1: A reverse image search of Rahul Gandhi’s photo with ‘Jyoti’, who is in a blue saree, led us to several news reports from 2018 in which a very similar image appeared. However, the woman in the photo is then-Congress MLA from Rae Bareli, Aditi Singh, not Jyoti Malhotra. Below is a screenshot from a report by ABP News dated May 7, 2018.

Taking cue from the caption in the ABP report, we looked at Singh’s Facebook page, where she had shared the same photo in 2017, wishing Rahul Gandhi on his birthday. Note that Singh resigned from Congress in 2021 and joined the BJP. She is currently a BJP MLA from Rae Bareli.

The comparison below clearly shows that Jyoti Malhotra’s face has been superimposed on Singh’s face in the viral photo.

Image 2: To check the image where Rahul Gandhi can be seen with a woman in a blue kurta, Alt News performed a reverse image search and found a similar image posted on Rahul Gandhi’s Facebook page on September 18, 2022. In this picture, too, the woman’s face is different and not of the arrested YouTuber.

We also found another picture of Rahul Gandhi with the same woman in the blue kurta on X account of the Mahila Congress. This was also shared in September 2022 during Kerala run of the ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’.

On comparing the viral image with the one on Rahul Gandhi’s Facebook page, we found that Jyoti Malhotra’s face had been superimposed on it.

Also, we found no credible news reports indicating the two had met.

To sum up, the viral pictures are not of Rahul Gandhi with Jyoti Malhotra but of him with other women. These original pictures from 2017 and 2022 have been digitally manipulated by superimposing Jyoti Malhotra’s face on others to make it seem like they had met before. Similarly baseless claims linking Jyoti Malhotra to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Samajwadi Party’s Akhilesh Yadav also did the rounds on social media. Alt News had fact checked these too. Read: Jyoti Malhotra, arrested on charges of ‘spying’, seen with PM Modi? False claim shared and Viral photo of Akhilesh Yadav with Jyoti Malhotra, arrested on charges of ‘spying’, is fake

The post Viral photos of Rahul Gandhi with Jyoti Malhotra are morphed appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Priyanka Jha.

After Maoist deaths, BJP Karnataka shares ‘cauliflower’ meme, a reference to the 1989 Bhagalpur riots

Ankita Mahalanobish — Sat, 24 May 2025 07:00:04 +0000

On May 23, two days after security forces killed several Maoists in Chhattisgarh, the X handle of BJP Karnataka (@BJP4Karnataka) posted an animated image of Union home minister Amit Shah with a cauliflower in his hand, resting his arm on a tombstone that said, “Naxalism Rest in Peace”. (Archive)

The image was captioned, “Lol” Salam, Comrade,” a pun on communists’ usage of the greeting “Lal Salam” or red salute.

“Lol” Salaam, Comrade!! https://t.co/WkzYoHIOUQ pic.twitter.com/ngYyVKYCll

— BJP Karnataka (@BJP4Karnataka) May 23, 2025

On May 21, 2025, the District Reserve Guard unit of the Chhattisgarh police, a special force created to combat insurgency in Chhattisgarh, carried out an anti-Naxal operation in the state’s Narayanpur district. 27 Maoists, including the general secretary of the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist), Nambala Keshav Rao, alias Basavaraju, were neutralised in this. Named Kagar, this operation sought to neutralise Maoist presence in the Karreguttallu hill range along the Telengana-Chhattisgarh border region.

The May 23 post by the BJP handle was in response to a statement by the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation (@cpimlliberation) condemning “the cold-blooded extra-judicial killing of the General Secretary of CPI(Maoist) Comrade Keshav Rao and other Maoist activists and Adivasis in Narayanpur-Bijapur.” Calling it a massacre, the communist party said, that “celebratory” posts by Indian leaders made it clear that the state was carrying out “an extra-judicial extermination campaign and taking credit for killing citizens and suppressing Adivasi protests against corporate plunder and militarisation in the name of combating Maoism.” The party was likely referring to X posts by Shah and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who hailed the Maoists’ deaths as a “landmark achievement in the battle to eliminate Naxalism”.

In the past 16 months, under the BJP’s governance, more than 400 alleged Maoist insurgents have been killed in Chhattisgarh, a state with a significant Adivasi population.

While the two parties and their ideologues are on two opposing ends on how they view the Naxal movement, the troubling part is that BJP Karnataka’s X post used a trope—the cauliflower—that is a horrifying reminder of a genocide.

Rooted in Bloodshed

To an unsuspecting viewer, Shah holding a cauliflower on the tombstone of the Naxal movement might strike as odd, but harmless. However, the cauliflower here is a deep-rooted symbol of bloodshed. It is a reference to the 1989 Bhagalpur riots in which over a 100 Muslims were killed.

Over 35 years ago, a series of brutal riots broke out in the city of Bhagalpur, Bihar. In October, 1989, rumours of Hindu students being murdered by Muslim mobs amid the cultural furore of the Ram Janmabhoomi movement began spreading. This gave way to a protracted period of organised communal violence, lasting around two whole months. The Bhagalpur riots, as they are called, saw more than 250 villages razed to the ground, leaving well over a thousand people dead, majority of them Muslims.

But something far more sinister took place in Bhagalpur’s Logain village. On October 27, 1989, a mob, allegedly led by police officer Ramchander Singh, killed 116 Muslims. Their bodies were buried, and cauliflower saplings were sown on their mass graves to cover up the killings.

Nearly 25 days later, on November 21, the then-Additional District Manager of Bhagalpur, AK Singh, on a relief mission to a nearby village, overheard conversations between villagers about cauliflower plants sprouting over buried dead bodies and unearthed the massacre. Another account suggests that Singh found out that bodies may be buried under the ground because he saw vultures hovering above the cauliflower plantations.

For more details on the happenings in 1989 and what triggered the clashes, read our earlier report here. You can also read the Bhagalpur Riot Inquiry Commission Report here.

The Cauliflower Imagery

While the Bhagalpur riots took place over three decades ago, in the past few years, the cauliflower symbolism has found its way through graphical representations, imagery and memes. Each time, a minority or non-Right group is targeted, supporters who identify with Hindutva groups or the Right-wing ideology have openly made references to the cauliflower as a ‘solution’.

In March 2025, after communal clashes broke out in Maharashtra’s Nagpur, Right-leaning social media users referred to cauliflowers, as a potential ‘solution’.

Click to view slideshow.

In February last year, similar cauliflower references were used in several social media posts after riots broke out in Haldwani.

Several memes were made and shared on social media platforms glorifying the Bhagalpur massacre, subverting a horror as a feasible remedy.

Read | Nagpur clashes: Cryptic cauliflower memes referring to mass killings in 1989 Bhagalpur riots resurface

Not only does such symbolism trivialize the horrors of what unfolded in Bhagalpur but glorifies the action as an acceptable ‘solution’. It’s hard to determine which is more troubling, that the state wing of a party that governs the nation shared this or that “eliminating Naxalism” is being equated to a genocide. As of May 24, despite several social media users pointing out the gory undercurrents to the image, BJP Karnataka’s X handle has not taken the post down.

The post After Maoist deaths, BJP Karnataka shares ‘cauliflower’ meme, a reference to the 1989 Bhagalpur riots appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Ankita Mahalanobish.

Video from Sudan shared as visuals of Pakistan’s Noor Khan airbase after Indian attack

Pawan Kumar — Fri, 23 May 2025 10:00:06 +0000

In a press briefing on May 11, 2025, chiefs of the Indian army, air force and navy shared details on Operation Sindoor. During the briefing, Air Marshal AK Bharti said India destroyed airbases and radar centres in Sukkur, Rafiqui, Rahim Yar Khan, Chaklala (Noor Khan), Bholari, Sargodha and Jacobabad in response to Pakistani attacks.

Soon after this, a video began circulating on social media with claims that these showed the destruction at the Noor Khan (Chaklala) airbase. The airbase is located in the Rawalpindi area, around 10 kilometres from Islamabad.

X user Karma Yogi (@karma2moksha) shared the video and wrote, “Pakistan’s Noor Khan Airbase. As per the shared video, the damage is huge.” (Archive)

Several other X handles, including @munish_pat1980, @amjaviya and @Yashwant_Saroha also shared the video with the same claim.

Click to view slideshow.

Fact Check

On looking at the viral video closely, Alt News noticed that there were only passenger planes and nothing resembling a fighter jet on the tarmac. At the 00:52-minute mark in the video, the word ‘Sudan’ can be seen on the tail of one of the planes.

We performed a reverse image search using a few frames of the viral clip and found the same video uploaded on Instagram by a user named ‘@africanaviators_official’ on March 31, 2025. The caption of the post said these were tragic scenes from Khartoum International Airport in Sudan that show a large number of aircraft being destroyed during clashes between the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in May 2023. It also says that the Sudanese army took back control of the Khartoum International Airport from the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

A longer version of this video was shared by X handle @smutoro on March 31. The post said that the Khartoum Airport was destroyed by RSF fighters. At the 04:31-minute mark in the video, the words ‘Blue Bird Aviation Company Limited’ can be seen on the damaged plane as well as on the signboard of an aircraft workshop. Blue Bird Aviation is a private airline company from Sudan established in 1989. Thus there is ample evidence that the video is from Sudan and not Pakistan.

According to a report published by Al Jazeera on March 26, the Sudanese army recaptured Khartoum International Airport from the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in March 2025, two years after the war.

To sum up, this viral video shows an airport destroyed in a clash during the civil uprising in Sudan, not Pakistan. Social media users wrongly shared it as scenes from Pakistan’s Noor Khan airbase after it was destroyed by the Indian armed forces.

The post Video from Sudan shared as visuals of Pakistan’s Noor Khan airbase after Indian attack appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Pawan Kumar.

Viral image does not show damage to Rawalpindi cricket stadium by Indian drone

Pawan Kumar — Thu, 22 May 2025 10:00:14 +0000

An image of a stadium in shambles was widely circulated on social media with claims that it shows Pakistan’s Rawalpindi cricket stadium after it was destroyed by an Indian drone.

Sharing the image, X user Nagendra Pandey (@nagendr_24) claimed, “Pakistan’s Rawalpindi Stadium was attacked by a drone and is covered in smoke.” (Archive)

Another X user, Amitabh Chaudhary (@MithilaWaala), also shared the picture and indicated that the Rawalpindi stadium was scorched. (Archive)

At the time of writing, the post had been viewed over 11 million times.

Instagram handle ‘asgardiwana_official‘ also shared the picture in two separate posts. (Archives 1, 2)

Fact Check

Alt News performed a keyword search to investigate the viral claim. This led us to a video report by the Times of India. According to this report, an Indian attack drone allegedly struck the Rawalpindi stadium a few hours before a cricket match on May 8, following which a part of the stadium was damaged. The report also shows broken glass windows from shops and food stalls.

We searched for more news reports but did not find any that shows the stadium in the same condition as in the viral image.

We then compared an actual photo of the Rawalpindi cricket stadium with the viral picture. Both images are clearly different. The Rawalpindi stadium (on the right) has only two tiers of audience stands, while the viral image shows three separate tiers. It is worth noting that the stadium ground in the viral picture looks much smaller than the image on the right. Further, there is also clear difference in the structure and design of both.

Upon taking a closer look at the viral picture, the nearby wall and the ground appear to be connected to each other. Apart from this, the trees and plants around appear green and fresh, which is strange since the drone resulted in so much damage to the stadium, the trees ought to have bene scorched or suffered some damage too. These were signs that hinted that the image was likely AI-generated.

Alt News then tested the image using some AI detection tools that confirmed the viral image was, in fact, generated using artificial intelligence. One tool called sightengine showed a 96% probability of the image being AI-generated.

Another tool named decopy.ai found that the image was 99.98% AI-generated.

To sum up, the viral image does not depict Pakistan’s Rawalpindi stadium destroyed any an Indian drone. Our findings indicate that it may have been created using artificial intelligence. In reality, the Rawalpindi stadium did suffer some damage, but the footage from there appears distinctly different from this. Thus, the claims are baseless.

The post Viral image does not show damage to Rawalpindi cricket stadium by Indian drone appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Pawan Kumar.

Pak propaganda: 2021 Dubai fire video shared as Adani-owned Hazira port gutted in missile attack

Pawan Kumar — Thu, 22 May 2025 09:58:55 +0000

Against the backdrop of the recent India-Pakistan armed conflict, Iranian media and Pakistani social media handles shared a video claiming that Pakistan army had destroyed the Adani-owned Hazira port in Gujarat by attacking it with multiple missiles.

Iran-based media organisation Tasnim News posted the video on its official X handle @Tasnimnews_Fa claiming that a fire had broken out at an Indian airbase in the northwestern Indian state of Gujarat after a Pakistani airstrike. (Archived link)

Jackson Hinkle, an American political commentator, influencer and host of the show Legitimate Targets, also made the same claim by sharing a video on X (formerly Twitter). The post was later deleted. (Archived link)

Several Pakistani handles @AthSa01, @Rahil__AD, @_iMAKsays also claimed that the Adani Airport in Gujarat had been destroyed.

Fact Check

Alt News performed a reverse image search with some key frames of the viral video. This led us to a news report by The Irish Sun published on July 7, 2021. Alongside a screenshot of the viral video, the report states that the sound of the explosion in the ‘oil tanker’ at Dubai’s Jebel Ali port was heard several miles away and glass from several nearby buildings also shattered due to its impact.

According to a report by Al Jazeera, a container ship docked at Jebel Ali Port, one of the world’s largest ports, caught fire after an explosion in Dubai, the commercial hub of the United Arab Emirates, on July 7, 2021. The Dubai Media Office (DMO) reported that the fire was eventually brought under control and there were no casualties, stating that the cause of the explosion was unknown.

Alt News also noticed that X user Saeed M from Dubai had shared this video on July 8, 2021, claiming it to be of the Jebel Ali Port in Dubai.

To sum it up, this viral video actually depicts the explosion of an oil container at Dubai’s Jebel Ali port 4 years ago. Some media outlets and Pakistani users are sharing it with the false claim that the Gujarat port was destroyed in Pakistani retaliation following ‘Operation Sindoor’.

ALSO READ: Pakistani accounts released fake video claiming that 52 Indian Army soldiers were killed

The post Pak propaganda: 2021 Dubai fire video shared as Adani-owned Hazira port gutted in missile attack appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Pawan Kumar.

Viral video where Muslim woman claims she had ‘halala’ with her former father-in-law is scripted

Ankita Mahalanobish — Thu, 22 May 2025 06:34:56 +0000

A video showing a burqa-clad woman sitting with an elderly man in a skullcap is viral across social media platforms. In the video, the elderly man refers to the girl as his former daughter-in-law and claims they performed “halala” in accordance with Islam. “Halala” is a controversial Islamic marriage practice, according to which, a divorced woman must marry or consummate with another man before remarrying her former husband.

The woman, who says she is 22 years old, later proclaims that after the “halala,” she doesn’t want to get back with her ex-husband and wants to instead continue living with her 60-year-old father-in-law. Social media users sharing the video took a dig at the two and at the Muslim community, for such practices.

X user Deepika Narayan Bharadwaj (@DeepikaBhardwaj), who claims she is a men’s rights activist and journalist, shared the video and remarked that the two individuals in the video kept repeating they were following the words of Allah. (Archive)

Another X user, Dilip Kumar Singh (@DilipKu24388061), shared this video on May 18 with a sarcastic comment that strange things happen in the name of god in a certain community. (Archive)

एक मजहब की गजब कहानी

अल्लाह के नाम पर मनपसंद काम होता है pic.twitter.com/kh8SdlaFDC

— Dilip Kumar Singh (@DilipKu24388061) May 18, 2025

Another X user, Abhay Pratp Singh (@IAbhay_Pratap), also shared the video and asked whether such relations are allowed and religiously acknowledged. (Archive)

– शौहर ने तलाक दे दिया तो ससुर ने हलाला किया
– अब ससुर उसे तलाक नहीं दे रहा है
– बेगम भी कह रही है कि अब उसे शौहर पसंद नहीं है
– अब ससुर की ही बेगम बनकर रहेगी

क्या ऐसा सच में होता है ? ऐसा नहीं हो सकता शायद. कोई कन्फर्म करेगा ?pic.twitter.com/NCPPittWYC

— Abhay Pratap Singh (बहुत सरल हूं) (@IAbhay_Pratap) May 20, 2025

Fact Check

A reverse image search on a few key frames led us to a seven-minute-long video, uploaded on YouTube by user Ashwini Pandey.

The now-viral clip is part of this video and appears at the very beginning. At the 00:06-minute mark of the YouTube video, a disclaimer, which appears for barely a second, mentions that the video is made for entertainment purposes only.

However, the viral video, clipped from this longer version, does not carry the disclaimer.

While going through the content posted by this channel, Alt News found several similar videos of relationships that are otherwise considered taboo.

In one such video, uploaded on May 5, a woman wearing sindoor (a vermilion powder used by many married Hindu women), claims that she married her father-in-law because they fell in love. In this video, the disclaimer appears at the 00:09-minute mark.

Another scripted video showed a crying woman, pointing at an elderly man and accusing him of doing wrong by her. Meanwhile, the man dressed in black, adorning a black tilak and beads, says that he “treated” the woman to help her conceive. In this video, at the 00:04-minute mark, a similar disclaimer appears.

Similarly, in another scripted video, a girl wearing sindoor allegedly married her uncle. In this video, the disclaimer appears at the 00:08-minute mark for a fraction of a second.

Alt News has fact-checked several such scripted videos made by content creators, but viral as real situations.

To sum up, the viral video is scripted and has been wrongly labelled a real incident.

The post Viral video where Muslim woman claims she had ‘halala’ with her former father-in-law is scripted appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Ankita Mahalanobish.

On first day, first show for DD, Sudhir Chaudhary runs old, unrelated videos as Indian air defence foiling Pak attacks

Indradeep Bhattacharyya — Wed, 21 May 2025 16:06:56 +0000

‘Star’ anchor Sudhir Chaudhary began his stint at public broadcaster Doordarshan with a bang, just as he did three years ago when he joined Aaj Tak.

Keeping his unenviable track record of sharing false information on the first day, first show intact, Chaudhary showed old, unrelated videos as footage of India’s air defence system destroying Pakistani jets, in his debut show for DD News on May 15, 2025. In his earlier avatar, as the host of the Aaj Tak programme ‘Black & White’, Chaudhary had misattributed a quote to Mark Twain in the very first episode aired on July 19, 2022.

In March this year, the Indian Express reported that Prasar Bharati had inked a Rs 15-crore annual deal with Chaudhary to host a one-hour segment on Doordarshan on weekdays starting mid-May. A teaser for the show, titled ‘Decode’, shared by DD News on X shows Chaudhary saying that the truth is often kept under lock and key; he would decode it for viewers.

Sudhir Chaudhary brings in-depth news analysis to #DDNews — DECODE

Coming SOON@sudhirchaudhary pic.twitter.com/zVwZQpqtB6

— DD News (@DDNewslive) May 13, 2025

Chaudhary’s show ‘Decode’ premiered on the state-run Hindi news channel at 9 pm on May 15.

pic.twitter.com/zucNsvyu4t

— Sudhir Chaudhary (@sudhirchaudhary) May 15, 2025

The first episode of ‘Decode’ focused on the India-Pakistan conflict. At the 15.25-minute mark in the show, Chaudhary showed some footage of missiles hitting targets on ground while observing that the three arms of the Indian armed forces, the Army, the Air Force and the Indian Navy, had already cornered Pakistan. Readers can watch the relevant part here:

Here is a screengrab from the moment:

The footage shows in this segment has no connection with the recent India-Pakistan conflict. Several social media users had shared the same video on May 7 with false claims. In a fact check published on the same day, Alt News explained that the footage was of Iranian missiles targeting the Nevatim airbase in Israel’s Negev desert in early October, 2024. In fact, the same video is available on the YouTube channel of DD India. It was uploaded on October 2, 2024. The caption says, “Iranian missiles targeting the Nevatim airbase in the Negev Desert.”

To sum up, Sudhir Chaudhary, on his first show on DD News, showed a video claiming it was from the India-Pakistan conflict. The same video is available on DD India’s YouTube channel since October 2024 as an Iranian attack on Israel.

That’s not all.

Again, around the 26:48-minute mark of the show, Chaudhary said, “जब पाकिस्तान ने भारत के अलग-अलग शहरों पर और एयरबेसेज पर हमला किया, तब ये हमले एयर डिफेंस सिस्टम की मदद से हमने नाकाम कर दिए. इनमें दो एयर डिफेंस सिस्टम्स हमने रशिया से खरीदे थे और एक एयर डिफेंस सिस्टम मेड इन इंडिया है, और उसका नाम है आकाशतीर…” (When Pakistan attacked various Indian cities and airbases, we thwarted those attacks with the help of our air defence systems. Two of these air defence systems were bought from Russia while one, called Akashteer, was made in India.) Through the 20-second duration where he said this, visuals of an aerial combat against the night sky played on screen. Watch here:

https://www.altnews.in/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/s9dqA__gANb-Arkq.mp4

This clip, too, has no connection with the India-Pakistan conflict.

At the height of the conflict, the same clip was aired by several channels, including, Aaj Tak, NDTV, Times Now, News18, Times Now Navbharat, ABP News, One India, News Nation, and India TV, as visuals of an aerial fight over Jaisalmer, in which Indian air defence systems foiled an attack by Pakistan.

In a Hindi fact-check report published on May 9 (published in English on May 12), a week before Chaudhary’s show, Alt News explained that the footage had no connection to the India-Pakistan conflict. The viral video has been on the internet since at least 2021. It was uploaded by NSFchannel on YouTube on May 11, 2021, with a caption saying that it showed Israel’s air defense system, the Iron Dome, in action.

Interestingly, viewers who watch the first episode of ‘Decode’ (dated May 15) on YouTube now will not find the above section. After careful viewing, it becomes clear that the problematic part has been removed. Chaudhary’s lines in that bit sound like this now: “जैसे-जैसे समय बढ़ रहा है, इस युद्ध की नई-नई डिटेल्स सामने आ रहा है… मेड इन इंडिया है, और इसका नाम है आकाशतीर” (As time goes on, more details about the conflict emerge. Is made in India and is called Akashteer). It is evident that the part before ‘मेड इन इंडिया’ has been clipped out.

Watch from the 26:40-minute mark here:

Clipping the video, however, did not close the chapter. As luck would have it, a follower of Chaudhary who wanted to express her pleasure at him joining her ‘favourite’ channel, posted a recording of ‘Decode’ playing on her television on X. This recording showed exactly the part that has now been removed—the three-year-old, unrelated visual from Israel linked to the India-Pakistan conflict. “… We missed the credible news during war,” she wrote.

#Decode Sudhir sir, thanks for coming back and that too on my old favourite DD news,

Kindly help on to remove continuous ‘beep beep sound’, this is very annoying, just a suggestion though.

Welcome back i love your shows so much and we missed the credible news during war. pic.twitter.com/7kdKCDHhoa

— Shoi Chakraborty (@ShoiChakraborty) May 15, 2025

Chaudhury shared her post and thanked her for watching his show.

‘A Lie can Travel Halfway Around the World while the Truth is Still Putting on its Shoes’

Sudhir Chaudhary joined the India Today group’s Hindi channel Aaj Tak as consulting editor in July 2022, after stepping down as the CEO of Zee Media.

On July 19, ‘Black & White’ premiered on Aaj Tak with Chaudhary as the host. In the first episode, while referring to a rumour that was circulated regarding the Indian Army’s Agnipath scheme, Chaudhary claimed that American author Mark Twain said, “A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is still putting on its shoes.”

Alt News had shown in a fact-check report that the quote is often wrongly attributed to Mark Twain. A 2017 New York Times article outlined how the misquotation likely began. “Commonly attributed to Mark Twain, that quotation instead appears to be a descendant of a line published centuries ago by the satirist Jonathan Swift. Variants emerged and mutated over time…,” the NYT article said.

The X (then Twitter) handle of BBC TV show QI, too, pointed out in 2019 that the line had been incorrectly attributed to Mark Twain, Winston Churchill and Thomas Jefferson.

“A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes” has been falsely attributed to Mark Twain, Winston Churchill and Thomas Jefferson. It’s most likely a twist on a Jonathan Swift line: “Falsehood flies, and truth comes limping after it.”

— Quite Interesting (@qikipedia) September 19, 2019

Decoding Sudhir Chaudhary’s Journalism: Problems Aplenty

Over the years, Alt News has fact-checked misreports by Sudhir Chaudhary several times. In June 2019, on his show Daily News and Analysis (DNA), Chaudhary misreported that Trinamool leader Mahua Moitra had plagiarized her maiden Parliament speech in which she spoke about 12 early warning signs of fascism.

In September 2018, Chaudhary broadcast a bulletin on DNA regarding the Kathua case. It was titled, “देखें, गैंगरेप पीड़ित के नाम पर लाखों का चंदा जमा करने का खेल| (Watch, the game of collecting Lakhs of funds in the name of a gang-rape victim).” On his show, he declared that “In the name of helping the parents of the child, lakhs were collected from across the nation. However, the family received no help.” The report was entirely false. Readers can access Alt News’s detailed fact-check report here.

Again, in May 2020, an FIR was filed against Chaudhary over controversial remarks made by him on DNA. On the March 11 episode of the show, he indulged in a five-minute discourse on “different types of jihad”. “Today we have a diagram about jihad which I want read out to you so that you can understand what the conspiracy is,” Chaudhary said and then went on to describe ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ Jihad in detail. With the help of the diagram, he explained terms such as ‘History Jihad’, ‘Media Jihad’, ‘Love Jihad’, ‘Movie Jihad’, ‘Population Jihad’, ‘Land Jihad’, etc. An Alt News report showed that the channel had plagiarized the chart from a dodgy Facebook page.

In September 2021, then Zee News editor-in-chief Sudhir Chaudhary shared a 12-second video of farmer leader Rakesh Tikait on X and wrote, “Rakesh Tikait’s next target are media houses. Zee News showed the truth, so does that mean he can threaten us? Or else what?” An Alt News fact check proved that a small portion of a statement by Tikait was shared out of context with the false claim that he threatened the media. In reality, he had said that the government’s next target was the media.

In February this year, the News Broadcasters & Digital Association (NBDSA) asked Aaj Tak to remove an entire episode of its prime-time show ‘Black & White’ aired on April 19, 2023, anchored by Chaudhary, which it found, had violated the dignity of the LGBTQIA+ community by failing to maintain neutrality, impartiality, and adherence to guidelines on the prevention of hate speech. In what one might consider an act of dog-whistling against same-sex couples, Chaudhary asked his viewers to imagine their son marrying a man or their daughter marrying a woman, emphasizing the shock such a situation might cause. Sudhir Chaudhary described a same-sex marriage as a “big shock” (bada jhatka) and questioned how traditional wedding rituals in Hindu, Muslim, and Christian marriages would apply to such unions.

At one point in the show, the air of homophobia and stereotyping hit an unprecedented high (or low) when the screen displayed an image of a person half dressed as a man and the half as a woman. With a smirk on his face, Chaudhary quipped, “In this image, you would be able to see both your son-in-law and daughter-in-law”.

This was not the first time the Chaudhary was ticked off by NBDSA. In March 2024, the broadcast watchdog imposed a fine of Rs 75,000 on Aaj Tak for violating principles of objectivity and neutrality in a broadcast criticising a statement by former US President Barack Obama. Reporting on certain remarks by Barack Obama, Chaudhary, on his show Black & White, used phrases such as “tukde tukde gang”, “Khalistani” and “Pakistani supporters”. “There would have been no issue with the impugned had the anchor confined its analysis only to reporting the statement made by Mr Obama or criticising it. However, in the impugned broadcast, while doing so the anchor went totally stringent and overboard by bringing in a totally unconnected narrative,” the NBDSA order said, slamming Chaudhary.

The post On first day, first show for DD, Sudhir Chaudhary runs old, unrelated videos as Indian air defence foiling Pak attacks appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Indradeep Bhattacharyya.

Republic uses unrelated image of Istanbul Congress Center as Congress party’s Turkey office, stirs political storm

Ankita Mahalanobish — Tue, 20 May 2025 15:02:24 +0000

On a prime-time show on May 15, Republic editor-in-chief Arnab Goswami, who was also hosting the show, claimed that the Indian National Congress (INC) had a registered office in Turkey. In the segment, he showed an image of the Istanbul Congress Center, calling it the registered INC office. Referring to the Gandhis, Goswami said “the family” had compromised national interests repeatedly.

Expressing concerns over Congress’s perceived alignment with Turkey in light of recent geopolitical developments, especially since Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan openly supported Pakistan, Goswami called it an issue of national integrity. “A friend of the enemy is an enemy,” he said, urging viewers to boycott the Congress party and clamouring for a ban.

https://www.altnews.in/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/WhatsApp-Video-2025-05-20-at-14.56.29.mp4

Calls to boycott Turkey have been on the rise in India after the recent conflict with Pakistan. The Indian armed forces explicitly said that Pakistan used weaponry supplied by China and Turkey to target military posts and civilian habitations in the recent conflict. Additionally, after India launched Operation Sindoor targeting terror bases in Pakistan in the aftermath of the Pahalgam massacre, where 26 civilians were shot dead, Turkey called the strikes “provocative”. Since then, Indians have cancelled trips en masse, travel businesses have stopped their offerings and institutions such as Jawaharlal Nehru University, IIT-Bombay and Jamia Millia Islamia have suspended their partnerships with Turkish universities.

Coming back to the Congress and their Turkey office, BJP’s IT cell chief Amit Malviya shared the Republic segment on May 17, asking Rahul Gandhi why it needed to make this “move.” (Archive)

Did you know that the Congress Party has a registered office in Turkey? Can Rahul Gandhi explain what necessitated this move? This is bizarre and inexplicable on multiple levels. India deserves to know.

Remember: the enemy’s friend is an enemy too. pic.twitter.com/lOnPrS5SpY

— Amit Malviya (@amitmalviya) May 17, 2025

Social media user Rishi Bagree (@rishibagree), shared the same video on X and questioned why the Congress felt the need to have an office there when only 300 Indians were living there. He added, “Is Erdogan the new Caliph of Congress, orchestrating its blatant Islamization?” (archive)

Even though the Indian population in Turkey is only around 300, the Congress party has an office there. What is the reason for this?

Is Erdogan the new Caliph of Congress, orchestrating its blatant Islamization?pic.twitter.com/jYRR1pltyv

— Rishi Bagree (@rishibagree) May 18, 2025

Another X user, Jaipur Dialogues (@JaipurDialogues), also shared the same video wondering why the party had an office in that country. (archive)

Why does Congress has a registered office in Turkey?pic.twitter.com/k3fpyWU6Ed

— The Jaipur Dialogues (@JaipurDialogues) May 18, 2025

Note that @JaipurDialogues has been fact checked by Alt News several times for amplifying misinformation.

Fact Check

The building shown in the Republic segment, which has been referred to as the registered office of the Indian National Congress in Turkey, is actually the Istanbul Congress Center. It is a convention centre located in the Harbiye neighbourhood of Sisli district in Istanbul, Turkey. It was inaugurated on October 17, 2009, and is owned by the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality.

This Congress has nothing to do with the Indian National Congress, which is a political party.

However, in November 2019, the Indian National Congress had announced that it planned to establish an overseas office in Istanbul. According to the party’s statement, Mohammad Yusuf Khan was appointed to lead the Indian Overseas Congress (IOC) in Turkey. But since the announcement, there have been no updates on whether an actual office was set up because the IOC website mentions the countries where it has a presence, where Turkey is not featured.

The Indian Overseas Congress functions as a global network of Congress supporters and advocates, working to promote the party’s ideology and interests abroad. Sam Pitroda is the chairman of the Indian Overseas Congress. But this is nothing unusual because several parties do have units or centres overseas.

Malviya’s X post, in this context, seems unusual because even the BJP has a units outside of India, including in Turkey. The Overseas Friends of BJP (OFBJP) has established centres in the United Kingdom, the United States, the Netherlands and other countries. Several news reports and articles indicate OFBJP has a presence in Turkey. These reports named a Dipankar Ganguly as the convenor from Turkey.

In August 2018, Vijay Jolly, then senior BJP leader and the global convener of OFBJP had even met Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in Ankara and offered him a scarf with the BJP’s lotus symbol.

On May 20, news channel Republic issued a correction, admitting they used the wrong image to depict the Congress office in Turkey in their news segment.

Republic Corrigendum pic.twitter.com/dIkaH4Z6JE

— Republic (@republic) May 20, 2025

To sum up, the picture of the building that many called a Congress office in Istanbul is actually the Istanbul Convention Center, a property owned by a municipal body in Turkey. It is unrelated to the Congress party. And while the Congress did announce plans of having an office in Turkey in 2019, no news reports or information on their website corroborate that they actually established one. Also, having an international presence is not unusual for political parties to garner support and the BJP too has an overseas wing in Turkey.

The post Republic uses unrelated image of Istanbul Congress Center as Congress party’s Turkey office, stirs political storm appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Ankita Mahalanobish.

Pro-Palestine group in Pune attacked by Hindutva mob, booked for promoting religious enmity

Oishani Bhattacharya — Tue, 20 May 2025 09:06:03 +0000

On May 10, people from a far-Right group disrupted a pro-Palestine demonstration in Maharashtra’s Pune. The demonstration was held by Indian People in Solidarity with Palestine (IPSP) in front of a Domino’s pizza outlet in Karve Nagar as part of the global campaign to Boycott, Divest and Sanction companies that directly or indirectly support Israel’s actions in Gaza. IPSP members alleged that the mob attacked and assaulted them while they were peacefully protesting

The BDS movement has a global list of companies to boycott. Those on the list include multinational corporations such as McDonald’s, Coca-Cola, Dell, HP, Starbucks, Pizza Hut, and Domino’s, among others, that have been associated with or shown support for Israel. The logic being that a withdrawal of such monetary, cultural, military and other support would prohibit Israel from carrying out its offensive in Palestine. It is estimated that about 53,000 Palestinians have been killed in this since October 2023, with the actual toll likely to be far higher.

The demonstration by 10-12 IPSP members on May 10 was along similar lines. They were distributing pamphlets on what was happening in Palestine outside a Domino’s outlet. Just when they were about to wrap up, things suddenly escalated.

What Happened on May 10?

One of the IPSP members, Swapnaja Manoj Limkar, told Alt News that the pro-Palestine group was questioned by 10-15 people as they were carrying out their campaign. “They asked us, ‘What are you doing?’, ‘What about Pahalgam?’, pointed at the Palestine flag and called us ‘deshdrohi‘ (traitor)… We were, anyway, wrapping up at that point and leaving, but within a few minutes, these people called some 50-60 others over there. They mentioned they were from the Bajrang Dal. One of those who led the mob was a BJP leader from Pune,” she said.

“At this point, there were only four of us—two females and two males—remaining there because I asked everybody else to leave when I sensed this might be escalating,” she said, adding, “One person from the mob started hitting the two men with a cricket bat. Lalita (another IPSP member present there) and I were trying to shield them as the mob was not attacking the women. If we hadn’t been there, it could have turned into a lynching situation… I was given rape and death threats, my saree was torn”.

Swapnaja’s account of the thrashing was corroborated by a video shared by the Instagram account @hindutvawatchin on May 12. The caption reads: “Hindu nationalists assaulted activists who were distributing pamphlets against the genocide in Gaza as part of the BDS (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions) movement, in front of a Domino’s outlet.” It also mentioned that the mob was led by BJP leaders Mahesh Pavale and Sagar Dhame.

The video showed two men holding an individual by their collar as others joined in to hit him. While this was happening, a woman in a green saree could be seen trying to shield the individual. In the same video, some men were treating another individual in a similar way when a woman in a black and white saree tried to protect him from the violence. The video also shows the mob hurling abuses at them. At some point, someone from the enraged mob could also be heard shouting “Pakistan Zindabad”. But the audio was not clear, so we could not decipher whether it was said in a particular context or as part of sloganeering.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Hindutva Watch (@hindutvawatchin)

A May 11 post on the official Instagram page of BDS India on May 11 detailed the incident with Swapnaja’s statement. The caption said that the police allegedly detained IPSP members while the assailants were let go.

Swapnaja also told Alt News that BJP leader Mahesh Pavale, who allegedly led the mob, told the police that IPSP members raised ‘Pakistan Zindabad’ slogans. “It was spread in the news that in our protest, we raised ‘Pakistan Zindabad’ slogans, it was also claimed that we were promoting pro-Hamas policies when we have clearly mentioned in our pamphlet that we do not support the ideology of Hamas, we only support the Palestinian liberation movement, the freedom struggle of Palestine”.

Hamas is a political and militant organisation that controls the Gaza Strip. It had launched an attack against Israel in October 2023, which triggered the war in which thousands of civilians have now been killed.

Swapnaja also showed us pictures of several other similar campaigns they organised. “We never faced backlash like this,” she said.

Click to view slideshow.

Police Complaints

Both parties filed complaints against each other at the Warje-Malwadi police station in Pune on May 12. Alt News has reviewed a copy of these.

A first information report (FIR) filed by the IPSP names three individuals—Mahesh Pavale, Sagar Dhame and Amit Jadhav. All three are affiliated with the BJP. Thy have been charged under sections 79, 189(2), 190, 191(2), 115(2), 351(2) and 352 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS).

Section 79 deals with words, gestures or acts intended to insult the modesty of a woman, while 189(2) deals with knowingly joining or remaining in an unlawful assembly despite being aware that it is unlawful. Section 190 punishes every member of unlawful assembly as guilty of offence committed in prosecution of common object, 191(2) looks at punishment for provoking riots, 115(2) deals with voluntarily causing hurt, 351(2) with criminal intimidation and 352 with intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of peace.

Meanwhile, the FIR filed by the Hindutva group is against 11 individuals of the IPSP, of which only four were named in the FIR. However, the charges invoked by them were far more severe. The FIR charged them with sections 196, 299, 302, 189(2), 190, 126(2) and 135 of the BNS.

Section 196 deals with promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, or any other ground, 299 punishes those indulging in deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs, 302 penalises those who speak with with deliberate intent to wound religious feelings of another person, 126(2) deals with wrongfully restraining a person and 135 punishes those who assault or use criminal force to confine a person wrongfully.

Note that the FIR against IPSP has no mention of the ‘Pakistan Zindabad’ slogans. Alt News also reached out to the deputy commissioner of police (Zone 3) Sambhaji Kadam, who told us that the cases were under investigation, and presently, statements are being recorded. When asked about the severity of the sections in the FIRs, DCP Kadam said that all sections imposed were “proper and correct”. Regarding the claim of the ‘Pakistan Zindabad’ slogan being raised by the protestors, he said that the matter is being investigated, and the CCTV footage is being reviewed. He did not confirm or deny whether such slogans were raised nor told us by which group.

Note that the IPSP did not have police permissions for their demonstration.

Swapnaja called the charges against the IPSP by the Hindutva mob ‘baseless’. She told Alt News that IPSP was moving the High Court to quash the FIR. “All the charges mentioned in the FIR we filed against them are bailable, while the charges filed against us are non-bailable,” she said.

The post Pro-Palestine group in Pune attacked by Hindutva mob, booked for promoting religious enmity appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Oishani Bhattacharya.

Optics of disproportionate action: Posts that led to Ashoka professor Ali Khan’s arrest far from anti-women, seditious

Diti Pujara — Sun, 18 May 2025 18:03:58 +0000

Ali Khan Mahmudabad, an associate professor who teaches political science at Ashoka University, was arrested on Sunday, May 18. The arrest comes ten days after his Facebook post on the India-Pakistan conflict ruffled feathers.

Two complaints were filed against him with the Haryana police; one by the Sarpanch of Jatheri, a village in Haryana, and another by Renu Bhatia, chairperson of the Haryana State Commission for Women (HCW).

Besides an academic commentary on India’s military response against Pakistan and what it means for India-Pakistan relations, Khan had remarked on the ‘optics’ of the press briefings by the defence forces by placing a Muslim woman officer, Colonel Sophiya Qureshi as the face of India’s military operation.

“The optics of two women soldiers presenting their findings is importantly but optics must translate to reality on the ground otherwise it’s just hypocrisy… the grassroots reality that common Muslims face is different from what the government tried to show but at the same time the press conference shows that an India, united it its diversity, is not completely dead as an idea,” he wrote on Facebook on May 8, a day after India launched Operation Sindoor.

Complaints

According to a copy of one of the FIRs (first information report) reviewed by Alt News, Khan has been arrested under sections 196(1)(b), 197(1)(c), 152 and 299 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS). One of the lawyers working on the case confirmed the charges to Alt News.

This FIR was filed by a Yogesh, the village chief of Jatheri in the Sonepat district of Haryana. In his complaint, he said that at a time when Indians needed to stand united against a foreign power (Pakistan), Khan was trying to incite people against the country and hurting religious sentiments by saying that Colonel Sufiya Qureshi’s presence at the press briefings on Operation Sindoor were a mere show by the government, which otherwise works againt the prevention of crimes against Muslims.

Yogesh also claimed that Khan blamed ‘mad’ armymen for escalating tensions and conflicts between India and Pakistan. While he claimed that these comments were made in person by Ali Khan in front of a few others, he also mentioned Khan’s X and Facebook posts from May 8 in the FIR.

This FIR has been registered under the Rai Police Station, Sonepat, Haryana. The complaint was filed at 8:15 pm on May 17; Khan was arrested the following morning.

Alt News was unable to access the FIR filed by Renu Bhatia for specific details. However, Narender Kadian, deputy commissioner of police (crime), Haryana, told the press on May 18 that Bhatia’s FIR was against Khan’s posts on Facebook as well as him skipping the summons issued by the women’s commission. He added that the FIR invokes sections 353, 79, 152 and 169(1) of the BNS against the professor.

The Haryana State Commission for Women had issued a notice to Khan on May 12 after taking suo motu cognisance of his social media posts (a reference to one of these was also made by Yogesh in his FIR). The HCW complaint against Khan, accessed by Alt News, expresses concern over his remarks because it disparages women in uniform, misrepresents facts (by using terms like “genocide” and “dehumanisation” in the posts) and vilifies military actions and the role of women officers against cross-border terrorism. It also said that Khan’s remarks had the potential to incite communal unrest and violated women’s dignity, outraged their modesty and breached the University Grants Commission’s ethical conduct regulations for faculty. Two posts by the professor, one from May 8 and another from May 11, were attached to the complaint. Khan was asked to appear before the Commission on May 14 along with a written explanation, in the form of an affidavit, of his statements and materials or documents to justify his remarks. He was also directed to carry a copy of Ashoka University’s code of conduct for faculty and a copy of his employment contract.

But what is it that Khan exactly said in his Facebook and X posts that called for such a strong reaction from the women’s commission and the village chief?

What Did Khan Say?

On May 8, a day after the Indian defence forces launched the military strikes targeting terror sites in Pakistan, the Ashoka University professor wrote a post on Facebook summarising the India-Pakistan conflict.

It begins with, “Strategically India has actually begun a new phase in terms of collapsing distinction between military and terrorist (non-state actors) in Pakistan” and goes on to say that Operation Sindoor has made it clear that “response to terrorist attacks will be met with a military response and removes any semantic distinction between the two.”…

Further, Khan says that those “mindlessly advocating for a war” have never lived or visited a conflict zone. “War is brutal. The poor suffer disproportionately and the only people who benefit are politicians and defence companies.”

At the end, he made a point regarding the ‘optics’ of Operation Sindoor’s press briefings:

“I am very happy to see so many right wing commentators applauding Colonel Sophia Qureishi but perhaps they could also equally loudly demand that the victims of mob lynchings, arbitrary bulldozing and others who are victims of the BJP’s hate mongering be protected as Indian. citizens. The optics of two women soldiers presenting their findings is important but optics must translate to reality on the ground otherwise it’s just hypocrisy… For me the press conference was just a fleeting glimpse- an illusion and allusion perhaps to an India that defied the logic on which Pakistan was built. As I said, the grassroots reality that common Muslims face is different from what the government tried to show but at the same time the press conference shows that an India, united it its diversity, is not completely dead as an idea”

A very basic, literal reading of this post suggests that the role of women military officers was not even the main discourse or primary concern. It simply conflates the contradiction in celebrating a person of one community in a certain situation, while not speaking up when others from the same community face hate crimes.

It also adds that the press conference where a Muslim army officer was placed at the forefront offered a glimpse “that an India, united it its diversity, is not completely dead.”

How the comment outraged the dignity and modesty of women remains unclear.

The second post annexed by the HCW in its complaint was made by Khan on May 11. It was a comment on the abuse faced by foreign secretary Vikram Misri and his family after he announced the ceasefire. Here he criticises those clamouring for war.

“… So when you clamour for war or you call for a country to be wiped out then what exactly are you asking? For the genocide of an entire people? I know Israel is getting away with doing this – and some Indians admire this- but do we really want to advocate the wholesale murder of children as potential future enemies?

Think about what it means when you say ‘wipe them out, ‘finish them,’ ‘destroy them’ etc? You are saying kill all the children, the elderly, minorities, those who are opposed to war on the other side and many other innocent people who want to do exactly what you want to do: be a father, a mother, a daughter, a son, a grandparent and a friend. You can only ask for such wholesale destruction if you have completely dehumanised them… there are madmen everywhere, but those closer to the border know what war means: it means arbitrary, unpredictable and senseless death. Those far from the border seem to think war is some kind of video game. This dehumanisation is symptomatic of deep seated insecurities within us because we somehow need to deny someone else’s humanity to affirm our own but the reality is that the minute we dehumanise someone else- even though they might represent the opposite of everything we stand for- then we have given in to our basest instincts. We have sown the seeds of our own destruction.”

A very literal reading of this post also suggests that it is an appeal advocating for peace over war. The words genocide and dehumanisation in the context in which they have been used do not vilify India’s military strength or efforts but instead urge one to think of what we really ask for when we celebrate war over ceasefire.

His comment, “The kind of war mongering we are seeing amongst civilians is actually disrespecting the seriousness of war and dishonouring the lives of soldiers whose lives are actually on the line,” clearly indicates that it is humanity that is being advocated for, because lives of soldiers and those who live on war-torn areas are often forgotten when emotions run high. At a very surface level, calling this seditious or affecting the nation’s sovereignty would be farfetched.

Misplaced Outrage?

In a press briefing, HCW’s Renu Bhatia criticised Ali Khan Mahmudabad and said that she was surprised he even became a professor. “Why did he become a professor if he can’t respect our daughters? What will he teach our daughters as a professor?” she says, adding that he demoralised women, which is a “shameful thing” and has no right to remain a professor.

While making these remarks, she also says that he used the phrase “painted face,” which Alt News did not find anywhere in Khan’s posts that the Commission had attached in its complaint.

“How and why did he become a professor if he can’t respect our daughters? What will he teach our daughters?” she said. “His posts show that he has a mentality of revolt against the nation.” She said that Mahmudabad was just living in India but had no love for the country. pic.twitter.com/RpFpK8UQU3

— Alishan Jafri (@alishan_jafri) May 15, 2025

It seems as though Khan’s words have not just been misinterpreted but perhaps misread because the charges in the HCW complaint and the FIRs do not add up even with the most conservative reading of Khan’s posts. How his posts are shameful, offensive to women officers of the armed forces or hurt women’s dignity has not been explained. The briefings by the two women seem to have been made to make a larger point about communal issues and the duality of many in the Right-wing.

How his words attack national sovereignty remains unclear as well because at no point are the actions of the government or defence forces critiqued. He actually lauds their stance, if anything. The political science professor very carefully only calls out “those who are baying for war” and “Right wing commentators” in the posts. Are these groups being conflated with the nation or attacking national sentiments? Then that’s a deeper problem.

In response to the HCW’s complaint and summons, Khan also issued a statement saying that his remarks have been completely misunderstood.

“From a bare reading of his original posts, it is clear that Prof. Khan praised the strategic restraint of the armed forces… and said that the optics of the women officers chosen for media debriefs was ‘important’ as proof that the secular vision of the founders of our Republic is still alive… It is preposterous that we have come to such a pass in India that even praising the army, albeit while criticizing those who clamour for war, can now invite such targeted harassment and attempted censorship,” a letter signed by over 1,200 people, including academics and his students, reads.

But Ashoka University has distanced itself from Khan’s remarks. “Comments made by a faculty member on his personal social media pages do not represent the opinion of the university. These statements have been made by him independently in his individual capacity… Ashoka University and all members of the Ashoka community are proud of India’s armed forces and support them unequivocally in their actions towards maintaining national security. We stand in solidarity with the nation and our forces,” it said. But the faculty association has stood by him, calling the charges “groundless and untenable”.

Khan is a historian and the head of the department at Ashoka, where he teaches political science. He has done his PhD and MPhil from the University of Cambridge and has an undergraduate degree in History and Political Science from Amherst College. He is also a member of the Samajwadi Party.

The charges against Ali Khan Mahmudabad are severe and can even attract imprisonment for life. The case against him is particularly disturbing because his writing and comments were fairly academic and calling them outraging women’s dignity seems like a stretch. On the other hand, the High Court had to intervene and ask Madhya Pradesh police to take cognisance of the remarks by BJP minister Kunwar Vijay Shah. Shah referred to Colonel Qureshi as a “sister of terrorists”. Meanwhile, the National Commission for Women has condemned his remarks, but has not summoned him.

Even the FIR filed by the police in Vijay Shah’s case became a point of controversy. The High Court slammed the Madhya Pradesh police for drafting the FIR “in such a way that it can be quashed“. The inflammatory remarks made by the minister were not even mentioned in the complaint. Justice Atul Sreedharan, part of the division bench looking into the case, explicitly said that the contents of the FIR were “vulnerable to being quashed” in the absence of a description of the speech. The HC said it would oversee the investigation thereon.

“It is shocking and unconscionable that the Indian state continues to make such targeted use of the colonial sedition law against an honest and principled academic, while protecting its own ministers who have made filthy remarks about serving officers of the Indian Army and having allowed its trolls to attack India’s Foreign Secretary and his daughter,” academic Supriya Chaudhuri wrote in support.

When one reflects on how the two cases—of Khan and Shah—have been handled so far, it leaves one wondering if their respective faiths have any role to play. The irony is this is precisely the point Khan tried to make in his Facebook posts, for which he is now in custody.

Understanding the charges

Section 79 punishes those intending to insult the modesty of any woman with imprisonment for that may extend to three years, and a fine.

Section 152 deals with endangering sovereignty, unity and integrity of India by exciting or attempting to excite, “secession or armed rebellion or subversive activities, or… feelings of separatist activities or endangers sovereignty or unity and integrity of India”. The punishment could entail imprisonment up to seven years along with a fine and, in worst-case scenarios, extend to a life term. This is similar to sedition.

Section 196 ensures punishment for those who promote enmity between groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc to disrupt harmony. Punishment for those charged under Section 196 (1)(b) is imprisonment extending up to three years, or a fine, or both.

Section 197 deals with imputations and assertions that prejudice national integration.

Punishment under 197(c)—which looks at published statements, assertions or pleas “concerning the obligation of any class of persons, by reason of their being members of any religious, racial, language or regional group or caste or community” that is likely to cause disharmony, feelings of enmity, hatred or ill-will—entails imprisonment up to three years, or a fine, or both.

Section 299 punishes those who intend to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs by deliberate and malicious acts. Penalty is imprisonment for up to three years, or fine, or both.

Section 353 deals with statements that result in public mischief and can result in imprisonment up to three years.

With inputs from Indradeep Bhattacharya

Image credit: Facebook/ @AliMahmudabad

The post Optics of disproportionate action: Posts that led to Ashoka professor Ali Khan’s arrest far from anti-women, seditious appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Diti Pujara.

The fictional strikes on the Karachi port and what it says about Indian media

Oishani Bhattacharya — Sat, 17 May 2025 15:32:15 +0000

On May 8, tensions between India and Pakistan escalated. The previous day, India had launched Operation Sindoor, targeting nine terror bases in Pakistan. Shortly after the military strikes by India, Pakistan retaliated. There was shelling and cross-border firing in several areas of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K).

Amid this geopolitical conflict, social media was flooded with reports of drone and missile sightings across both countries. There was panic, and worries over the damage an all-out war could cause. Adding to this chaos was the coverage by several Indian news channels that aired a series of sensational and unverified claims—from Islamabad facing attacks by the Indian armed forces to Pakistan army chief Asim Munir being arrested. As the conflict intensified and public confusion mounted, sections of the Indian media descended into a maddening frenzy.

A May 11 report by Scroll said 21 Indian civilians, including five children, were killed in J&K in the first four days of the India-Pakistan conflict. On May 10, foreign secretary Vikram Misri announced that India and Pakistan agreed to a ceasefire.

Among all the “news” reports broadcast during the cross-border shelling, one story stood out: the decimation of the Karachi port. Many visuals showing the Karachi port in shambles surfaced on social media and were aired on segments of news channels.

Do These Visuals Show A Wrecked Karachi Port?

Click to view slideshow.

The short answer is no. The visuals aired by news outlets (added above) and circulated on social media had nothing to do with the Karachi Port.

For instance, Bengali news channel ABP Ananda aired a clip that apparently showed damage at the Karachi port after it was struck by naval aircraft carrier INS Vikrant. However, an Alt News probe revealed that the footage was actually three months old. Worse, it depicted scenes in Philadelphia after a plane crash. Philadelphia is in Pennsylvania, United States, thousands of miles away from Karachi. The channel also used a screengrab from the viral video in their online report that INS Vikrant had attacked the Karachi port, as well as their X post. However, these were later replaced by generic images of INS Vikrant and a Pakistan flag, respectively. No clarification was issued by the outlet for using the misleading image. The news report and the X post claiming ‘extreme action’ INS Vikrant led to the Karachi port being destroyed are still live.

In another instance, an image purportedly showing INS Vikrant’s strike on the Karachi port was used in online reports of several news outlets, including Zee News, TV9, and Amar Ujala, among others. Alt News found that the image was actually from a 2023 naval drill, not an attack. In fact, the warship featured in the viral photo wasn’t INS Vikrant, but INS Vikramaditya.

Similarly, another visual of an explosion illuminating the night sky and smoke billowing was also circulated with claims that it showed INS Vikrant attacking the Karachi port. Alt News found that the image dates back to 2020 and is of Israel’s airstrike on Gaza. It has no connection to the India-Pakistan conflict.

On the intervening night of May 8 and 9, news outlets had almost established that the Indian Navy had wiped out the Karachi port. It remains unclear whether they picked visuals of attacks and destruction from social media or vice versa. It’s also hard to say which is worse.

Alt News has debunked several such clips shared with claims that they were scenes from the Karachi port.

The Spectacle by Broadcast Media

Late on May 9, many mainstream news channels, such as India Today, Aaj Tak, TV9 Bharatvarsh, ABP and Zee News, declared that the Indian Navy had attacked the Karachi port. They said the international port, where major business happens, was in shambles.

‘Exclusive’ reportage by India Today had commentary from a retired lieutenant general of the Indian Army on the ‘attack’ by the Indian Navy. Tickers flashed ‘Indian Navy attacks Pakistan’s Karachi’ and ‘Exclusive’ across the screen.

#EXCLUSIVE | “India has done a smart thing…”: Retd Lt Gen Syed Ata Hasnain (@atahasnain53) on Indian Navy attacking Karachi@SwetaSinghAT & @SandeepUnnithan join in with more details.#OperationSindoor #IndiaStrikesTerroristan | @GauravCSawant pic.twitter.com/C3rMaEDyeB

— IndiaToday (@IndiaToday) May 8, 2025

Its Hindi counterpart, Aaj Tak, too, claimed that the Indian Navy had launched an attack on the port. As if the sequence of events and the way they were described were not dramatic enough, a blaring siren played in the background for added theatrics. Senior journalist and anchor Anjana Om Kashyap, whose face has often been associated with the channel, kept telling her co-anchor Sweta Singh that “we” successfully surrounded Pakistan from all sides. The whole production was embellished by ‘representational’ visuals of drones being launched. These representative visuals were later circulated by Pakistan-based media outlets and social media users with claims that they showed the Pakistan Army firing with its multi-rocket launcher near the Line of Control (LoC). However, Alt News fact checked this visual and found that it was sourced from the video game Arma 3.

#BreakingNews : एक्शन में आई भारतीय नौसेना, कराची पर किया हमला#IndianNavy #OperationSindoor #IndiaFightsTerroristan #IndianArmy #IndianAirForce | @anjanaomkashyap | @SwetaSinghAT pic.twitter.com/41HytjDMVE

— AajTak (@aajtak) May 8, 2025

Zee News also said on air that the navy launched an offensive on Karachi with similar siren sounds playing in the background to heighten the drama. During one of these segments, the anchor says, “Karachi port ko tabah kar diya hain nausena ne” (The Karachi port has been demolished by the Indian Navy). This is followed by sounds of applause.

#BreakingNews | समंदर से पाकिस्तान पर बड़ा एक्शन, नौशेरा ने कराची पोर्ट को किया तबाह #OperationSindoor #IndianAirForce #AirStrike #Pakistan #IndiaPakistanWar #JammuKashmir #JammuAttack #DroneAttacks #IndianNavy @ramm_sharma pic.twitter.com/HWQ18r8Ved

— Zee News (@ZeeNews) May 8, 2025

TV9 Bharatvansh’s broadcast said that multiple explosions were heard at the Karachi port. One of the hosts of the segment says in Hindi that before making their moves on the chess board, India set all the pieces beforehand; the preparations were so meticulous that no one had an inkling. It further said that they could not reveal anything more because it would be akin to revealing intel and “we are responsible” unlike the media in Pakistan.

The sound of the siren was used here too. This was an “All-out attack against Pakistan,” the channel said, sharing these updates on X. “Heavy damage to Karachi port due to Indian strike”.

पाकिस्तान के खिलाफ ऑल आउट अटैक जारी
भारत के हमले से कराची पोर्ट पर भारी नुकसान #IndiaPakistanTension | #AirStrike | #OperationSindoor | @nishantchat | @sumairakh | @SumitDefence pic.twitter.com/XY8i8rTUYI

— TV9 Bharatvarsh (@TV9Bharatvarsh) May 8, 2025

ABP News, too, claimed that the Indian Navy attacked Karachi. The anchor said that nearly 12 explosions were ‘reportedly’ heard in Karachi.

#WATCH | कराची में INS विक्रांत की कार्रवाई, कराची पोर्ट पर बीती रात हुए कई धमाके .@anchorjiya | https://t.co/smwhXURgtc #OperationSindoor #Pakistan #JammuKashmir #BreakingNews pic.twitter.com/c9347ZOJrX

— ABP News (@ABPNews) May 9, 2025

By May 10, the Directorate General Fire Service, Civil Defence and Home Guards had to issue an advisory directing media channels to refrain from using air raid siren sounds in their broadcast segments. “Routine use of sirens may likely to reduce the sensitivity of civilians towards the air raids sirens,” the directive said.

Trolls Come For The Telly

While the Indian media was busy running these segments and propagating myths about the Karachi port, posts from social media users in Pakistan came as a brutal reality check. At 5:29 am on May 9, one social media user said, “I even woke up after sleeping, but according to Indian media, Karachi had been destroyed and I had died”. On the bulletin by Times Now Navbharat that Karachi port was attacked by INS Vikrant, another user wrote, “I think they put the wrong Karachi location in Google Maps!” One user chimed in saying, “Can someone from the indian navy currently taking over Karachi closest to my location come over I need someone to watch my baby while i pray”? Another user, seemingly confused, asked which Karachi they were showing.

Click to view slideshow.

Jibes from Pakistani accounts were one thing, but then came an official statement from the Karachi Port Trust. At 8:40 am on May 9, they said they were “operating normally & securely. All port functions, activities & operations are taking as normal routine activity.” They called the Indian media coverage “completely false and baseless”. (Archive)

An hour before this statement was shared, the port had already said that they were safe and their X account had been hacked. This came barely minutes after a post saying “Karachi Port has sustained heavy damage following a strike by India, resulting in unacceptable loss of property. Emergency response efforts are underway. Updates on restoration will be provided regularly. We stand resilient. #IndianNavyAction #IndiaPakistanWar #KarachiPort” was made from this account. (Archives 1, 2)

To make clear the point that the port sustained no damage, Pakistan-based journalist Sanjay Sadhwani (@sanjaysadhwani2) posted a video of himself standing near the Karachi port at 5:25 am on May 9. (Archive)

How Not To Report During Conflict

This was not a case of a source going rogue or one reporter or channel getting something wrong, which can very well happen. This was a battery of news outlets making viewers believe something completely fictional in a war-like situation. A major port like Karachi being destroyed would have significantly escalated tensions. The blaring sirens and visuals of INS Vikrant may have given viewers a sense that these were sights and sounds from the site of conflict. They had little reason to doubt it since multiple channels were airing it.

And all this despite some Indian journalists, such as WION foreign affairs editor Sidhant Sibal, clarifying that there was “No Indian Navy Action at Karachi.”

No Indian Navy Action at Karachi. The Indian Navy, of course remains operational in the Arabian sea.

— Sidhant Sibal (@sidhant) May 8, 2025

In a press briefing on May 9, foreign secretary Vikram Misri, colonel Sofiya Qureshi, and wing commander Vyomika Singh gave updates on Pakistan’s drone attack and India’s subsequent military retaliation. At no point during this did they say anything about military action by the navy or any ‘offensive’ launched in Karachi.

Even on May 11, Indian Navy vice admiral AN Pramod said that Indian Navy warships “remain deployed in the northern Arabian Sea in a decisive and deterrent posture with full readiness and capacity to strike select targets at sea and on land, including Karachi, at a time of our choosing”. He did not once mention that the navy had carried out an attack.

It’s hard to find a word that fully captures the reportage that unfolded late on May 8. It was not only embarrassing and irresponsible, but absurd.

A country’s citizens, teetering on the edge for any updates on what was happening, were led to believe that India was launching offensives in areas of civilian habitation in Pakistan and using warships as a final blow to ‘attack’ a major port. All this when the Indian defence forces kept reiterating that their military strikes were non-escalatory, focused and measured. An average citizen could have been panic-sticken and afraid. And then to be told that none of it happened is slightly bizarre.

In future, the ‘destruction’ of the Karachi port will serve as an example of what not to do when reporting in sensitive times of conflict.

The post The fictional strikes on the Karachi port and what it says about Indian media appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Oishani Bhattacharya.

Video game footage of helicopters being struck shared with claims IAF downing Pakistan helicopters

Pawan Kumar — Sat, 17 May 2025 11:24:52 +0000

A video showing two choppers being struck down has been shared on social media with claims that the Indian Air Force downed two fighter helicopters in Bhuj, killing four Pakistani air force personnel.

The video emerged as the conflict between India and Pakistan was on the brink. Pakistan retaliated with shelling and drones shortly after India carried out air strikes on nine terror bases in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir on the intervening night of May 6 and 7, 2025. Since these strikes, named Operation Sindoor to honour the 26 victims of the April 22 terror attack in Kashmir’s Pahalgam, the two nations continued with combat. Meanwhile, scores of unverified visuals have emerged on social media showing damage to infrastructure and claims of casualties on both sides.

X user Aman Sah (@amnofc) shared the video and wrote, “Four Pakistani Air Force personnel were killed in the Bhuj area during an operation of the Indian Air Force, in which two Pakistani fighter helicopters were also destroyed.” (Archive)

This video had garnered more than 1.7 million views at the time this article was written.

X user Deepak Sharma (@SonOfBharat7), who has shared misinformation in the past, shared the video with a similar claim. (Archive) Another X user, @thevoicenm, also posted it. (Archive)

Numerous X users have also been sharing such videos with similar claims. (Archive)

Fact Check

On taking a closer look, Alt News noticed that the combat scenes did not seem and guessed they might be from a warfare or combat game. We performed a reverse image search of a few frames taken from the video and landed on the same video uploaded on March 29, 2022, on SON STUDIO, a gaming channel on YouTube. The description of the video, titled “2 Military Ka-52 shot down by Air Defense System Milsim ARMA3 E11”, says that it is a dramatised, fictional gaming footage.

We found many such videos on this channel that are footage of gaming or simulations. The channel’s ‘About’ section states that it makes military gaming simulation content for ‘Arma 3 (or EFBS)’.

To sum up, the video being circulated with claims that four Pakistan soldiers were killed and two of their choppers struck down in Bhuj is a gaming simulation video. The footage is unrelated to the India-Pakistan conflict and was available online for three years before Operation Sindoor was launched. The claims are baseless.

Also Read: ‘Operation Sindoor’: Video game clip shared with claim of shooting down Pakistani jet

The post Video game footage of helicopters being struck shared with claims IAF downing Pakistan helicopters appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Pawan Kumar.

Pak deputy PM leads nation in praising air force based on fake Daily Telegraph clipping

Ankita Mahalanobish — Fri, 16 May 2025 14:28:20 +0000

A purported clipping from The Daily Telegraph newspaper dated Saturday, May 10, is viral on social media. It shows part of a story with the headline, “Pakistan Air Force: The Undisputed King of the Skies”, in block capitals. The image has gained traction amid speculation about who suffered more losses during the recent armed conflict between India and Pakistan. A ‘CNN graphic’ which was widely shared recently in this regard showed India suffering more damage in terms of equipment loss. Alt News found it to be fake.

The supposed report got a lot of attention after Pakistan deputy prime minister Ishaq Dar referred to it in an address in the senate on May 15. Dar, who is also the country’s foreign minister, stated, “… what does The Telegraph say? Pakistan Air Force is undisputed king of the skies..,” even as the house erupted in applause.

https://www.altnews.in/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/ssstwitter.com_1747392440682.mp4

On social media, Pakistani X user Dr Shama Junejo (@ShamaJunejo) shared the image and claimed the Daily Telegraph report evidence of the fact that Pakistan had a clear upper hand in the recent armed conflict. (Archive)

Another Pakistani X user, Dr Qamar Cheema (@Qamarcheema), shared the image and called Pakistani Air Force the ‘pride of Pakistan’. (Archive)

Several other Pakistani users have shared the image and made similar claims.

Click to view slideshow.

Fact Check

On carefully examining the supposed report by The Daily Telegraph, we found several inconsistencies that cast serious doubts on its authenticity. We spotted multiple spelling errors and garbled, illegible words. These have been highlighted below:

Graphic: Atreyo Roy/ Alt News

Such glaring mistakes are highly unlikely to be made by a reputable international publication and strongly suggest that the image is fabricated.

There are two well-known papers by the name, The Daily Telegraph, one based in the United Kingdom and the other in Australia. The masthead in the purported image closely resembles that of the UK-based publication.

So, we checked the website of the UK-based the Daily Telegraph. We could not find any such article on their website.

This clearly suggests that the article referred to by the Pakistani deputy prime minister never appeared in The Daily Telegraph. The viral clip is fake.

We also found that both the Union government’s press information bureau (PIB) and Pakistani newspaper Dawn had fact-checked the claims. PIB stated, “By endorsing a completely fabricated image and headline, #Pakistan intentionally lent official weight to a piece of digital deception.”

This #fake claim was further amplified by Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar during his statement to the Senate on 15 May 2025.

By endorsing a completely fabricated image and headline, #Pakistan intentionally lent official weight to a piece of digital deception.… pic.twitter.com/k2s8LT5YJh

— PIB Fact Check (@PIBFactCheck) May 16, 2025

Dawn published a fact-check report, stating, “Viral Daily Telegraph article praising PAF after India escalation is fake”.

To sum up, the image of the viral The Daily Telegraph article praising Pakistan Air Force calling it the “undisputed king of the skies” is fake. Pakistan’s deputy prime minister Ishaq Dar amplified the fabricated image and the headline in the senate on May 15, 2025.

The post Pak deputy PM leads nation in praising air force based on fake Daily Telegraph clipping appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Ankita Mahalanobish.

52 Indian soldiers killed by Pakistan in shelling? No; viral video is staged, says PIB

Abhishek Kumar — Fri, 16 May 2025 12:51:38 +0000

Note: We have only used screenshots in this story, considering the graphic nature of the video, which could be triggering for some readers.

A video showing deceased soldiers near what appears to be a boundary wall with fires around is being circulated by many social media accounts. In the video, it seems as though the person recording it is saying that there was heavy shelling at the border, in which Pakistan killed many Indian soldiers. Those sharing the video also claimed that 52 soldiers of the 20 Raj Battalion of the Indian Army were martyred.

This video has emerged amid a sea of unverified visuals and claims on social media that try to show damage caused by India or Pakistan in the recent conflict that was triggered by the killing of 26 civilians in Kashmir. A fortnight after this, India launched Operation Sindoor to target terror bases in Pakistan. Shortly after, the Pakistan armed forces retaliated with shelling across border areas, also targeting Indian military infrastructure.

Pakistan-based account War Analyst, withheld in India, shared the video claiming it showed footage from Pakistan’s strike on the Sangar post of Chirikot, and the visual was being shared among army folks in India on WhatsApp. The user wrote that India was covering up the loss of 52 Indian soldiers along the Line of Control while their families were mounting pressure on the Indian government to reveal these deaths.

The video was shared by Conflict Watch with the same claim as well as RTEUrdu, a Turkish media outlet. RTEUrdu wrote that the video was taken by an Indian soldier.

Fact Check

Several things in the video raise doubts.

Firstly, the claims alleged that an Indian Army post faced heavy shelling. But in the video, the so-called post seems safe. If there was heavy shelling that caused a fire, far more damage would clearly be visible, which is not the case here.
Secondly, the tone of the person recording the video is funny, as though it is being enacted or forcefully dramatised. In such a situation it is more likely that someone recording the footage would worried or distraught.
Thirdly, the viral post claims that 52 Indian soldiers have been killed and their families are pressuring the government. But had this been true and the government were hiding it, news outlets in India would have surely carried stories on it. The Indian Army has said that it lost five soldiers.

Importantly, the uniform worn by the soldiers in the viral video is old. The Indian Army does not don this uniform anymore; it was changed in 2022. A comparison of the old and new uniforms can be seen below.

A report by The Indian Express from January 2022 also explained the difference between the old and new uniforms of the army. Below is a screenshot of their graphic.

The fact-checking unit of the Indian government, PIB Fact-Check, also dubbed the video fabricated and said there was no unit called “20 Raj Battalion” in the Indian Army. It added that this was part of a propaganda campaign to create panic and mislead people during the conflict.

Staged Video Alert

Fake video is being circulated by Pakistani handles alleging that an Indian Post was destroyed by the #Pakistani Army

#PIBFactCheck:

The claim is completely false, and the video is staged

There is no unit called “20 Raj Battalion” in the… pic.twitter.com/959rc9OrTH

— PIB Fact Check (@PIBFactCheck) May 8, 2025

Based on these findings, Alt News established that the video does not depict martyred soldiers from the recent India-Pakistan conflict. Claims that 52 soldiers were martyred in firing by Pakistan are unsubstantiated.

The post 52 Indian soldiers killed by Pakistan in shelling? No; viral video is staged, says PIB appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Abhishek Kumar.

Old footage of Russian aircraft shot midair shared as Pakistani fighter jet taken down by India

Kinjal — Fri, 16 May 2025 12:50:12 +0000

While the armed conflict between India and Pakistan was at its peak following Operation Sindoor, a video clip of a fighter jet being shot down in the sky was widely shared on social media with the claim that India had shot down two Pakistani fighter jets flying around Srinagar-Budgam-Baramulla in Kashmir.

The parody X account ‘@RichKettle07’ posted the video with the same claim on May 10. It has received 10 Lakh views so far. (Archived version of the post)

Live Visuals

~ India has brought down 2 Pakistani Fighter Jets during an insane dogfight in the Kashmir valley around Srinagar-Budgam-Baramulla #IndiaPakistanWar pic.twitter.com/Ul5j7jjVHA

— Richard Kettleborough (@RichKettle07) May 10, 2025

Another X user named Premanand also posted the video with the same claim. (Archived link)

Live Visuals

~ India has brought down 2 Pakistani Fighter Jets during an insane dogfight in the Kashmir valley around Srinagar-Budgam-Baramulla #IndiaPakistanWar #JF17 Smoked pic.twitter.com/C0wVeGBAqX

— Premanand (@PremanandJohns5) May 10, 2025

Many X accounts shared the clip with the same claim. (Link 1, Link 2, Link 3, Link 4) At the same time, the video was viral on Facebook as well.

Click to view slideshow.

Fact Check

Using a simple reverse image search using key frames from the video, we found visuals from the video in a report by The Irish Sun dated September 26, 2022. According to the report, these visuals are of an American-made Stinger missile shooting down a Russian fighter jet mid-air. The article states that a Su-30 fighter jet flying around Kharkiv in Ukraine was shot down.

Express.co.uk also published a report on the incident. This article contains an embedded version of the viral video and reports that a Russian fighter jet was shot down by the United States’ ‘Stringer’ missile.

The former Defence Minister of Ukraine had also informed the public about a Russian Su-30 jet being shot down in Kharkiv on September 25, 2022.

Ten months ago, in WDC, I asked for Stingers 4 #UAarmy & heard “It’s impossible.”
Many times.
Today, rus Su-30 jet was shot down by Stinger in the Kharkiv region.
So…the impossible is indeed possible.
Thanks to our partners.
We will win!
Горить, “Палає техніка ворожа” pic.twitter.com/c1NtHcqlsD

— Oleksii Reznikov (@oleksiireznikov) September 24, 2022

To sum up, a three-year-old video is being shared with the false claim that two Pakistani jets were shot down around Srinagar-Budgam-Baramulla.

The post Old footage of Russian aircraft shot midair shared as Pakistani fighter jet taken down by India appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Kinjal.

IAF pilot Shvangi Singh captured? Govt refutes claims by Pakistani media, social media users

Pawan Kumar — Fri, 16 May 2025 12:49:24 +0000

While the armed conflict between India and Pakistan was at its peak, several Pakistani media outlets and social media users claimed that Indian pilot squadron leader Shivangi Singh was captured by the Pakistan Air Force after she had ejected from an Indian fighter jet shot down by the Pakistani Air Force.

Pakistan-based media organisation Exact Press International shared a picture of Shivangi Singh on its official X handle and claimed that Indian Air Force pilot Squadron Leader Shivangi Singh had been captured. (Archived link)

British influencer Sulaiman Ahmed, who describes himself as an investigative journalist and political commentator, shared two images claiming that two Indian pilots had been captured by Pakistan. (Archived link)

Pakistani X user Wahab Khan posted two separate tweets claiming that Indian pilot Shivangi Singh had been captured by Pakistani authorities. (Archived link 1, link 2)

Click to view slideshow.

X user Bilal Khan and Abdullah Mumtaz Kahloon also shared tweets making similar claims. (Archived link 1, link 2)

Click to view slideshow.

Bilal Khan and Abdullah Mumtaz Kahloon also tweeted the image with similar claims. (Archived Links 1, 2)

A number of Pakistani social media handles, including @AirlinePilotmax, @MerruX, @MonitorX99800, @Tani_1k, and @DaniBha28233791 also amplified this claim.

Click to view slideshow.

Fact Check

First of all, the two photos that have gone viral with these claims are of two different persons, both named Shivangi. One is Indian Air Force (IAF) pilot Shivangi Singh, who is the first Indian woman to fly Rafale jets. The other one is Indian Navy pilot Shivangi, who hails from Muzaffarpur, Bihar. She was commissioned into the Indian Navy in 2018.

Alt News performed a keyword search to investigate the claim. However, we could not find any official information from the IAF or Indian Navy or the Pakistani Army regarding any incident similar to the one mentioned in the viral claims. Had something like this actually occurred, there would have been widespread media coverage of it.

The fact check unit of the PIB, which acts as a nodal agency for the Government of India, has issued a statement refuting this claim. It reads, “Pro-Pakistan social media handles are claiming that Indian female Air Force pilot, Squadron Leader Shivani Singh has been captured in Pakistan, this claim is fake.” (Archived link)

Indian Female Air Force pilot has NOT been captured

Pro-Pakistan social media handles claim that an Indian Female Air Force pilot, Squadron Leader Shivani Singh, has been captured in Pakistan.#PIBFactCheck

This claim is FAKE!#IndiaFightsPropaganda @MIB_India… pic.twitter.com/V8zovpSRYk

— PIB Fact Check (@PIBFactCheck) May 10, 2025

To sum up, the viral claim regarding Pakistan capturing Indian pilot Shivangi Singh is baseless. Photos of two different persons of that name — IAF pilot Shivangi Singh and Indian Navy pilot SHivangi Singh — are falsely viral.

The post IAF pilot Shvangi Singh captured? Govt refutes claims by Pakistani media, social media users appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Pawan Kumar.

Exclusive: Turkey tourism ministry denies issuing viral letter urging Indians not to cancel travel plans

Ankita Mahalanobish — Thu, 15 May 2025 16:48:06 +0000

A ‘public announcement’ allegedly issued by Turkey’s ‘department of tourism’ urging Indian travellers not to cancel trips to the country has gone viral on social media. The letter, bearing the Turkish flag and the words “Kamu Duyurusu” (public notice or announcement), says that a “vast majority of the local population is unaware of the conflict taking place between India and Pakistan” and thus there is “no reason to postpone or cancel any trips to Türkiye.” It adds that “there are no restrictions or safety issues affecting Indian guests.”

The note has emerged amid calls in India to boycott Turkey after the Indian armed forces explicitly said that Pakistan used weaponry supplied by China and Turkey to target military posts and civilian habitations in the recent conflict. Additionally, after India launched Operation Sindoor targeting terror bases in Pakistan in the aftermath of the Pahalgam attack where 26 civilians were shot dead, Turkey condemned the “provocative” action by India. Since then, Indians cancelled trips en masse while travel businesses, such as Ixigo, EaseMyTrip and Cox & Kings, also suspended bookings to Turkey in a bid to express solidarity with their nation. Jawaharlal Nehru University and Jamia Millia Islamia have also suspended their partnerships with Turkish institutes. Social media users who shared this ‘public announcement’ seemed to suggest that Turkey was ‘begging’ Indian tourists.

The viral letter, allegedly from Turkey, made headlines across Indian news outlets. The Economic Times, Financial Express, News18, Business Today, and pro-Right mouthpiece OpIndia, published reports on this, citing social media claims. Zee News also mentioned the letter without sharing the image in its report.

Click to view slideshow.

BJP Kerala president and former minister of state for ministry of electronics and information technology, Rajeev Chandrasekhar, shared the letter on X with a firm “No thank you”. (Archive) Meanwhile, Rajya Sabha member and Shiv Sena deputy leader Priyanka Chaturvedi said, “Indians won’t come spending money on tourism in a country that uses the same to arm Pakistan” as she posted the letter on X. (Archive)

Journalists Vir Sanghvi (@virsanghvi) and Rohini Singh (@rohini_sgh) also posted the same notice emphasising that it would be irrational to expect Indians to visit a nation that openly offers military support to Pakistan. Sanghvi’s post had garnered over a million views. (Archives 1, 2)

An X user named Paul Antonopoulos (@oulosP), whose bio says he is a journalist, also shared the letter and said that Indians should instead travel to Greece. The post had 1.5 million views at the time this article was written.

The letter was viral across social media platforms with similar claims.

Click to view slideshow.

Fact Check

To check whether any such letter was formally issued, Alt News first reviewed official social media handles of the Turkish government, including the ministry of culture and tourism, and the Ankara Metropolitan Municipality. We found no such announcement or letter. Readers should also note that the official name is ministry of culture and tourism, not ‘Department of Tourism’ as signed off in the letter.

This notice was not listed in the announcement or press sections of the ministry of culture and tourism or the ministry of foreign affairs. We also found that the press statements or the bulletins issued by either of the ministries looked nothing like the viral notice.

This was also corroborated by Turkey-based fact-checking organisation, Malumatfurus, which was the first to post on X that the letter was fake. “‘Kamu Duyurusu’ is correct Turkish translation; yet, why should they use Turkish title in an announcement in English? If they are aiming at the Indian population, they shouldn’t have been using Turkish title,” they told Alt News, adding that “The image is not in line with MoCT’s or Turkish government’s announcement templates.”

Alt News then reached out to the ministry of culture and tourism, Turkey, since the sign-off in the viral letter mentioned them. They categorically told us they had not issued it. “This letter you mentioned has not been shared by our Ministry,” a spokesperson told us over email.

To sum up, the so-called public announcement urging Indians to visit Turkey and shared by many influential social media users is fake. Turkey’s tourism ministry told Alt News it issued no such letter.

The post Exclusive: Turkey tourism ministry denies issuing viral letter urging Indians not to cancel travel plans appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Ankita Mahalanobish.

Image from 2011 shared with false claims that it shows corpses of 12 Indian soldiers killed by Pakistan

Pawan Kumar — Wed, 14 May 2025 15:49:08 +0000

A video showing a row of corpses on the ground covered in green is being widely shared on social media with claims that Pakistan killed 12 Indian soldiers in the recent conflict between the two countries.

These visuals come amid heightened tensions between India and Pakistan after the Indian defence forces carried out strikes on nine terrorist bases in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir under Operation Sindoor. In turn, shelling by the Pakistan Army on areas near the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir resulted in the death of at least 16 people. The Indian Army said it lost five soldiers.

In this context, the video of the corpses is being circulated by many Pakistan-based social media accounts to suggest that Pakistan managed to inflict major losses on the Indian side.

X user @PakistanFauj shared the video and wrote, “Pakistan Army carried out targeted action on Dharamshala 1 and 2 posts in Battal sector, killing at least 12 Indian soldiers. Both the posts were completely destroyed.” Verified X handles @KashmirUrdu and @A_MQQ_ also shared the video with similar claims. (Archived versions of these can be found here and here.)

Click to view slideshow.

Fact Check

Alt News performed a reverse image search of some key frames from the video, which led us to a similar image uploaded on Getty Images on August 20, 2011. According to the caption, the bodies were of “suspected militants” killed by the Indian Army in Kashmir. The army had foiled an infiltration attempt in the Gurez sector of North Kashmir near the Line of Control.

It is worth noting that the army personnel and the helicopter seen in the background of the Getty photo are not visible in the viral clip.

We then looked for news reports on the incident and found one by Al Jazeera from August 20, 2011. Indian Army spokesperson Lieutenant General JS Brar told the publication, “On August 20, 2011, 12 terrorists were trying to cross the border in a boat and the Kishanganga river is the Line of Actual Control in some areas. During the firing, six terrorists fell into the river and six others were killed on the banks.” The picture featured in the report shows the dead bodies lying on the ground behind the soldier, exactly as seen in the viral video.

In other words, the visual shared by social media users to claim 12 Indian soldiers were killed is actually 14 years old. The incident it captures is from 2011, when the Indian Army killed 12 terrorists who were caught infiltrating Kashmir. It has been wrongly linked to India’s Operation Sindoor and the conflict with Pakistan.

The post Image from 2011 shared with false claims that it shows corpses of 12 Indian soldiers killed by Pakistan appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Pawan Kumar.

Ceasefire announcement triggered attacks on foreign secretary Vikram Misri, daughter, shows timeline analysis

Shinjinee Majumder — Wed, 14 May 2025 14:13:59 +0000

Just as tensions between India and Pakistan showed signs of easing out around May 10, Indian Right-wing trolls, already high on josh from the pitched keyboard battles they had been fighting, picked up a new enemy: Foreign secretary Vikram Misri and his family. His supposed fault: He made the announcement that India and Pakistan had reached an understanding of ceasefire after four days of intense cross-border drone and missile strikes. Things came to such a passe that the seasoned diplomat had to make his X handle private.

No one from the BJP camp or the Union government, including external affairs minister S Jaishankar, has so far publicly condemned the targeted attacks.

Since the launch of Operation Sindoor on May 7, Misri, a 1989-batch officer of the Indian foreign service, addressed four press conferences, some singularly, and some jointly with armed force officials. It is through these briefings that a nation on tenterhooks kept itself abreast of the latest updates about the escalating conflict. What stood out during these sessions were the composure and confidence with which he articulated India’s position on various military, diplomatic and strategic matters.

Misri’s diplomatic acumen and clarity of thought were on display when in the May 7 press briefing, for example, he used the words ‘measured, non-escalatory, proportionate, and responsible’, describing the nature of Operation Sindoor. Again, in the May 10 presser, he decimated Pakistan’s efforts to discredit the Indian government by noting that it might be a surprise to a Pakistani to see citizens criticising their own government. “That is the hallmark of an open and functioning democracy. Pakistan’s unfamiliarity with that should be unsurprising,” he observed, with a hint of a smile on his face.

One understands that such dignified professionalism in the face of adversities comes from experiences gathered during a long and distinguished career. Misri, who took charge as foreign secretary on July 15, 2024, had his early postings on the Pakistan desk of the Union ministry of external affairs and stints on the staff of two former foreign ministers, I K Gujral and Pranab Mukherjee. He has served as private secretary to three Prime Ministers, I K Gujral, Manmohan Singh and Narendra Modi. His international assignments include postings in Brussels, Tunis, Islamabad and Washington D.C. He was the deputy high commissioner in Sri Lanka, consul general in Munich, ambassador to Spain, Myanmar and China. From January 2022 to June 2024, he served as deputy in the NSA for strategic affairs before becoming India’s 35th foreign secretary.

One also understands that such distinctions matter little to the Right-wing trolls. The aplomb and equanimity maintained throughout by Misri did not, perhaps, impress the zealots whose hyper-nationalism often finds expression in memes with leaders breathing fire from laser eyes. And then, on May 10, Misri appeared in a press briefing to announce that India and Pakistan had agreed to stop all firing and military action. This is when the gloves came off and they decided to target Misri, as the timeline analysis later in this article will show.

What’s more horrifying, though perhaps predictable, was that the trolls targeted and doxxed his daughter, Didon, a lawyer based in the UK, for her humanitarian work for Rohingya Muslims and her occasional involvement with The Wire as a columnist. Her contact information was leaked online, and the Misris were labeled as gaddars or traitors.

The trolling and the targeted harassment got so toxic that the foreign secretary had to lock his X handle, restricting public view.

Tracing the Timeline of the Harassment

Alt News traced the online harassment of Didon to two primary accounts, one of which has since been withheld. X user @JayRNair was the first to dox her, back in December 2024, after Misri stated that India did not endorse former Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s criticism of the interim government in Bangladesh. The user shared a screenshot of the news report of the statement alongside Didon’s history of humanitarian work. The user also shared a screenshot of Didon’s profile on her company website that clearly showed her phone number. ‘What is most shocking is when you realize what his daughter does. She gave legal assistance to Rohingyas, now in London’, read the tweet.

This account has now been disabled.

The aforementioned tweet was reshared a few times since the launch of Operation Sindoor on May 7. There was one quote-tweet on May 8 and one more on May 9. However, we noticed that the tweet started getting more traction on the intervening night of May 10 and 11.

How did this happen? The second account that has consistently targeted Didon Misri is a user name Indian Kissinger (@kissingerspeaks). We also found two tweets from January and April 2025 that targeted Didon through subtle dog whistles.

Click to view slideshow.

The same user started viciously trolling the foreign secretary and his family after the ceasefire announcement was made. One of the earliest tweets targeting Didon Misri in the present context was shared on May 10 at 11:18 pm, which garnered half a million views. “Vikram Misri has to be made the next Sujatha Singh. No wonder his daughter supports Rohingya’s! Shameless Man and Family”, wrote the user.

This user also quote-tweeted user @JayRNair’s tweet doxxing Didon Misri in the comments, which is when more and more people started to interact with it. We noticed a significant increase in quote-tweets of the doxxing tweet within minutes of user @kissingerspeaks’ dog whistle.

Despite @JayRNair’s X handle being blocked, we were able to ascertain the URL of the tweet in which Vikram Misri’s daughter was doxxed. The ‘URL:’ syntax is a way of viewing all of the X users who quote-tweeted the withheld tweet while it was still live. The tweet ID, which is a unique numeric identifier of a certain tweet, often found at the end of the URL of a tweet, is fed into the syntax. We used Twitter’s advanced filters, ‘since:’ and ‘until:’, to set a time frame which makes it easier to track the activity. We used epoch time to set the exact time and date. Therefore, we analysed quote tweets posted between Wednesday, May 7, 2025, at 12:00 am (Epoch time: 1746556200) and Sunday, May 11, 2025, at 6:00 pm (Epoch time: 1746923400).

One quote-tweet read, “His daughter doesn’t care about this country but he comes out every now and then to inform us about ongoing affairs. India is f****d bcoz of these babus who can’t handle their families but try to convince entire nation. F*** u.”

What followed was a night of incessant trolling and harassment, especially targeted at Didon. While some people shared a picture of Misri’s family and labelled them traitors, some dug out a 2016 article that Didon had authored for The Wire, leaving many in the far-Right echo chamber displeased.

Click to view slideshow.

One influential far-Right X handle that also dog-whistled against Didon Misri was Squint Neon, run by Chandan Kumar. In a now-deleted tweet, Chandan shared the link to The Wire article authored by Didon, which was enough for his army of followers to rush in while spewing hate.

Since the tweet has been deleted, it’s difficult to determine exactly when Chandan Kumar posted it. However, based on the timestamps of the quote tweets, it can be estimated that it was live by at least 12:52 am on May 11, if not earlier. We observed that the first quote tweet appeared at that time, followed by several others within minutes. We are also estimating that the tweet was deleted sometime just before 10 am on the morning of May 11.

Alt News has consistently flagged Chandan Kumar’s online activities and the problematic content that he shares as ‘Squint Neon’ and ‘Hindutva Knight’, which has repeatedly violated social media guidelines. After the admin came under police scrutiny, nearly 19,000 tweets were deleted from @TheSquind’s account. Originally created as a parody of The Quint in 2017, Squint Neon has been suspended multiple times but continues to resurface with new usernames, including @squintneon and @squintnayan, and now @thesquind, where it remains popular among the far-Right ecosystem.

In November last year, Kumar came under scrutiny after he doxxed journalist Rana Ayyub. Her number was made public by Kumar in a tweet at 1:15 am on November 8, following which she was bombarded with phone calls, video calls and lewd messages throughout the rest of the night. Previously, Kumar had come under fire for morphing an obscene image over that of a Thanthai Periyar statue. Alt News also uncovered, in an elaborate report, a deeply disturbing vigilantism that Kumar engages in wherein he ‘exposes’ Hindu women, including minors, who are involved with Muslim men. Chandan Kumar has previously been on the radar of law enforcement authorities, but has evaded arrest.

No Condemnation yet from the BJP Camp

No one from the BJP or the Union government, including external affairs minister S Jaishankar, has so far publicly condemned the targeted attacks against foreign secretary.

Opposition leaders like Assaduddin Owaisi from the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen took to X to publicly back Misri. “…Our Civil Servants work under the Executive this must be remembered & they shouldn’t be blamed for the decisions taken by The Executive /or any Political leadership…”, he wrote.

Mr Vikram Misri is a decent and an Honest Hard working Diplomat working tirelessly for our Nation.
Our Civil Servants work under the Executive this must be remembered & they shouldn’t be blamed for the decisions taken by The Executive /or any Political leadership running Watan E… https://t.co/yfM3ygfiyt

— Asaduddin Owaisi (@asadowaisi) May 11, 2025

Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav also tweeted his support for Vikram Misri, calling for an investigation into those who had trolled Misri.

निर्णय तो सरकार का होता है; किसी अधिकारी का नहीं।

ये बेहद संवेदनशील, निंदनीय, शर्मनाक, आपत्तिजनक और दुर्भाग्यपूर्ण बात है कि देश के एक बहुत बड़े अधिकारी और उसके परिवार के ख़िलाफ़ कुछ असामाजिक-आपराधिक तत्व सरेआम अपशब्दों की सारी सीमाएं तोड़ रहे हैं लेकिन उनके मान-सम्मान की रक्षा… pic.twitter.com/scIUETtX1e

— Akhilesh Yadav (@yadavakhilesh) May 11, 2025

CPI(M) Rajya Sabha leader John Brittas wrote to Union home minister Amit Shah calling for an urgent intervention against the malicious attacks against Misri and his family.

Requested the Hon’ble Home Minister to investigate the malicious and coordinated cyber attacks targeting the Foreign Secretary @VikramMisri and his family in the aftermath of the Indo-Pak ceasefire. pic.twitter.com/guG0IpRVQs

— John Brittas (@JohnBrittas) May 12, 2025

The National Commission for Women has also condemned the targeted harassment that Vikram Misri and Didon Misri had to undergo. In a statement issued by NCW Chairperson Vijaya Rahatkar, the panel denounced the sharing of the young woman’s personal contact details, calling it a “grossly irresponsible act” and a “serious breach of privacy” that endangers her safety. Former diplomat Nirupama Menon Rao also tweeted her condemnation of the harassment.

It’s utterly shameful to troll Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri and his family over the India-Pakistan ceasefire announcement. A dedicated diplomat, Misri has served India with professionalism and resolve, and there is no ground whatsoever for his vilification . Doxxing his…

— Nirupama Menon Rao (@NMenonRao) May 11, 2025

Various IAS, IPS officers’ associations, too, have criticized the attacks on Misri and his family, describing them as ‘deplorable personal attacks’ and ‘unwarranted assaults on civil servants committed to their duties…”

The post Ceasefire announcement triggered attacks on foreign secretary Vikram Misri, daughter, shows timeline analysis appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Shinjinee Majumder.

Pakistan uses edited clip of Indian wing commander Vyomika Singh in briefing to claim it ‘did not target civilians’

Shinjinee Majumder — Wed, 14 May 2025 11:10:45 +0000

On May 11, Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry, the director general of Pakistan’s inter-services public relations (ISPR), which is the PR wing of its armed forces, held a press briefing alongside chiefs of the country’s air force, navy and army. Alt News found that in this conference, clipped videos from an Indian defence forces press briefing were used misleadingly.

In the May 11 briefing, Pakistan claimed that it struck Indian military targets after India violated their airspace and air bases in early-morning strikes. For context, India had launched Operation Sindoor on the intervening night of May 6 and 7 as a series of military strikes to target terror bases in Pakistan. The Indian defence forces have repeatedly reiterated that the strikes were “measured”, “non-escalatory” and carried out with precision to only hit at sites of terror infrastructure; no civilians or military bases were targeted. However, shortly after, Pakistan hit back with heavy shelling along the Indian border areas, resulting in the deaths of civilians and damage to property.

However, in the May 11 briefing, Chaudhry explicitly said that the Pakistan armed forces engaged “military targets, along with facilities in India used to target Pakistani citizens and entities involved in fomenting terrorism in Pakistan”. To prove his point that only military posts and infrastructure were targeted and not civilians, Chaudhry used two clips from a May 10 briefing on Operation Sindoor by the Indian armed forces.

https://video.twimg.com/ext_tw_video/1922325272625328128/pu/vid/avc1/720x672/vuHj1SfLDCiwoZ5A.mp4

In the above clip, Indian Air Force Wing Commander Vyomika Singh gives a brief of the weaponry used by Pakistan in the shelling. While detailing the areas that suffered damage, she appears to say that Indian military posts were targeted. Her remarks do not mention civilians. Here’s what she said:

“Pakistani military continued with its provocations, carrying out aggressive actions employing multiple threat vectors all along the western border. Pakistan employed UCAV, drones, long-range weapons, loitering munitions and fighter aircrafts to target military infrastructure. Pakistan military also resorted to air intrusions using drones and firing of heavy-calibre weapons along the Line of Control… air intrusions and several harassment attacks were also attempted from Srinagar till Naliya at more than 26 locations… damage was sustained to equipment and personnel at Indian Air Force stations at Udhampur, Pathankot, Adampur and Bhuj. There were also several high-speed missile attacks noticed with heavy damages to other military stations in Kupwara, Baramulla, Poonch, Rajouri, and Akhnoor sectors continued. Indian Armed Forces reiterate their commitment to non-escalation, provided it is reciprocated by the Pakistan Military.”

Towards the end of the clip, Indian Army Colonel Sofiya Qureshi can be heard saying, “भारतीय सशस्त्र बल दोहराते हैं कि वे तनाव वृद्धि नहीं चाहते, बशर्ते पाकिस्तान भी ऐसा ही व्यवहार करे।” (Translation: The Indian Armed Forces reiterate that they do not want an escalation of tensions, provided Pakistan behaves similarly.)

After the above clip was shown, Chaudhry tells the press gathered there that even the Indian forces acknowledged that Pakistan only targeted military installations and nothing else, definitely not civilians.

“Did you find…from the Indian statements… did Pakistan attack anything other than military targets? No. Did any international media or even Indian media… what are they reporting? ‘Precise targeting of the military installations…posts.’ We told you that we don’t target civilians…our religion does not allow us, our culture does not allow us, our professionalism of the armed forces doesn’t allow us. We will never target civilians. They are even acknowledging that..” he said.

Below is the full video of the press conference.

Did IAF Wing Commander Vyomika Singh ‘Acknowledge’ Such a Thing?

The short answer is no. Alt News found that IAF Wing Commander Vyomika Singh’s full statements from the May 10 special briefing on Operation Sindoor had been clipped and edited to make it seem like she said what Chaudhry claimed. Vyomika Singh did not say that.

The May 10 briefing by the ministry of external affairs and defence forces was a formal update on Pakistan’s escalatory and provocative pattern of attack. Note that hours after this briefing, the two countries had agreed to a ceasefire.

The clip below shows exactly what Singh said in her update.

The IAF officer clearly says that the Pakistani military targeted civilian areas and military infrastructure. Throughout the briefing, she emphasised the Pakistan had targeted civilian infrastructure, including medicare centres and school premises, at the air bases of Srinagar, Awantipora and Udhampur. She further said that Pakistan attempted multiple air intrusions using drones and conducted shelling using heavy-calibre RT guns, targeting civilian infrastructure and killing civilians.

Her exact words were “Pakistan employed UCAV, drones, long-range weapons, loitering munitions and fighter aircrafts to target civilian areas and military infrastructure.” But in the May 11 briefing by Pakistan, the words “civilian areas” were dropped from her address to make it seem like she said: “Pakistan employed UCAV, drones, long-range weapons, loitering munitions and fighter aircrafts to target military infrastructure.”

Alt News also cross-checked this with a transcript of the briefing by the Indian ministry of external affairs.

Several of Singh’s Remarks Distorted

Surprisingly, this was not the only instance. Alt News found that several statements by Singh were taken out of context and shown to the press, creating misleading narratives regarding what the Indian side actually said.

For instance, the clip of Singh shown in the tri-services press conference on May 11 made it seem like she said that damage was sustained to equipment and personnel at Indian Air Force stations at Udhampur, Pathankot, Adampur and Bhuj.

However, what she actually said was that Indian armed forces were able to neutralise air intrusions and several harassment attacks that were attempted by Pakistani forces from Srinagar till Naliya at more than 26 locations and that limited damage was sustained to equipment and personnel at Indian Air Force stations at Udhampur, Pathankot, Adampur and Bhuj.

A third instance of manipulation was showing Singh as saying there were high-speed missile attacks that caused heavy damage to other military stations in Kupwara, Baramulla, Poonch, Rajouri, and Akhnoor sectors.

In reality, Singh said that high-speed missile attacks were noticed at air bases in Punjab. Before adding that there was heavy exchange of artillery mortars and small-arm fire in Kupwara, Baramulla, Poonch, Rajouri and Akhnoor sectors, she mentioned that Pakistan was targeting civilian infrastructure and killing civilians. The bit about civilians was conveniently removed.

Thus, statements attributed to IAF Wing Commander Vyomika Singh were selectively edited and presented to manipulate what she actually said; a likely bid to portray Pakistan in a positive light and claim that no Indian civilians were targeted or hurt.

The Targeting of Indian Civilians

The defence ministry has said that Pakistan tried to target multiple military installations along the West and at least 16 people, including three women and five children, have been killed due to firing by Pakistan. These figures were released on May 8, so the number of casualties may be higher now, considering that the border areas witnessed continued shelling. According to a report by BBC, at least 21 civilians have died since the launch of Operation Sindoor, while the armed forces lost five officers.

Among those killed were 12-year-old twins Zain Ali and Urwah Fatima. They died as shells were lobbed near the rented house in Pooch, Jammu and Kashmir. Their father, Rameez Khan, 48, continues to fight for life. He was critically injured in the firing on May 7 after Pakistani shells tore through his home across the Line of Control.

Another victim of the shelling was Qari Mohammed Iqbal, a 47-year-old teacher who was wrongly labelled a terrorist by several mainstream media outlets.

Read: His name was Qari Mohammad Iqbal. He was not a terrorist.

Watch: Qari Mohammad Iqbal कौन है? | Republic | Zee News | ABP News | CNN-News18

A 45-year-old Kashmiri woman from Uri, two migrants from Bihar in Rajouri, a retired serviceman and a member of the Jammu and Kashmir administration also died in the shelling. The attacks claimed the lives of two-year-old Aisha Noor, seven-year-old Maryam Khatoon, and 13-year-old Vihaan Bhargav.

The post Pakistan uses edited clip of Indian wing commander Vyomika Singh in briefing to claim it ‘did not target civilians’ appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Shinjinee Majumder.

17-year old image of mass cremation shared as last rites of IAF pilot killed in Pakistan airstrike

Shinjinee Majumder — Wed, 14 May 2025 10:20:06 +0000

An image of a burning pyre is viral on social media, with many Pakistan-based accounts claiming that it shows the last rites of Rohit Kataria, a Rafale pilot killed on May 7 in retaliatory strikes by the Pakistan armed forces after India launched Operation Sindoor.

The image has gone viral amid the ongoing conflict between India and Pakistan. Scores of unverified visuals such as this one have been doing the rounds and are being linked to the geo-political tensions between the two countries. The latest crisis was triggered by a terrorist attack that killed 26 civilians in Pahalgam, Kashmir, on April 22.

X user @DI313_ shared the photo with a caption that the death ceremony of Squadron Leader Rohit Kataria was being held on May 12. “He leaves behind his wife Shalini Chaudhary and 2-year-old son Chandan,” the caption added. The user had shared a 5-digit number, 32292, alongside Kataria’s name. This seems like a badge or service number. At the time of writing this, the post had over 150,000 views. (Archive)

Several other X users, including verified accounts @IntelPk_ and @War_Analysts, shared the image with similar claims. (Archived versions here, here and here.) The claims and image were also viral on Facebook.

Click to view slideshow.

Fact Check

First, a relevant keyword search of the name Rohit Kataria led us to a government press release from January 2024, in which he was mentioned as a group captain and pilot. Rohit Kataria was awarded the Vayu Sena Medal for devotion to duty. From there, we found his service number, 27443, which did not match the service number mentioned in the social media claims. When we looked up the service number 32292 mentioned by those whos shared the funeral photo, we found that it belongs to squadron leader Inder Setia and not Rohit Kataria.

Moreover, the Indian Air Force has emphatically said its pilots have reached back home safely. So, it was clear that the image did not show an IAF officer’s last rites.

We then did a reverse image search and found a CNN report from September, 2011, titled, “India’s burning issue with emissions from Hindu funeral pyres” which used the same photo as a representative image. The image was captioned, “Hindus pay last respects at a mass cremation of 15 school girls on the banks of the river Orsang in Bamroli in the Indian state of Gujarat, April 16, 2008,” and was attributed to AFP/Getty Images.

We also found the same photo on Getty Images. The caption of the 2008 image of a mass cremation said that 44 people, most of them children on their way to school, had drowned after their bus plunged into the Narmada canal at Bodeli in Gujarat.

Taking cue from this, we performed a keyword search and found several news reports from the time. According to an India Today report, the incident took place about 70 km from Vadodara in the early hours of April 16. The bodies of 44 victims, including the conductor, had been recovered. The bus from Vag-Bhod village was on its way to Bodeli. Most of the children were between eight and 10; only five children survived the accident.

As it stands, a 2008 image of a mass cremation of school girls who passed away in an accident near Vadodara is being circulated with claims that it shows the funeral of a Rafale killed in Pakistani strikes. So far, the Indian Air Force has not declared that any pilots were martyred.

The post 17-year old image of mass cremation shared as last rites of IAF pilot killed in Pakistan airstrike appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Shinjinee Majumder.

Viral video of injured IAF pilot is from March, unrelated to the India-Pakistan conflict

Ankita Mahalanobish — Wed, 14 May 2025 04:44:36 +0000

A minute-long video of a seemingly injured man in military fatigues is being widely circulated on social media with claims that he is an Indian Air Force (IAF) pilot whose plane was struck down by Pakistan during the recent military conflict between the two countries. The footage shows several individuals assisting him and a parachute entangled in a nearby tree. After some time, a military chopper can also be seen.

https://video.twimg.com/ext_tw_video/1920816142890717184/pu/vid/avc1/674x1002/k0BPjYaN5cCQJ-Fs.mp4

This clip is among a series of unverified visuals that have gone viral after India launched Operation Sindoor on May 7, targeting nine terror camps in Pakistan. Shortly after, Pakistan retaliated with heavy mortar shelling in forward villages along the Line of Control (LoC) in the Poonch and Rajouri areas of Jammu and Kashmir. The LoC is an over 700-km de facto military border separating the two countries. The strikes by the Indian forces came a fortnight after terrorists, with alleged links to Pakistan, killed 26 civilians in Pahalgam, Kashmir. As of May 13, a ceasefire is underway but the situation remains tense. Both sides have claimed they managed to inflict significant damage to the other. In this context, the pilot’s video is being circulated by many Pakistan-based social media accounts to hint that Pakistan had an edge over India since their planes were being downed.

X user Zafar Shirazi shared the clip on May 9 and claimed that an Indian fighter jet had crashed. The caption says that it wasn’t clear whether the pilot ejected from the jet himself, or if Indian forces shot down the plane he was flying mistakenly, or if he was captured by Pakistan. At the time of writing this, the post had nearly 850,000 views. Another Pakistan-based handle @HarisJ828 also shared the video. This post had over 1.5 million views at the time this was written. (Archived versions of these posts are here and here.) Several other social media users from Pakistan also shared the video, amplifying similar claims.

Click to view slideshow.

Fact Check

A reverse image search of some key frames from the video led us to the same video uploaded on Facebook on March 7, 2025 by PTC news. The caption said: “Indian Air Force fighter plane Jaguar crashes” with the hashtag Ambala air base.

Building on this, we performed a keyword search that led us to several news articles from March 7, 2025, when an Indian Air Force Jaguar fighter jet crashed in Ambala.

PTC News reported that the fighter jet crashed near the Baladwala village, Morni, after taking off from Ambala air base for a training flight. It said that the pilot narrowly escaped the crash by ejecting himself from the plane with a parachute. News agency PTI, too, had reported on the incident.

According to a Times of India report, at around 3:30 PM on March 7, two Morni residents working near the area where the plane crashed heard a loud noise and saw smoke rising and rushed there. They found aircraft wreckage and the injured pilot. Villagers quickly gathered at the scene and offered the pilot water, which he declined. Soon after, an Indian Air Force (IAF) helicopter, along with IAF officials, police personnel, and fire tenders, arrived at the crash site. The report added that villagers commended the pilot for skillfully steering the aircraft away from residential areas, thus averting a potential disaster.

A post on the official X handle of the Indian Air Force (@IAF_MCC) from March 7 confirmed the chain of events. It said that the crash happened due to a system malfunction and that before ejecting safely from the aircraft, the pilot ensured that the jet was away from any habitation.

A Jaguar aircraft of the IAF crashed at Ambala, during a routine training sortie today, after encountering system malfunction. The pilot maneuvered the aircraft away from any habitation on ground, before ejecting safely.

An inquiry has been ordered by the IAF, to ascertain the…

— Indian Air Force (@IAF_MCC) March 7, 2025

Additionally, a fact-check report by India’s Press Information Bureau, or PIB, also confirmed that the viral video being linked to the ongoing India-Pakistan tensions was actually from March 7, 2025, two months before India launched Operation Sindoor.

Old IAF Plane Crash Video Shared in False Context

A video of an IAF plane crash is being falsely shared in the context of the current India-Pakistan situation.#PIBFactCheck

This video shows a Jaguar aircraft of the IAF that crashed in Ambala during a routine training… pic.twitter.com/mOT186mPJx

— PIB Fact Check (@PIBFactCheck) May 10, 2025

To sum up, the video of the injured Indian Air Force pilot is from March 7, two months ago, when a Jaguar fighter jet crashed near Ambala during routine training. It has no relation to the India-Pakistan conflict.

The post Viral video of injured IAF pilot is from March, unrelated to the India-Pakistan conflict appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Ankita Mahalanobish.

Viral memo ‘confirming’ radiation leak in Pakistan is fake

Indradeep Bhattacharyya — Tue, 13 May 2025 14:23:47 +0000

Ever since India’s director general of air operations (DGAO), Awadhesh Kumar Bharti, revealed that the Indian Air Force hit several military targets in Pakistan on the intervening night of May 9 and 10, speculation on whether Kirana Hills, believed to be a major nuclear storage facility, was among the sites struck in the attack has been rife.

Amid these speculations, a purported office memorandum issued by Pakistan’s ministry of climate change & environmental coordination, has gone viral on social media. This so-called memorandum ‘confirms’ a radiation leak at a facility in the ‘Northern Administrative Zone’. An image of the memo has been added below:

Giving out specific details about India’s retaliatory strikes, DGAO Bharti said on May 11, “A decision was taken to strike where it would hurt and towards that in a swift, coordinated, calibrated attack, we stuck its air bases, command centers, military infrastructure, air defence systems across the entire Western Front. The bases we struck include Chaklala, Rafiq, Rahim Yar Khan, sending a clear message that aggression will not be tolerated. This was followed by strikes at Sargodha, Bhulari, and Jacobabad..”

Kirana hills is approximately 8 km southeast of the Sargodha Air Base in Sargodha division in central Punjab, Pakistan.

X user Abhi (@Patelizm) shared the above document and wrote, “Govt of Pakistan confirms a radiation in Northern Pakistan.” (Archive)

Govt of Pakistan confirms a radiation in Northern Pakistan.

Reosen is Kirana hills #Pakistan #radiation pic.twitter.com/gdiV2h8gNF

— Abhi (@Patelizm) May 13, 2025

The memo was also shared on X with the same claim by verified users Amitabh Chaudhary, The Jaipur Dialogues, The Sphere Report and Nagrendra Pandey, among others.

Pro-Right propaganda outlet OpIndia published an article titled, “Did India hit Pakistan’s nuclear site during Operation Sindoor? Viral ‘Radiological Safety Bulletin’ purportedly issued by Islamabad fuels speculations”. It said, “A document labeled “Radiological Safety Bulletin” … has surfaced on the internet, igniting a storm of speculation. It alleges a confirmed radiation leak at a facility located in Northern Pakistan… ”

At the same time, the article also said, “The authenticity of the bulletin remains unverified and it could well be fake… ”

Fact Check

On a careful reading of the document, several spelling and formatting errors become apparent. The most glaring is the time of the alleged leak—‘24-55 hours’—which makes no sense. Other than that, the word ‘Confidential’ is spelt as ‘Confidental’; ‘Northern’ as ‘Norther’; ‘Following’ as ‘Pollowing’; ‘Safety’ as ‘Safet’ and so on.

We have pointed out the discrepancies and errors below:

Graphic by Atreyo Roy/ Alt News

Readers should note that there is no available public record of any entity called the National Radiological Safety Division as mentioned in the letter. The agency that oversees matters related to nuclear energy, radioactive sources and radiation in Pakistan is the Pakistan Nuclear Regulatory Authority. PNRA is currently headed by Faizan Mansoor, who is the chairman. We could not find any mention of an ‘Engr. Malik Asad Rafiq’, who has issued the viral memo, on any credible source or government document.

Also, at a press briefing on May 12, the Indian DGOA was asked by a journalist whether Indian strikes had hit Kirana Hills. “Thank you for telling us that Kirana Hills houses some nuclear installation, we did not know about it. We have not hit Kirana Hills, whatever is there,” he said.

#OperationSindoor | Delhi: When asked if India hit Kirana Hills, Air Marshal AK Bharti says, “Thank you for telling us that Kirana Hills houses some nuclear installation, we did not know about it. We have not hit Kirana Hills, whatever is there.” pic.twitter.com/wcBBVIhif1

— ANI (@ANI) May 12, 2025

Alt News also spoke to Sourendra Kumar Bhattacharya, a visiting scientist at Academia Sinica, Taiwan, an expert on the subject. When we showed him the document, he said, “There is no Indium 192 radioisotope available in sealed source. There is IRIDIUM192, a radioactive isotope used in Oncological therapy and to detect structural damage. Indium 113 and Indium 115 are two STABLE isotopes of Indium available.”

Thus, all our findings indicate that the viral document on a radiation leak in a nuclear facility in Pakistan is fake.

The post Viral memo ‘confirming’ radiation leak in Pakistan is fake appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Indradeep Bhattacharyya.

India-Pakistan Conflict: CNN denies it made viral infographic showing Indian side suffered more losses

Diti Pujara — Tue, 13 May 2025 12:51:29 +0000

A CNN infographic comparing the military losses suffered by India and Pakistan in the recent conflict between the two is being widely circulated. The graphic has specific numbers that indicate India lost far more jets, drones, air defence systems, as well as civilians and soldiers, than Pakistan. Those sharing this also suggest that international media outlets’ reportage indicated Pakistan had an upper hand in the skirmishes.

Source: X/ @zhao_dashuai

The latest India-Pakistan conflict has been triggered by the killing of 26 civilians in Kashmir’s Pahalgam on April 22. The attack was linked to terror groups based in Pakistan. A fortnight after this, Indian defence forces launched military strikes (named Operation Sindoor) at terror sites in the neighbouring country. While India maintains that these strikes only target terror camps and not military bases, the Pakistan armed forces retaliated firmly. Since early hours on May 7, when Operation Sindoor was launched, heavy shelling has rocked the border areas of Jammu and Kashmir. Drones and jets too have been sighted. Both countries have said they inflicted more damage than they suffered, without specifying details. In this context, the graphic is being used to suggest it was Pakistan that managed to overpower India.

The graphic was shared by several X users such as @zhao_dashuai, @FM1947PAK, @Defence_PK99 and @_FaridKhan, among others, many of whom are likely based in Pakistan since their accounts are withheld in India. Screenshots added below:

Click to view slideshow.

It was shared on other social media platforms too.

Click to view slideshow.

Fact Check

First, we performed a reverse image search to look for the source on the CNN website, but found none. We also tried several keyword searches based on the text of the graphic, but that too did not lead us to any credible reports by CNN or other outlets.

We also noticed that the graphic did not attribute the source of the information and that Gujarat was spelt wrong. The source was crucial in this case because the defence forces of both countries have categorically not given specific details regarding losses of jets and drones.

Alt News then reached out to CNN. A spokesperson said, “The image is fabricated. CNN at no point reported this information.”

Additionally, the fact-checking unit of India’s Press Information Bureau also called the graphic fake.

An infographic is doing the rounds on social media with @CNN‘s logo#PIBFactCheck

This infographic is #fake and part of the propaganda campaign.

#CNN never ran any such story or infographic comparing losses #IndiafightsPropaganda pic.twitter.com/srlYVUf3Xu

— PIB Fact Check (@PIBFactCheck) May 12, 2025

To sum up, social media users, many from Pakistan, shared a fabricated CNN graphic claiming that India suffered far greater losses than Pakistan in the recent conflict. CNN has denied that it published any such infographic.

The post India-Pakistan Conflict: CNN denies it made viral infographic showing Indian side suffered more losses appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Diti Pujara.

Video unrelated to Operation Sindoor shared with claims that Pakistani jets in Sialkot moving toward J&K

Oishani Bhattacharya — Mon, 12 May 2025 15:59:02 +0000

An 18-second-long clip taken at night of what appears to be fighter jets in the sky is viral on social media with claims that these visuals are from Pakistan’s Sialkot and show Pakistani fighter jets flying towards Jammu and Kashmir.

https://video.twimg.com/amplify_video/1920937458578935809/vid/avc1/320x574/YT4VfLSttiSZ2qWN.mp4

This clip is among the flood of such aerial visuals that have gone viral amid the India-Pakistan conflict. On May 7, a fortnight after terrorists allegedly linked to Pakistan-based terror groups killed 26 civilians in Pahalgam, India launched ‘Operation Sindoor’ to target nine terror sites in the neighbouring country. As of May 12, a ceasefire is on, but ties between the two countries remain tense.

The clip of the jets in the sky was shared by X user @jacksonhinklle on May 9 with the following caption: “BREAKING: Locals in sialkot report seeing Pakistan’s fighter jets soaring towards Jammu Kashmir.” The post has received over 160,000 views and has been retweeted more than 500 times. (Archive)

Note that Alt News has written about misinformation disseminated by this account in the past.

Sharing the same video on May 10, X user @erbmjha sarcastically mentioned: “PAF jets flying over SIALKOT for neutralising drones”. The post received over 218,000 views and has been reshared over 500 times. (Archive)

This user, too, has amplified misinformation in the past and was fact-checked by Alt News on several occasions.

PAF jets flying over SIALKOT for neutralising drones pic.twitter.com/5yWxXXXu7n

— BALA (@erbmjha) May 9, 2025

Below are screenshots of the same video shared by several other users.

Click to view slideshow.

Fact Check

To verify the claim, we broke down the viral clip into multiple key frames and ran a reverse image search on a few of them. We found a YouTube video with the same viral clip posted by a channel named ‘Malik Ali Raza’. The video was titled: “Pakistan Air Force Fighter jets roaring near Indian Border” and was posted on April 25, 2025, nearly two weeks before ‘Operation Sindoor’ was launched. While the headline makes a reference to India and Pakistan, the publication date of the video predates the current conflict.

Taking cue from this, we looked further and came across an X post by @ibrahimkaragul who also posted the same video on April 25 along with a caption in Turkish which can be translated as: “This night; India war planes Pakistan airspace pushing, at its borders flights are doing. Pakistan planes one after another are taking off. Pakistan navy at sea defense position is taking. India-Pakistan at the border, in Kashmir of clashes that there are regarding unconfirmed information is coming”.

Bu gece;

Hindistan savaş uçakları Pakistan hava sahasını zorluyor, sınırlarında uçuşlar yapıyor.

Pakistan uçakları ardı ardına havalanıyor. Pakistan donanması denizde savunma pozisyonu alıyor.

Hint-Pakistan sınırındı, Keşmir’de çatışmaların
olduğuna dair teyit edilmemiş… pic.twitter.com/YIgiqx5VRf

— İbrahim Karagül (@ibrahimkaragul) April 24, 2025

We then ran a relevant keyword search from around that time and found news reports about a drill exercise, ‘Aakraman’, conducted by the Indian Air Force pilots. According to an April 26 report by India Today, the drill involved India’s frontline fighter jets and was described by the IAF as a routine training exercise. The report also said that the exercise triggered panic in Pakistan, prompting its forces to “go on alert and scramble military aircraft to air bases near the Union Territory” of Jammu and Kashmir. Data from the flight-tracking website Flightradar24 showed Pakistan Air Force (PAF) aircraft departing from Karachi and heading to northern bases near Lahore and Rawalpindi.

It is likely that the viral video captured movements from either of the sides. However, Alt News was not able to conclusively verify this. What remains clear, though, is that the now-viral clip is not related to Operation Sindoor and the shelling that followed, which only began on the intervening night of May 6 and 7.

The post Video unrelated to Operation Sindoor shared with claims that Pakistani jets in Sialkot moving toward J&K appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Oishani Bhattacharya.

Video of paraglider stuck in Manali viral with claims that Indian Air Force pilot Shivangi Singh caught in Pakistan

Prantik Ali — Mon, 12 May 2025 14:21:23 +0000

A video showing a person hanging from electric wires amid pine trees has gone viral with claims that it shows Indian Air Force pilot Shivangi Singh stuck while flying a Rafale fighter jet in Pakistan.

https://video.twimg.com/ext_tw_video/1921064863318630400/pu/vid/avc1/360x640/z3Mp3THVyf-fXsA7.mp4

The clip is among a series of unverified visuals and claims that are doing the rounds on social media amid the India-Pakistan conflict. As of May 12, the ceasefire between the two countries remains in place. On May 7, a fortnight after terrorists killed 26 civilians in Pahalgam, India launched Operation Sindoor targeting terror sites in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. India described its strikes as counter-terrorist in nature, while Pakistan retaliated with shelling, calling the operation a breach of peace.

The video of the purported pilot caught in the wires was shared by X user @M_ismail_pak on May 10. At the time of this article being written, the post racked up over 550,000 views and was reshared 1,200 times. We have added a screenshot below since the account has been withheld in India. After the Kashmir terror attack, India banned several social media accounts from Pakistan and suspended several bilateral arrangements between the two countries. (Archive)

Another X user (@mqaiser_m) posted the video with the same claim. This has accumulated nearly 200,000 views. (Archive)

Other users, such as (@Sheikh1Sameer) and (@abdulmj_), based in Pakistan going by their bios, also shared the video with similar claims. (Archives: 1, 2)

Click to view slideshow.

Users also amplified the video on Facebook, alleging that IAF pilot Shivangi Singh had been captured in Pakistan. Screenshots below:

Click to view slideshow.

Fact Check

To verify claims regarding the viral video, Alt News ran a reverse image search on key frames from the concerned video and came across this Facebook post, uploaded by Samachar First, a news portal based in Himachal Pradesh, on March 16. It features the same video as the one that went viral.

कुल्लू: तूफ़ान में उड़ान, डोभी पैराग्लाइडिंग साइट में बिजली की तारों में लटक गया पैराग्लाइडर, सुरक्षित रेस्क्यू किया गया।

Posted by Samachar First on Sunday 16 March 2025

The Hindi caption, when translated, suggests that a paraglider had gotten stuck in electric wires at the Dobhi paragliding site in Kullu, while trying to fly during a storm.

Taking cue from this, we ran a relevant keyword search and were led to this news article by Dainik Bhaskar from March 16. It, too, said that a paraglider had gotten stuck in a forest after taking off from the Dobhi paragliding site during a storm in Manali.

While investigating, we also came across this Instagram video, uploaded by a travel company named The Wildcone on March 16. It shows the same accident from a different angle.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by WildCone (@thewildcone)

In conclusion, a video from March, which shows a paraglider stuck in electric wires in Manali, Himachal Pradesh, owing to adverse weather conditions, is being circulated with baseless claims that it shows IAF pilot Shivangi Singh caught in Pakistan. Additionally, the Press Information Bureau has rubbished claims that Shivangi Singh was captured.

The post Video of paraglider stuck in Manali viral with claims that Indian Air Force pilot Shivangi Singh caught in Pakistan appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Prantik Ali.

Viral video of ‘Pakistani aircraft shot down in Amritsar’ actually shows Hezbollah rockets targeting Israel

Shinjinee Majumder — Mon, 12 May 2025 13:00:47 +0000

Even as tensions eased slightly on May 12 after military strikes between India and Pakistan over the previous couple of days, unverified images and videos claiming to be related to the conflict continued to flood social media. Among them is a video of hovering lights and bright flashes in the night sky that is being shared as Indian S-400 surface to air missiles intercepting Pakistani JF-17 and J-10C fighter aircraft over Amritsar.

A fortnight after a terrorist attack in Pahalgam had killed 26 people, Indian armed forces in the early hours of May 7 launched Operation Sindoor, hitting nine sites 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. Late on May 7, reports came in of heavy mortar shelling by Pakistan on forward villages along the Line of Control in Poonch and Rajouri areas of Jammu and Kashmir killing at least 16 civilians. They also attempted to engage a number of military targets in northern and western India including in Awantipura, Srinagar, Jammu, Pathankot and Amritsar, among other places, using drones and missiles. These were neutralized by India’s integrated counter UAS grid and air defence systems. Subsequently, the conflict escalated rapidly on May 9 and 10, with Indian armed forces targeting air defence radars and systems at a number of locations in Pakistan in a proportionate response, and neutralizing the air defence system in Lahore.

Sharing the video in question, X user Tathvam-asi (@ssaratht) wrote on May 8, “India’s S-400 taking good care of Amritsar At least two JF-17 and one J-10C went last night. #OperationSindoor #Sialkot #IndiaPakistanWar”. (Archive)

India’s S-400 taking good care of Amritsar

At least two JF-17 and one J-10C went last night.#OperationSindoor #Sialkot #IndiaPakistanWar

pic.twitter.com/a2rQaEzSLh

— Tathvam-asi (@ssaratht) May 8, 2025

Several other X users amplified the claim. (Archives- 1, 2)

Click to view slideshow.

Fact Check

Upon a reverse image search of keyframes from the viral video, we found that the official X handle of the state government of Israel had tweeted the video on August 4, 2024. According to the caption, the visuals show a barrage of Hezbollah rockets fired at Israeli communities.

Last night in northern Israel: a barrage of Hezbollah rockets fired at Israeli communities.

We will not allow Hezbollah, Hamas or any other Iranian proxy to harm the people of Israel. pic.twitter.com/QO291ufsaO

— Israel ישראל (@Israel) August 4, 2024

Several other pro-Israel accounts had also shared the video at the same time. One can see them here and here.

Click to view slideshow.

As it stands, a 2024 video of Hezbollah rockets being fired at Israeli communities has been circulated by social media users with the misleading Indian missiles shooting down Pakistani aircraft near Amritsar.

The post Viral video of ‘Pakistani aircraft shot down in Amritsar’ actually shows Hezbollah rockets targeting Israel appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Shinjinee Majumder.

In first MEA briefing on Op Sindoor, 2007 footage of Iraq explosion shown as visuals of 2019 Pulwama attack

Kinjal — Mon, 12 May 2025 11:38:13 +0000

India launched Operation Sindoor on the intervening night of May 6 and 7, targeting nine terror camps in Pakistan. The strikes come follow the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack in which 26 civilians were killed.

On the morning of May 7, India’s ministry of external affairs held a press conference about the military strikes. The Press Information Bureau live-streamed this. In this briefing, a video of attacks against India over the past few years was shown. About a minute into it, visuals of an explosion on a road with text saying ‘Pulwama Attack, 2019’ and ‘40 dead, 5 injured’ appeared on screen.

On February 14, 2019, 40 security forces personnel were martyred in Pulwama, Jammu and Kashmir, in an attack carried out by a suicide bomber with alleged links to terror outfit Jaish-e-Mohammed.

But having tracked this video before, Alt News knew there was a mismatch.

Visuals Not of Pulwama?

In 2019 and 2020, Alt News had published fact checks about the video shown in the May 7 MEA briefing as visuals of the Pulwama attack. We had found the same video posted on YouTube in 2008; the caption suggested the visuals were from Iraq.

The 2008 YouTube video is CCTV footage by a street camera. The time stamp on the screen shows the explosion happened on February 9, 2007, 3:55:26 pm, which is 12 years before the 2019 Pulwama terror attack.

We then looked for reports on such an attack in Iraq around February 2007 and found some information on the UK government’s website on British fatalities during their military operations in Iraq. According to this, Private Luke Daniel Simpson of the 1st Battalion of the Yorkshire Regiment was injured in a roadside bomb explosion on February 9, 2007. He later succumbed to injuries.

Alt News could not confirm whether the video is of the same roadside bomb as shown above. However, that much is clear that the footage shown by the Indian government during the May 7 briefing was not of the 2019 Pulwama attack.

The post In first MEA briefing on Op Sindoor, 2007 footage of Iraq explosion shown as visuals of 2019 Pulwama attack appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Kinjal.

Zee News, others showed 2016 image from Turkey as Pakistani pilot captured by India

Pawan Kumar — Mon, 12 May 2025 11:35:54 +0000

Amid the escalating tensions between India and Pakistan, Zee News on May 9 showed an image of what it claimed was a Pakistani pilot captured by the Indian Army. (Archived link)

Zee Rajasthan News also used the same image in its reporting with a similar claim. (Archived link)

This picture was also used in a report by Inkhabar News. (Archived link)

Among others who shared the image with the same claim are BJP MLA from Jabalpur, Panagar, Sushil Kumar Tiwari alias Indu Bhaiya, Abhishek Asthana who runs the X handle @GabbbarSingh, and BJP supporter Jitendra Pratap Singh. However, @GabbbarSingh later deleted the post. (Archived link 1, link 2) Apart from this, X handle @IndiaWarMonitor also amplified this picture. Archived link 1, link 2)

Click to view slideshow.

In a now deleted post, right wing influencer Alok Tiwari claimed that this was the first picture of the captured Pakistani pilot. (Archived link)

A YouTube channel named ‘Dekho Dekho’, which has more than 16 Lakh subscribers, made a similar claim while promoting the viral image.

Fact Check

Alt News performed a reverse image search of the alleged picture. It had been uploaded on the Getty Images website on December 12, 2016. According to the information provided here, this photograph was taken by AFP journalist Ilyas Akengin. It shows Turkish military personnel safely evacuating a pilot from a plane near a crashed Turkish F16 fighter jet on December 12, 2016.

According to news agency Postimees, the F-16 fighter plane that took off for training from the southeastern city of Diyarbakir crashed shortly after it had left the runway.

In other words, the image in question is about nine-year-old. This picture went viral amid the escalating India-Pakistan tensions when Indian media houses ran the image without any verification and described it as a Pakistani pilot captured alive.

ALSO READ: Aaj Tak, NDTV and others ran a four-year-old video as an aerial fight over Jaisalmer

The post Zee News, others showed 2016 image from Turkey as Pakistani pilot captured by India appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Pawan Kumar.

Aaj Tak, NDTV, Times Now, News18 & others ran 4-yr-old video as aerial fight over Jaisalmer

Abhishek Kumar — Mon, 12 May 2025 11:29:02 +0000

Amid escalating tensions between India And Pakistan, a video was aired by the Indian media on May 9 which showed an air defense system foiling aerial attacks in the night sky. It was claimed that this was a video from Jaisalmer, Rajasthan.

The video was aired during anchor Anjana Om Kashyap’s show on India Today Group’s Hindi channel Aaj Tak. She claimed that this was a video of a Pakistani air attack being thwarted in Jaisalmer, India, ‘a short while ago’.

This video was also shown in a bulletin hosted by anchor Shweta Singh on Aaj Tak where it was described as a Pakistani air attack in Jaisalmer, which was foiled by the Indian air defense system. News channel NDTV also ran the video and claimed that it was footage of India foiling Pakistani airstrikes in Jaisalmer.

News channel India TV also ran the video claiming it to be from Jaisalmer.

Similarly, Times Now, Times Now Navbharat, ABP News, News18, One India, News Nation, and India TV amplified the video with the same claim.

Click to view slideshow.

Fact Check

Alt News performed a reverse image search of a few frames taken from this video on Google. This led us to a video uploaded by a YouTube channel named NSFchannel on May 11, 2021. The caption of this video states that it shows Israel’s air defense system, the Iron Dome, in action. Though Alt News cannot confirm this, it is clear that this video is at least four-year old and has no connection with the current conflict between India and Pakistan.

To sum up, several media channels, while reporting on the current India-Pakistan armed conflict, broadcast a four-year-old video of an air defence system thwarting air strikes and falsely claimed that the video was from Jaisalmer, India.

The post Aaj Tak, NDTV, Times Now, News18 & others ran 4-yr-old video as aerial fight over Jaisalmer appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Abhishek Kumar.

From tragedy to trolling: Himanshi Narwal, widow of naval officer killed in Pahalgam, faces social media trial

Oishani Bhattacharya — Mon, 12 May 2025 08:57:30 +0000

It took less than 10 days for social media users to do a full u-turn on Himanshi Narwal, the wife of late naval officer Lieutenant Vinay Narwal, who was killed in a terror attack in Kashmir on April 22. The couple had gotten married just six days ago, on April 16, and were in Kashmir for their honeymoon.

Vinay Narwal was among the 26 shot dead by terrorists in what is being dubbed the worst attack on civilians in recent history. Survivors, including Himanshi, had said that those killed were targeted based on religion. “They said he doesn’t look like a Muslim and shot him,” she said.

After the carnage, the image of a grieving Himanshi sitting next to her husband’s lifeless body soon became a symbol of the brutality that unfolded in the Baisaran valley.

The above image was aired by almost every news channel and carried across newspapers the following day. On social media, many, including the BJP, amplified the picture, or versions of it, to express solidarity with her or to make communal remarks, like “Even in death, only religion mattered” and “They asked for your religion, not caste“.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by India Today (@indiatoday)

But by May 1, the tides turned against Himanshi; much of the sympathy for the late officer’s wife suddenly turned into hateful, abusive trolling.

The Turning Point

Many social media users accused the woman of ‘protecting jihadis’. Why? Because of an appeal she made on May 1, while attending a blood donation camp on her late husband’s birthday in Haryana’s Karnal.

“I just want the entire nation to pray for him that wherever he is… he remains in good spirits, he is healthy and at peace. That’s it… There is one more thing that I want, I do not want any hatred towards anybody. This is what’s happening. People are going against Muslims or Kashmiris. We don’t want this. We want peace and only peace. Of course, we want justice. Of course, the people who have done wrong to him should be punished.”

Karnal, Haryana: On the birthday of the late Indian Navy Lieutenant Vinay Narwal, who was killed in the Pahalgam terror attack, his wife Himanshi says, “I just want the entire nation to pray for him, that wherever he is, he remains healthy and happy…” pic.twitter.com/8MdugaqmOg

— IANS (@ians_india) May 1, 2025

Her statement came amid a rise in ‘retaliatory’ hate crimes targeting Muslims and Kashmiris, and calls for boycott and hate in the aftermath of the terror attack.

But her public appeal for peace didn’t sit well with many social media users, who often share radical, far-Right content and identify with the Hindutva ideology, going by their bios.

Soon, many who were initially referring to her as ‘Himanshi Narwal’ stopped and instead began using her maiden name, ‘Himanshi Swami’, to address her. A few users online even began questioning whether she ever cared about her late husband and whether she qualifies for the monetary compensation she would receive as the widow of Vinay Narwal.

People dug into her past, scrutinised her decision to continue wearing the mangalsutra (a necklace worn by some married Hindu women), and brought up her old social media posts. Some even made remarks that suggested she was complicit with the terrorists. All of this seemed to be largely because her condemnation for what happened was largely devoid of any Islamophobic or communally charged rhetoric. It was rather the opposite.

Documenting Hate

Himanshi became the target of the social media hate machinery.

On May 1, X user @erbmjha posted Himanshi’s video, where she urges peace for all, with a sarcastic remark: “Sarv Dharm Vadapao ultra pro Max”.

Another X user, @PremPandey1011, followed up this post with claims that he knew Himanshi, adding that “she was student of MA CESP in SSS, #JNU , she used to love muslims a lot , Her daily habit was to visit Jhelum hostel of JNU , a boys hostel where Mainly Kashmiris lived. She was in Living relationships with Kashmiris!! [sic]” This person added that she “got her fate”. (Archive)

In a follow-up post, @PremPandey1011 added that he “doesn’t wish for Indians to develop a fake sympathy for such girl through media narrative”. He calls Himanshi underserving of any sympathy since he claims she might have been friends or even romantically involved with a Kashmiri or a Muslim person during her college days. (Archive)

Remember, these posts got thousands of views and were reshared by many.

Three days later, on May 4, the user added another post to the thread with an image of Himanshi. Text on the image made it seem like she was being quoted. It read: “I told my husband for Kashmir trip to show him army is fascist, And i don’t want to say any thing wrong about Muslims as I’m from DU and have many Muslim friends, I don’t want to ruin my friendship.”

Above this image and quote, the X user insinuated that “such girls” should not receive their late husband’s pension or any other compensation. They then shared a screen recording of those Himanshi followed on Instagram. The recording seemed to highlight that she followed many Muslims. A post of hers wishing everyone ‘Eid Mubarak’ was also mentioned. (Archive)

Presently, her Instagram account is private, and thus, details of whom she follows or what she shares are not publicly accessible. Additionally, details regarding Himanshi’s education mentioned by this user are available on her LinkedIn profile, which is public, so it’s possible that the details were taken from there. Note that the inflammatory quote attributed to her in the May 4 post was not reported by any credible news outlet and is likely fabricated.

Below are screenshots of these posts.

Click to view slideshow.

Another X account, @HPhobiaWatch, indulged in similar hateful, communal and misogynistic posts against Himanshi. Note that over a period, Alt News has been tracking @HPhobiaWatch’s posts that frequently target Muslims and amplify communal misinformation.

On May 2, this user shared a screenshot of a news report in which Himanshi’s image along with her appeal for harmony and peace were used. This was juxtaposed with an image of author Gurmehar Kaur holding a placard, which said “Pakistan did not kill my dad, war killed him”. Kaur, whose father was martyred in Kashmir in 1999, is among the prominent faces appealing for peace between India and Pakistan. However, she faced a lot of ire over this particular image with the placard, which first went viral in 2017.

“How low can you stoop for cheap fame? Insta Nachaniyas: I can show my body; Martyrs women : I can sell my deceased members body,” @HPhobiaWatch wrote in their post. ‘Nachaniya’ is a derogatory, crass term used for women dancers. (Archive)

The user then shared screenshots of old Facebook posts, allegedly by Himanshi, where she seems to be promoting a liberal view. These included posts from 2018 and 2019 in which she shared reports of a transgender anchor going on air for the first time on Pakistan television and how a Hindu girl saved a Muslim family from a mob attack. Calling her “big time secular, pro-pak and islam apologist”, @HPhobiaWatch made derogatory remarks like she will go trap another person after taking away compensation for Vinay Narwal. (Archive)

She was a big time secular, pro-pak and islam apologist. It wouldn’t surprise anyone if honeymoon in kashmir was her plan

Ye to Vinay ka compensation le kar nikal jayegi koi dusra bakra fasaane. At the end of the day only Vinay’s parents will have to suffer https://t.co/Rp6LYdYn7r pic.twitter.com/5BH8HwJ3cF

— Hindutva Knight (@HPhobiaWatch) May 2, 2025

The following day, this user reshared @PremPandey1011’s X post and concluded that Himanshi felt “no remorse for her husband’s loss”. (Archive)

I was correct in guessing that honeymoon in kashmir must be her idea. No wonder she has no remorse for her husband’s loss https://t.co/kI8d0EAorZ pic.twitter.com/rv2cGwrBgx

— Hindutva Knight (@HPhobiaWatch) May 3, 2025

The post was amplified widely and attracted some nasty comments; some explicitly saying that she might have been involved in the terror attack.

Click to view slideshow.

Below are the other posts and reposts by @HPhobiaWatch targeting Himanshi. (Archives 1, 2)

Click to view slideshow.

Another X user, @Cyber_Huntss, actively participated in the trolling. On May 1, this account made posts to expose her “true character” and said that her remarks made the Right wing look like “fools”. The bashing and character assassination continued further. (Archive)

In one such X post, a screenshot of an appeal she made on her Facebook profile in 2018 was shared. The FB post was a link to a petition for Asifa, a seven-year-old Muslim girl who was found dead in Jammu and Kashmir’s Kathua district on January 17, 2018. The minor was raped and killed. The brutalities inflicted on her left many shaken. Seven individuals, including a minor, a special police officer and a temple priest, were among those accused. In 2019, six of the seven were convicted; one was acquitted.

But in the eyes of @Cyber_Huntss, sharing a petition in support of the minor rape-murder victim and demanding justice for her made Himanshi Swami “an active member of JNU’s tukde tukde gang”. This user insinuated that she “previously had affairs with Muslims while at JNU.”

“She shouldn’t be in mourning because maybe her first love will come back to her — maybe a Kashmiri. The one who is gone was a mother and father’s son… Spit on such a woman”, the caption of the post said in Hindi. (Archive)

A swarm of hateful comments and ‘whataboutery’ followed.

Click to view slideshow.

Things didn’t stop at that. The following day, on May 2, too, the user continued their hate campaign, “So brothers and sisters, today’s topic is Himanshi’s story, as told by her friends. It’ll be a spicy tempering, fried in a hot pan of oil, and there’ll be a lot to hear,” a ‘teaser’ of this so-called ‘exposé’ said. (Archives 1, 2)

The three-part ‘exposé’ was that she went to JNU for education and a reiteration of the same things mentioned by user @PremPandey1011. At the end, this user said that her life events make it clear that she had a ‘soft corner’ for Muslims and Kashmir because she dated them and had Left-leaning views; her appeal to peace for Kashmiris and Muslims should be read in that context, they insinuated. (Archive 1, 2, 3)

Click to view slideshow.

The fifth X user whose posts against Himanshi were also widely circulated was @ladynationalist, or Moana. This user, too, is aligned with Right Wing ideology, going by their X bio and often promotes Hindutva by targeting Muslims and minorities in their posts.

After Himanshi’s press statement on peace on May 1, this user posted her video along with a vulgar, sexual abuse, rubbishing her remarks. “behn ki l*di ke pati ko dharm puchhkar goli mari thi aur ye ab bhi secularism ka jhenda leke chal rhi” (Translation: “Her husband was asked his religion and shot dead but she is still waving the secularism flag”. (Archive)

Readers should note that this isn’t the first time @ladynationalist has targeted someone for expressing solidarity with Muslims. In May last year, after many civilians were killed in Israel’s bombing of Rafah in Palestine, this social media user similarly trolled and harassed many popular public figures who shared the viral graphic ‘All Eyes on Rafah’. This account also singled out Indian cricketer Mohammed Siraj, who shared the same graphic, for his religious identity.

“We don’t want people to go against mslms/ kashmiris”

behn ki l0di ke pati ko dharm puchhkar goli mari thi aur ye ab bhi secularism ka jhenda leke chal rhi
pic.twitter.com/YPNRiWSWtl

— Moana (@ladynationalist) May 1, 2025

X user @SonOfBharat7, whose posts amplifying communal misinformation have been documented by Alt News before, shared images of Himanshi Narwal and Aishanya Dwivedi side-by-side. Aishanya Dwivedi is the wife of late Shubham Dwivedi, another victim of the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack. (Archive)

The user suggested that while both the women were Hindu widows, the wife of Shubham Dwivedi was bare-necked and wore no lipstick, while Himanshi Narwal donned the ‘mangalsutra’. “Shubham’s wife is still screaming loudly that earlier she used to think everyone is one and the same, but now she knows that Muslims are only using Hindus as bait… But Vinay’s wife is suggesting to show love towards Muslims… In your opinion, who is right?” they wrote.

In a hurry to compare the grief of two women who suffered an immeasurable loss, the user even named the victim incorrectly.

A @RituRathaur posted on X that Himanshi was “protecting Jehadis” because she went to JNU, where she “befriended Kashmiri Muslims”. (Archive)

Her post had a screenshot of @PremPandey1011’s X post, where he claimed to know Himanshi, alongside an image from Himanshi’s Instagram feed, showing her with two friends — one of whom was Muslim.

Meet Himanshi, wife of Vinay Nariwal who was shot down in cold blood by Muslim terrorists in #palghamterrorattack !

Having befriended Kashmiri Muslims while in JNU, explains why she is protecting jehadis.

I feel so bad for Vinay pic.twitter.com/2Zl9BtLg1y

— Ritu #सत्यसाधक (@RituRathaur) May 3, 2025

How her grief was related to her past or present friendships with anyone belonging to the Muslim community was not clear.

A Complete Flip?

The extent to which many of these social media users flipped the narrative after Himanshi Narwal’s public statement did not fan anti-Muslim sentiments is interesting. Her appeal for peace seems to have deeply rattled many who felt she should have been angrier, hateful and going all out in her remarks to avenge the death of her husband.

We say this because the nature of the posts that the same users made on or after April 22, immediately after the attack when her image next to Vinay Narwal’s deceased body went viral, are quite different.

Moana (@ladynationalist) wrote: “She never thought she’d return home all by herself. ” (Archive)

Sharing visuals from Vinay Narwal’s last rites on April 23 @SonOfBharat7 said: “Your heart will ache at the sight of this — A soldier’s wife giving him his final salute with a tearful “Jai Hind” … Lieutenant Vinay Narwal of the Indian Navy was given a heartfelt farewell by his wife, her eyes filled with sorrow. It was only the fifth day of their marriage when Muslim terrorists wiped away her sindoor—after asking about his religion.” (Archive 1, 2)

Meanwhile, @RituRathaur wrote: “This picture of young Hindu daughter sitting next to the dead body of her husband should give sleep less nights to Hindus…” (Archive)

Click to view slideshow.

These are just a few examples. For many, on social media, the Pahalgam attack and Vinay Narwal’s killing were “proof” that terrorism and Islam were synonymous; Himanshi’s image was used to reinforce that. Emotions amid such a distressful event were running high, and loss was being weaponised. As a result, there was a massive surge in Islamophobic rhetoric, especially on social media. Her tragedy became the symbol for public outrage and revenge.

As soon as Himanshi, as a survivor, did not ride this bandwagon, she was othered, turned into an object of loathing; her loss trivialised.

However, after the launch of ‘Operation Sindoor’ on May 7, Himanshi’s images resurfaced online. Many used her photos to say that the strikes were named after wives like her. Notably, some of those sharing these posts had been among the ones trolling her just days earlier. (Archives 1, 2)

Sympathise First, Despise Later

Apart from Himanshi Narwal, Arathy R Menon, daughter of N Ramachandran — another victim of the terrorist attack — also faced abuse from social media users who flaunt the Indian flag or Hindutva ideology in their bios.

While recounting the horrors of the fateful day when she saw her father die in front of her eyes, Arathy added that in that moment of panic and helplessness, she found support from two Kashmiri men. She said, “My driver, Musafir and another man, Sameer — they became my brothers. They stood by me through everything, took me to the mortuary, helped with the formalities… I waited there till 3 am. They took care of me like a sister… I have two brothers in Kashmir now. May Allah protect you both.”

Like Himanshi, she also faced much backlash for this statement. Some social media users went as far as saying it was better to be childless than to have a daughter like her.

Below are a few more instances of hateful posts and comments directed against Himanshi and Arathy.

Click to view slideshow.

In another case of the pro-Right hate machinery at work, on May 11, India’s foreign secretary, Vikram Misri, had to make his X account private because social media trolls, unhappy with his announcement of a ceasefire between India and Pakistan, began targeting his daughter. Old photos and posts of hers were circulated with distasteful remarks, and she was doxxed, with her contact number leaked online.

Apart from these instances, history has enough examples of how women often become easy targets of public anger, more so when they don’t subscribe to the populist ideologies of the time.

In an interview with Haryana Tak on May 7, when asked about the trolling she faced online, Himanshi simply said, “See, I cannot change anyone’s mentality. I know what my intention was, and it was simply to stress that no innocent person should be wronged. There should not be any hatred…”

The flipping of a social media narrative, some might argue, may not be one to focus on, considering these are not necessarily reflective of ground realities. However, targeting those who are grieving, especially women, for upholding humanity over hate seems to indicate that we, as a country, might be headed for dark times.

The post From tragedy to trolling: Himanshi Narwal, widow of naval officer killed in Pahalgam, faces social media trial appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Oishani Bhattacharya.

Sikhs sloganeering against Indian army? No; viral video is unrelated to India-Pakistan conflict

Shinjinee Majumder — Mon, 12 May 2025 06:20:39 +0000

A video of a group of people chanting slogans, allegedly against the Indian army, is viral. In the video, the people, some of whom wear turbans and appear to be Sikhs, can be heard using the word ‘Murdabad’ while sloganeering.

https://video.twimg.com/ext_tw_video/1921023292497973250/pu/vid/avc1/720x912/4MBoT2es3h3t0Mo7.mp4

The clip has emerged amid the ongoing conflict between India and Pakistan. Scores of unverified visuals such as this one have been doing the rounds and are being linked to the geo-political crisis, which was triggered by a terrorist attack that killed 26 civilians in Pahalgam, Kashmir, on April 22. A fortnight after the incident, Indian defence forces launched military strikes targeting terrorist bases in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. Shortly after, Pakistan retaliated with heavy mortar shelling in forward villages along the Line of Control (LoC) in the Poonch and Rajouri areas of Jammu and Kashmir. The LoC is an over 700-km de facto military border separating the two countries. In India, at least 16 people were killed in firing by the neighbouring country.

The video of ‘Sikhs chanting slogans against the Indian army’ started doing the rounds on May 10. X user @zarrar_11PK shared the video. Since the account has been withheld in India, we have added a screenshot below. At the time of writing this, the post had garnered over 330,000 views. (Archive)

Another verified user, @VoPublic, also shared the video with the claim that Sikhs had turned against the army. (Archive)

The video was shared by several others on X with similar claims. (Archives- 1, 2, 3, 4, 5)

Click to view slideshow.

The video was viral on Facebook as well.

Fact Check

A reverse image search of key frames from the video led us to the same video uploaded by Instagram user @billa_hair_studio on April 26, 2025. The account’s bio says it is based in Akhara village in Jagraon, Ludhiana, Punjab. In the video, some demonstrators can be heard saying using the word “Murdabad”. While there was no caption with the video, the comments on the post hinted at a protest against a gas factory.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by @billa_hair_studio

In another video, uploaded by the same account on the same day, the demonstrators could be seen clashing with the police.

Taking cue from these, we searched with relevant keywords and found a video by local news outlet, PTC News, from April 26 in which the same demonstrations could be seen. We were able to ascertain that the PTC News clips were of the same demonstration as the ones uploaded by the Instagram user, which is now viral.

In the video, it was clear that the demonstrators were chanting ‘Punjab Sarkar Murdabad‘ and ‘Bhagwant Mann Murdabad‘ (Down with the Punjab government, Bhagwant Mann). Mann is the current chief minister of Punjab.

PTC News’ report said that the villagers of Akhara, Jagraon, were protesting against the construction of a biogas plant in the area and were hit by the police with sticks. We also found reports by Hindustan Times and The Tribune on this. According to the HT report, the police had fired tear gas shells and used water cannons to disperse the protesters, including women and children. Several demonstrators had been detained. “The people of the village are together and the factory will not be allowed to be built under any circumstances. “Today, the police have uprooted the tents erected by the villagers… The protest has been going on for the last one year…There is a lot of anger among the people against the Punjab government,” protesting villagers told The Tribune.

As it stands, a clip from a protest against a biogas plant in Punjab’s Jagraon from April 26 was circulated by social media users with false claims that it showed Sikhs raising slogans against the Indian army. They were sloganeering against the Punjab government and the state chief minister Bhagwant Mann. The clip has no connection to the ongoing India-Pakistan conflict.

The post Sikhs sloganeering against Indian army? No; viral video is unrelated to India-Pakistan conflict appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Shinjinee Majumder.

More false claims about ‘Karachi port destroyed’: Photo of Israeli airstrike on Rafah viral

Ankita Mahalanobish — Sat, 10 May 2025 15:23:35 +0000

Even as tensions escalate between India and Pakistan following military strikes between the two countries, unverified images and videos claiming to be related to the conflict have flooded social media. An image of an explosion illuminating the night sky and smoke billowing out is being shared with claims that it depicts the condition of Karachi port after Indian aircraft carrier warship INS Vikrant attacked it.

A fortnight after a terrorist attack in Pahalgam had killed 26 people, Indian armed forces in the early hours of May 7 launched Operation Sindoor, hitting nine sites 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. Late on May 7, reports came in of heavy mortar shelling by Pakistan on forward villages along the Line of Control in Poonch and Rajouri areas of Jammu and Kashmir killing at least 16 civilians. They also attempted to engage a number of military targets in northern and western India including in Awantipura, Srinagar, Jammu, Pathankot and Amritsar, among other places, using drones and missiles. These were neutralized by India’s integrated counter UAS grid and air defence systems. Subsequently, Indian armed forces targeted air defence radars and systems at a number of locations in Pakistan in a proportionate response, and neutralized the air defence system in Lahore.

An X handle, Gujrat Titans (@Gujrat_titans_), shared the image on May 8 claiming it was a photo of Karachi port. (Archive)

The post has garnered over 25 Lakh views.

Atul Kushwaha (@RealAtulsay) shared the purported image along with 2 other images and a video clip depicting an open area with several parked cars, engulfed in flames and chaos, possibly caused by explosions. In the caption he claimed that INS Vikrant had attacked and burnt down Karachi port. He alleged that Bahawalpur division headquarters, too, had been destroyed along with Karachi post and Rawalpindi headquarters are on target. (archive)

BREAKING NEWS: INS Vikrant has attacked & burnt down Karachi Port #IndianNavy

Karachi port blown
Bahawalpur div HQ gone
Rawalpindi HQs on target

Remember In 1971, the port was burning for entire week!#IndiaPakistanWar #INSVikrant #IndianArmy #IndianNavyAction… pic.twitter.com/nP056ZDy06

— Atul Kushwaha (@RealAtulsay) May 9, 2025

The post has approximately 5 Lakh views.

Alt News has already fact-checked the video clip shared by the user and proved that it has no links with the India-Pakistan conflict. It is a three-month old video from Philadelphia. Read the Alt News fact-check report on the same.

A similar post was shared by another X user, Vaishnavi (@Vaishu_z). The tweet was later deleted but not before it had reached around 6 Lakh views. Below is a screenshot of the post:

An Instagram account, Piccha_lyt, shared a collage featuring the image along with an image of INS Vikrant claiming that it depicts the destruction of the Karachi port. (archive)

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Pichha_lyt Memes & Trolls (@pichha_lyt_)

Fact Check

Conducting a reverse image search on the image, we found a news report from February 24, 2020, by BBC, featuring the exact same image. According to the report, the alleged image depicts an air strike launched by Israel in Gaza and Syria in response to rocket fire.

The Guardian wrote that the image showed an Israel airstrike on Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip early on Sunday, February 23, 2020.

The readers should note there is no official confirmation from the Indian government about any strike involving INS Vikrant on Karachi port as of now.

To sum up, the image of the nighttime explosion is from the year 2020 and it depicts Israel’s airstrike on Gaza. Claims that it depicts the port city of Karachi are absolutely false.

The post More false claims about ‘Karachi port destroyed’: Photo of Israeli airstrike on Rafah viral appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Ankita Mahalanobish.

‘People from your faith kill others. Don’t come to me again,’ Kolkata doctor told pregnant Muslim woman

Shinjinee Majumder — Sat, 10 May 2025 15:21:08 +0000

Days after a Kolkata-based lawyer alleged in a Facebook post that a Hindu doctor had refused to treat a pregnant Muslim woman from her family, multiple media outlets came up with contradictory reports about the alleged incident.

Mehfuza Khatun shared the Facebook post on April 24, two days after the Pahalgam attack in which 26 people were killed. She alleged that gynaecologist Dr C K Sarkar had “refused” to treat her pregnant sister-in-law on account of the latter’s faith. A call recording was also released by the patient’s family, where one voice is heard confronting the other about some remarks made earlier.

This was a time when reports of retributive hate crimes against minorities started pouring in from various parts of the country in response to the Pahalgam massacre. According to survivors’ accounts, the terrorists had tried to single out non-Muslims from the tourists.

Alt News spoke with the patient and her husband and examined the phone from which calls were made to the doctor and her messages were received. Our investigation independently established that the doctor had indeed made Islamophobic comments and asked the patient to never go back to her since “people from her religion killed others.”

What Exactly Happened at Dr C K Sarkar’s Clinic on April 24

According to the aggrieved patient’s testimony given in the presence of her husband, she called up Dr Sarkar around 1:30 in the afternoon on April 24 and asked whether Dr Sarkar would be available at her home clinic in Maheshtala which is in the same apartment complex where the patient lived. Dr Sarkar agreed to see her between 3 and 4 pm. This was the fifth time she was visiting Dr Sarkar.

When the patient visited the clinic with her three-year-old daughter, and stated her full name, the doctor appeared offended. She then said, “I have decided not to see Mohammedan patients henceforth.”

When asked why, the doctor responded, “You’re killing people in Kashmir.” The patient replied, “What do I have to do with that?” The doctor then said, “People from your religion are killing people from my religion… how do I treat Mohammedan patients after that?”

The patient told us that she could only respond by saying, “The ones who are doing it are ignorant and uneducated.” The doctor allegedly then went on a communal rant in front of the three-year-old child, which lasted about 15 minutes. The patient could not recall everything that was said to her, as she “went blank”. Some of the remarks she remembered included, “You go to mosques and madrassas, and that is where terrorists are made”; and, “If you were on your honeymoon and your husband had been killed by people from my religion, then you would realise how painful it is.”

After her communal rant, the doctor clinically examined the patient and wrote out a prescription. The consultation fee was paid via UPI. As the patient was leaving the clinic, the doctor told her not to return, stating that she would no longer be seeing Muslim patients. However, she wrote ‘Review after 3 weeks’ in the prescription. Alt News has seen the prescription.

Once the patient left the clinic, she called up her husband immediately and recounted her ordeal. Some time later, at 4:26 pm, she gathered courage to call up Dr Sarkar again and confront her about the incident. This call had been recorded on the patient’s phone.

The Phone Call: “I won’t see any Mohammedan patients anymore… Don’t ever come to me again. You kill others.”

Here is a transcript of the conversation that took place:

Patient: *address* theke bolchi
I’m speaking from *address*.

Doctor: Hain bolo bolo
Yes, go ahead, speak.

Patient: Apni amake jei kotha gulo shonalen na ma’am, amar khub kharap legeche.
Ma’am, the things you said to me really hurt me.

Doctor: Keno? Ki kharap legeche?
Why? What hurt you?

Patient: Apni amake je bollen Mohammedan aar dekhbona.
You told me you won’t treat Mohammedans anymore.

Doctor: Dekhbona toh, ami ekhon theke promise korchi.
I won’t, I’m promising from now on.

Patient: Amar uchit chhilo apnake oi muhurte oshomman kore beriye chole asha.
I should have humiliated you and walked out at that very moment.

Doctor: (Unclear) Amar ki boye geche, ami aar dekhbona ekhon theke.
(Unclear) What do I have to lose? I won’t treat (Muslims) anymore from now on.

Patient: Na na, ami jabo o na apnar kache dekhate. But apnara skhikkhito… (unclear)
No, no, I won’t come to you for treatment either. But you are educated…

Overlapping voices…

Doctor: Tomra khun korbe… manush ke… (unclear) j dhormo bole khushir Eid.. Pabitra Eid.. (unclear)… manush ke khun kora ta ki pabitra Eid?
You people will kill… people… (unclear) the religion which celebrates Happy Eid, auspicious Eid… Killing people is auspicious Eid?

Patient: Accha ma’am, onekshomoy toh ache jara Hindu ra Muslim ke maarche… Amra ki kichu jani je ke maaarche, ke korche?
Ma’am, there are also times when Hindus kill Muslims… Do we even know who is killing whom?

(Doctor’s words are unclear for some time)

Doctor: Tomra shob jeneo chup kore thaako…(unclear)
You all stay silent even after knowing everything…(unclear)

Patient: Apni amake bokchen. Ami ki jani je ami ki korchi? Apni ekta shikkhito manush hoye erom byabohaar koren…
You’re scolding me.. You’re an educated person behaving in this way with me…

(Doctor’s words are unclear for some time)

Doctor: Tomader (unclear) shekhano hoy.
You people are taught (unclear).

Patient: Apni ekta shikkhito daktar hoye amar shonge… apni patient dekhben. Apni patient er shaathe orokom byabohaar korun.. koren tahole…
You, being an educated doctor, should be treating patients. If you treat patients like this then…

Doctor: Na ami dekhbo na, keno dekhbo, je dhormer lokera amar dhormo ke ebhabe maare?
No, why should I treat them? Why would I treat people of a religion who attack my religion like this?

Patient: Keu kauke marchena… (unclear)
No one is killing anyone… (unclear)

Patient: Ami apnake patient dekhate gechi, ami toh maarte jaini ghore.
I came to you as a patient, not to kill anyone in your house.

Doctor: Hain oitoh bari giyei tomar mathar modhhye shob dhukiye diyeche oigulo, jani toh.
Of course, those things have been stuffed into your head at home, I know that.

Patient: Barite keu dhokayeni madam… apni amake bollen… khub kharap lagchilo.
No one has brainwashed me at home, madam… Whatever you said to me… I felt very bad.

Doctor: Kharap lagar kichu nei, tumi jeta kharap (unclear) jara terrorist taader ke mere dite hobe.
There’s nothing to feel bad about. What is wrong… (unclear)… the terrorists must be killed.

Patient: Apnake osomman korbona bole apnake dekhiye ami elam. Apni khub kharap byabohaar korechen amar shaathe.
I did not want to humiliate you, hence I sat through the consultation. You misbehaved with me.

Doctor: Na ekdom kharap korini. Ami aar ekdom e dekhbona, ami aar kono Mohammedan patient dekhbona.
No, I didn’t behave badly at all. I just won’t treat… I won’t treat any Mohammedan patients anymore.

Patient: Apni dekhben na, apni bhaar mein jaan apni dekhben ki dekhben na, apnar byapar.
Whether you treat or not, you go to hell.. whether you treat or not, that’s your business.

Doctor: Asho keno amar kache? Lojja korena ashte?
Then why do you come to me? Don’t you feel ashamed to come here?

Patient: Ami jaani apni ekta boro terrorist?
I know you’re a big terrorist, right?

Doctor: Aar konodin ashbena amar kache. Tumi khun koro manush.
Don’t ever come to me again. You kill others.

Patient: Apnio khun kora manush.
You also kill people.

It is clear from the above conversation that when Dr Sarkar was confronted about her remarks, she remained defiant and repeated that she would not be treating Muslim patients in future.

After the Facebook post describing the patient’s ordeal had gone viral, Dr Sarkar sent an apology text to the patient. In her messages sent through WhatsApp, she said she was sorry if she had ‘disheartened’ the patient. She says that she was sick “due to loss of my close family members relatives.” (sic) “Don’t take it otherwise and don’t harrass me unnecessarily”. Dr Sarkar, in a third message, said that a few patients had been cruel towards her in the last few days. She was upset and thinking of closing her practice in the area, and so she said that. “U r my good patient I will always take care of u if u feel so ,” (sic) she wrote. Alt News is in possession of a screenshot and a screen recording of the WhatsApp chat, but we are not making it public.

“If she is trying to justify why she said something, she must have said something reprehensible”, the patient’s husband observed, while showing us the WhatsApp messages.

After the patient’s ordeal was reported by some media outlets, Dr Sarkar went on to issue a video statement saying, “I am Dr C K Sarkar. I have been a medical practitioner for the last 30 years in Behala, South 24 Parganas. I believe in medical ethics. All patients are equal to me, I prioritize all my patients equally. I see no value in caste, religion and race. I try to treat my patients properly and ethically. If some people had a problem with me… please do not listen to the rumours. I know there have been attempts to sabotage my career on social media and in news reports. These kinds of rumours are spread during a time of crisis. I hope you will not fall for it.” The statement was uploaded on Facebook by an anesthesiologist named Promod Ranjan Roy.

Posted by Promod Ranjan Roy on Tuesday 29 April 2025

The ‘Domestic Help’ Theory

When The Quint contacted Dr. Sarkar, she denied the allegations and stated that she had many Muslim patients and thus had no reason to discriminate. “I was talking to my maid about what had happened in Pahalgam when she (the patient) visited me. I never made such communal remarks, why would I?” She also stated that she had sent an apology to the patient. When asked about the call recording, Dr Sarkar alleged that the call recording had been tampered with.

She made the same allegation in a chat with a journalist named Anindya Chowdhury. “I never said that I would not see Mohammedan (Muslim) patients. She wrongly interpreted my words,” she said in a telephonic interview. Throughout the interview, Dr Sarkar reiterated that the phone call recording had been tampered with.

Posted by Anindya Chowdhury on Saturday 26 April 2025

The West Bengal Doctors’ Forum (WBDF) said in a statement, “It appears that some discussions unrelated to the patient, involving members of the doctor’s household, may have inadvertently been overheard. If any such conversation was not to the patient’s liking, it is beyond the professional purview of the doctor to address private matters of household conversations.”

Responding to these claims, the patient told Alt News that at no point did the doctor address her house-help while making those remarks. The house-help’s working hours coincided with the patient’s appointment, and she was present around the house. She had left a few minutes before the patient’s departure. The patient also categorically stated that when Dr. Sarkar asked her not to go back to her ever again, the domestic help had left by then.

WBDF also asked for “an independent investigation involving the doctor and the aggrieved person to unearth the truth in a neutral way.”

Propaganda Outlets Question Veracity of Call Recording

Taking a dig at The Quint for reporting on the incident, propaganda website OpIndia published a ‘fact-check’ of the incident. OpIndia called the patient’s ordeal a “fake story” and proceeded to provide what they called ‘evidences’ to invalidate it. While refuting the patient’s allegations, OpIndia has claimed that the phone call recording is ‘unverified’. The outlet emphasized the need for a forensic investigation of the purported audio clip.

OpIndia posted a thread of their ‘fact-check’. Here are the archive links of each tweet of the thread: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21

#Exclusive

Do you remember the story of a Kolkata-based doctor who ‘denied’ treatment to a Muslim patient over the Pahalgam terror attack?

Turns out it was fake news.

It was peddled by The Quint, Maktoob Media & others to create the narrative of ‘Muslim victimhood’

(1/n) pic.twitter.com/tWIxxbo1su

— OpIndia.com (@OpIndia_com) April 30, 2025

Only Fact, run by Vijay Patel who identifies himself as an investigative reporter, published a fact-check as well. Quoting Dr Sarkar, they also claimed that the recording was fake and edited. Here is an archive of the ‘fact-check’.

No, Dr. Champakali Sarkar Did Not Refuse Treatment to a Muslim Patient After Pahalgam Attackhttps://t.co/0ag5l5yBDJ

— Only Fact (@OnlyFactIndia) April 30, 2025

When this correspondent visited the patient’s house on May 1, Alt News received access to the phone from which the call to Dr Sarkar was made. We examined it by going to the Phone app (inbuilt app), from which the call was made, and played the recording. The call was made at 4:26 pm on April 24.

A screen-recording of the whole process can be seen below. The dialed number (that of the doctor) has been purposely hidden. Alt News tried to reach out to Dr Sarkar on the same number. The person who answered the call identified herself as Dr Sarkar, but refused to comment.

From the video of the call recording and the metadata of the video, we can conclusively say that the call recording released by the victim’s family has not been tampered with. Consequently, it can also be ascertained that Dr Sarkar admitted to making communal remarks while defending herself, where she generalized Muslims as people who kill others.

“I don’t have a problem with the doctor refusing to treat my wife in future. Though it is perhaps unethical, it is her call. What I strongly object to is the communal discrimination. What she told my wife is an expression of a mindset that has the potential to disrupt communal harmony in a society. That is what bothers me so much,” the husband of the patient, who is an optometrist by profession, said.

The post ‘People from your faith kill others. Don’t come to me again,’ Kolkata doctor told pregnant Muslim woman appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Shinjinee Majumder.

More unrelated clips go viral as ‘state of Karachi’ after Operation Sindoor

Shinjinee Majumder — Sat, 10 May 2025 14:34:37 +0000

Even as as tensions escalate between India and Pakistan following military strikes between the two countries, unverified images and videos claiming to be related to the conflict have flooded social media. One such video of a purported blast is being shared where commentary in the background claims that the visuals were from a bomb blast in the port city of Karachi, the capital city of the province of Sindh in Pakistan.

A fortnight after a terrorist attack in Pahalgam had killed 26 people, Indian Armed Forces in the early hours of May 7 launched Operation Sindoor, hitting nine sites 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. Late on May 7, reports came in of heavy mortar shelling by Pakistan on forward villages along the Line of Control in Poonch and Rajouri areas of Jammu and Kashmir killing at least 16 civilians. They also attempted to engage a number of military targets in northern and western India including in Awantipura, Srinagar, Jammu, Pathankot and Amritsar, among other places, using drones and missiles. These were neutralised by India’s integrated counter UAS grid and air defence systems. Subsequently, Indian armed forces targeted air defence radars and systems at a number of locations in Pakistan in a proportionate response, and neutralized the air defence system in Lahore.

Verified X handle @Mahaveer_VJ tweeted the video of the blast and sarcastically wrote, ‘Karachi has become a biscuit’. The tweet garnered close to 550,000 views. (Archive)

Karachi ka biscuit ban gaya pic.twitter.com/uKV5Zaz9cU

— महावीर जैन, ಮಹಾವೀರ ಜೈನ, Mahaveer Jain (@Mahaveer_VJ) May 8, 2025

Several X accounts consequently used the ‘copypasta’ technique, wherein they copied the same caption and amplified the video. (Archives- 1, 2, 3, 4, 5)

Click to view slideshow.

The video is also viral on Facebook.

Click to view slideshow.

Fact Check

The video in question has four different clips. Below are four discernible screenshots from each clip.

Upon a reverse image search of the first image, we found that the clip had been posted on Facebook by a Pakistani user on March 28. The caption, written in Urdu, translates to ‘A fire broke out in the market’. We found the same video on YouTube, in a March 27 video, with the title ‘A fire broke out in Sadiqabad Landa’ written in Urdu.

Click to view slideshow.

According to a news report on the Aaj TV website, the fire had erupted in Sadiqabad Landa bazaar and spread to an empty railway coach. Sadiqabad is the Capital of Sadiqabad Tehsil in Rahim Yar Khan District in Punjab province of Pakistan.

The second image is from a clip that shows a massive explosion happening in a city as the camera pans sideways, towards what is seemingly a religious structure. We ran the keyframes through Google reverse image search and were not able to ascertain the origin of the video. Even when we ran the keyframe featuring the monument, we got no results, which was unusual, given that it appeared to be a major landmark. All of this suggests the clip may be AI-generated.

We observed a few anomalies when we observed closely. The monument’s ground floor extends to the right, which has several irregularly shaped arches (circled in red). Moreover, the arches seen in the main building of the monument are also asymmetrical. Such anomalies are often a regular feature of AI-generated images.

Click to view slideshow.

Alt News spoke with Areeba Fatima, investigative reporter and senior fact checker at Pakistan-based fact-checking organisation Soch Videos. She told us, “There is no such mosque in Karachi, this clip looks AI-generated.”

The third image is also from March. TikTok user aataaullahbairnd41 had uploaded the same video on March 19 with crying emojis. The user uploaded a similar video, from the same incident, on his TikTok account on the same day.

Click to view slideshow.

The fourth image is not from Pakistan. The clip is from a massive fire that broke out at the Blue Light Market in Adum, Kumasi, Ghana, on March 21, 2025, causing significant damage and destruction. The fire originated in a storey building adjacent to Hello FM and quickly spread, impacting multiple shops within the market. Firefighters battled the blaze for over 15 hours, but hundreds of shops were ultimately destroyed.

Below is a comparison between the viral clip and a video from the aftermath of the incident on March 22.

Hence, a compilation of unrelated clips is viral on social media. Social media users falsely claim that it is the state of Karachi after India launched Operation Sindoor.

The post More unrelated clips go viral as ‘state of Karachi’ after Operation Sindoor appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Shinjinee Majumder.

Zee, TV9, Lokmat, Amar Ujala, others use naval drill image from 2023 to show INS Vikrant struck Karachi port

Oishani Bhattacharya — Sat, 10 May 2025 12:41:15 +0000

An image of a naval vessel with a flame in the background is being widely used by media outlets to suggest that the Indian Navy’s INS Vikrant struck the Karachi port in Pakistan as the conflict between the two countries intensifies.

The unverified image is among a sea of such visuals that have emerged and are viral on social media in the aftermath of escalating tensions between India and Pakistan after India launched military strikes at nine terrorist sites in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir on May 7. Since then, there has been retaliation and shelling; both sides have upped the ante.

On May 8, Zee News Kannada used the viral image in a report titled, “IND-PAK War updates: India’s terrifying weapon used on Pakistan..! The Pakistanis ran, wondering, ‘Will I survive or die?’”. (Archive)

Several other media outlets—including TV9, Amar Ujala, Lokmat Times, Hindustan, Jagbani or Punjab Kesari’s Punjabi counterpart, Pratidin, Ei Samay, Haribhoomi, and Bhaskara News—also published reports with this image. Note that Pratidin’s report seems to have been taken down, but the image and headline are still visible online. All outlets used the image with similar claims that the Karachi port was destroyed as the Indian Navy has entered the battle. We have added the screenshots below.

Click to view slideshow.

On social media, several users shared the image claiming the navy was in action and that the Karachi port has been destroyed.

X user India Forums (@indiaforums) posted the viral image on May 8 and wrote, “Indian Navy in action Karachi Port destroyed by INS Vikrant ” (Archive)

Indian Navy in action Karachi Port destroyed by INS Vikrant .#IF #IndiaPakistanWar #KarachiPort #INSVikrant pic.twitter.com/u1pHl8MmtX

— India Forums (@indiaforums) May 8, 2025

Below are more posts from X.

Click to view slideshow.

Fact Check

To check the authenticity of the claims, we ran a reverse image search and came across a report by the news agency Asian News International (ANI) from October 15, 2023. The report titled “Western Naval Command chief reviews operational readiness of Western Fleet”. The report carried a gallery of images and the now-viral image was featured in this report.

Below the image, the report mentions that Vice Admiral Dinesh K Tripathi, Flag Officer, Commanding-in-Chief, Western Naval Command, “witnessed anti-submarine, anti-aircraft, and surface drills, and live firings by multiple platforms in a realistic multi-threat scenario, including air operations from INS Vikramaditya“. Note that the Western Fleet is based in Mumbai.

ANI also shared the image on its X account on October 15, 2023.

Western Naval Commander Vice Admiral Dinesh K Tripathi embarked on the western fleet warships to review operational and combat readiness. he witnessed anti-submarine, anti-aircraft, and surface drills, and live firings by multiple platforms in a realistic multi-threat scenario,… pic.twitter.com/j0kePbB29T

— ANI (@ANI) October 15, 2023

The fact that the image appears in news reports from 2023 makes it amply clear that it is unrelated to the current conflict. The visual is from a military drill and inspection conducted by Western Naval Command Chief Vice Admiral Dinesh K Tripathi and does not depict an attack on the Karachi port. Also, it shows the naval vessel INS Vikramaditya and not INS Vikrant. Media outlets misreported and widely circulated the image with suggestive headlines, contributing to misinformation during a sensitive period.

The post Zee, TV9, Lokmat, Amar Ujala, others use naval drill image from 2023 to show INS Vikrant struck Karachi port appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Oishani Bhattacharya.

Old video of fire near Shah Faisal mosque shared as Indian drone strike in Islamabad amid escalating tensions

Kinjal — Sat, 10 May 2025 08:22:59 +0000

Even as as tensions escalate between India and Pakistan following military strikes between the two countries, unverified images and videos claiming to be related to the conflict have flooded social media. A picture and a video are being shared with the claim that Indian suicide drones struck an area near Pakistan’s Faisal Mosque in Islamabad.

A fortnight after a terrorist attack in Pahalgam had killed 26 people, Indian armed forces in the early hours of May 7 launched Operation Sindoor, hitting nine sites 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. Late on May 7, reports came in of heavy mortar shelling by Pakistan on forward villages along the Line of Control in Poonch and Rajouri areas of Jammu and Kashmir killing at least 16 civilians. They also attempted to engage a number of military targets in northern and western India including in Awantipura, Srinagar, Jammu, Pathankot and Amritsar, among other places, using drones and missiles. These were neutralized by India’s integrated counter UAS grid and air defence systems. Subsequently, Indian armed forces targeted air defence radars and systems at a number of locations in Pakistan in a proportionate response, and neutralized the air defence system in Lahore.

The viral video in question seems to be recorded from a vehicle and shows a roadside building on fire. The picture also shows a similar scene. A verified account named Arman Khan tweeted this picture and claimed it showed a drone attack on Faisal Mosque in Islamabad. (Archived link)

Many users posted this picture with the same claim. (Link 1, Link 2, Link 3, Link 4)

Click to view slideshow.

X account WarUpdates also posted the viral picture and video, calling it unconfirmed footage. (Archived link)

Unconfirmed Report: Local sources claim that an Indian suicide drone struck an area near Faisal Mosque in Islamabad.#Turkey #BoycottTurkeyAzerbaijan #OperationSindoor2 #DroneAttack #Airdefence https://t.co/O3VWwJJqyw pic.twitter.com/nohAB1bU5R

— WarUpdate (@WarUpdaaate) May 8, 2025

X user Mohammad Sharifi posted a video of the same incident claiming it to be an Indian drone attack on a mosque in Islamabad. ( Archive link )

د پاکستن د اسلام اباد په ښار کي فیصل جومات ته نږدې د بې پیلوټه الوتکي برید: pic.twitter.com/WJDXTiKZp2

— Mohammad Sharifi (@Mohamma61363694) May 8, 2025

The viral clip has also been uploaded on YouTube with similar claims.

Fact Check

Alt News started investigating both the viral clip and the image. A simple keyword search based on the claim led us to a report by a Pakistani media outlet dated May 28, 2024 which carried the same photo. According to the report, a fire broke out near the Shah Faisal Mosque in Islamabad and spread to surrounding areas. In other words, the viral image and video have nothing to do with the ongoing India-Pakistan conflict.

The article contains other visuals of the incident which match the viral video and image.

Pakistani newspaper Pakistan Observer also published a report on this matter and gave the same information.

To sum up, the video and image shared with the claim that the fire at Faisal Mosque in Islamabad was caused by an Indian drone attack are from a fire last year in which the mosque in Islamabad and its surroundings were gutted.

The post Old video of fire near Shah Faisal mosque shared as Indian drone strike in Islamabad amid escalating tensions appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Kinjal.

Same video shared as Pak attack in Amritsar and Indian strike in Sialkot. In reality, it shows neither

Abhishek Kumar — Sat, 10 May 2025 08:09:38 +0000

Even as as tensions escalate between India and Pakistan following military strikes between the two countries, unverified images and videos claiming to be related to the conflict have flooded social media. One such video is being shared by Pakistani social media handles with the claim that Pakistan had struck an Indian military base in Amritsar, Punjab.

A fortnight after a terrorist attack in Pahalgam had killed 26 people, Indian armed forces in the early hours of May 7 launched Operation Sindoor, hitting nine sites 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. Late on May 7, reports came in of heavy mortar shelling by Pakistan on forward villages along the Line of Control in Poonch and Rajouri areas of Jammu and Kashmir killing at least 16 civilians. They also attempted to engage a number of military targets in northern and western India including in Awantipura, Srinagar, Jammu, Pathankot and Amritsar, among other places, using drones and missiles. These were neutralized by India’s integrated counter UAS grid and air defence systems. Subsequently, Indian armed forces targeted air defence radars and systems at a number of locations in Pakistan in a proportionate response, and neutralized the air defence system in Lahore.

Against this backdrop, a user named Hanuman tweeted the video and wrote that Pakistan attacked the military base in Amritsar in which numerous casualties were reported with several seriously injured. (Archived link)

Pakistan strikes military base in Amritsar.
Numerous casualties reported, with several critically injured.#IndiaPakistanWar #OperationSindoor #Pakistani pic.twitter.com/bQW0WgQRYH

— HANUMAN (@Hanuman231) May 7, 2025

A Pakistani user shared this video and called it an attack by Pakistan on India’s Amritsar military base. (Archived link)

A user named Voice of India also made the same claim while tweeting the video. (Archived link)

Interestingly, many users including BJP leader Shaurya Mishra and The Jaipur Dialogues shared the same clip describing it as visuals of an Indian attack in Sialkot, Pakistan.

Click to view slideshow.

Fact Check

Alt News performed a reverse image search of a few frames from the viral video, which led us to a video uploaded by a Chilean media outlet on February 4, 2024. The accompanying caption states that this video depicts a fire in Chile’s Valparaiso region. This makes it clear that this video is at least a year old and has no connection with the recent tensions between India and Pakistan.

INCENDIO REGIÓN DE VALPARAÍSO
Achupallas, Viñs del Mar
@accionciudadanachile https://t.co/bwYi8DgRuJ #instagood #IncendiosForestales #IncendiosIntencionales pic.twitter.com/xBHpYrwUqG

— Acción Ciudadana Chile (@chile_accion) February 4, 2024

An account named @WallStreetApes tweeted this video on March 1, 2024, stating that this was a scene of a fire in Texas.

NEW Resident Video Of The Texas Fires Posted

Texas Resident Said “Evacuating terrible to see how the houses of neighbors and friends burn down more painful is to see the scorched animals running away. May god help us.”

American Is Crying While Filming This Texas Fire Footage pic.twitter.com/p9G2dT2PmM

— Wall Street Apes (@WallStreetApes) March 1, 2024

Iran’s official news agency IRNA used this video in an article on April 14, 2024, claiming that this video showed Iranian missiles attacking the Negev sector of southern Israel.

Alt News cannot confirm the origin of this video from any of the three incidents. However, in the course of our investigation, we found enough evidence to conclude that the viral footage has been present online for at least a year and hence has no connection to the recent tensions between India and Pakistan.

The post Same video shared as Pak attack in Amritsar and Indian strike in Sialkot. In reality, it shows neither appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Abhishek Kumar.

His name was Qari Mohammad Iqbal. He was not a terrorist.

Shinjinee Majumder — Fri, 09 May 2025 15:52:32 +0000

On the morning of May 7, the death of Qari Mohammad Iqbal became the focal point of news segments across media channels. He was labelled a “most-wanted terrorist” and a “top Lashkar-e-Taiba commander”. His death seemed to have marked the success of Operation Sindoor, a series of military strikes launched by the Indian armed forces to target nine sites that were a breeding ground for terrorism in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK). The Indian action follows the killing of 26 civilians in Pahalgam, Kashmir, on April 22, by terrorists with alleged links to Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT)

The Indian strikes came on the intervening night of May 6 and 7. Shortly after this, there were reports of heavy mortar shelling by Pakistan on forward villages along the Line of Control (LoC) in the Poonch and Rajouri areas of Jammu and Kashmir. The LoC is an over 700-km de facto military border separating the two countries. The following day, May 8, the defence ministry confirmed that Pakistan tried to target multiple military installations in Western India and that 16 people were killed due to firing by the neighbouring country.

Qari Mohammad Iqbal was among those killed on May 7. Conferred with the title Qari, someone who reads and recites the Quran, he was dubbed a terrorist by mainstream media outlets. They said he was hiding in Kotli, Pakistan, and was killed by India as they targeted terror bases.

On May 7, news channel Republic aired a blurred image of Mohammad Iqbal’s corpse. The channel said he was a “top Lashkar-e-Taiba commander” involved in major terrorist attacks, including Pulwama.

ABP’s May 7 report on his killing had the headline: “मिट्टी में मिल गया मोस्ट वांटेंड आतंकी कारी मोहम्मद इकबाल, घाटी में ढूंढ़ रही थी एजेंसियां; भारत के एयरस्ट्राइक में हुआ ढेर”. This translates to “Most-wanted terrorist Qari Mohammad Iqbal reduced to dust. Agencies were searching for him in the valley; he was killed in India’s airstrike”. (Archive)

His death was also the key focus of a segment hosted by senior CNN-News18 journalist Rahul Shivshankar. “Lashkar Terrorist Qari Muhammad Iqbal, A Religious Preacher, Killed In Kotli By Indian Strikes,” the channel’s YouTube video said.

Zee News, too, aired a blurred image of his corpse with the ticker, “Terrorist Qari Mohammad Iqbal killed”.

News18 India’s reportage was also similar. The channel said that Mohammed Iqbal was among the Lashkar terrorists India had been trying to track for a long time.

https://video.twimg.com/amplify_video/1920430419540869120/vid/avc1/358x632/xx4rnZOanIgOWELn.mp4

Regional media outlets ABP Majha (Marathi) and News18 MP-Chhattisgarh also aired the same news: that terrorist Qari Mohammad Iqbal, who was in Kotli, was killed during the strikes by the Indian armed forces.

Click to view slideshow.

Qari Mohammed Iqbal Was an Indian, a Kashmiri, Not a Terrorist

Alt News found the photo of Qari Mohammed Iqbal, aired by many news outlets, on a Facebook post on May 7. The condolence post, by one Sayeed Ahmed Habib, read: “Our dear Maulana Qari Mohammad Iqbal Sahib, a teacher at Jamia Zia-ul-Uloom, Poonch, fell victim to the recent border tensions. He was in his room when death came to him…”

وفا دار تھا
وفا شعار تھا !!!
یکا یک بجلی کیا گری کہ اک دنیا اجڑ سی گئی ۔۔۔۔۔
ہمارے عزیز مولانا قاری محمد اقبال۔صاحب…

Posted by Sayeed Ahmed Habib on Wednesday 7 May 2025

Habib’s bio identifies him as the deputy administrator of Jamia Zia-ul-Uloom High School in Poonch, which means the two were colleagues. Habib’s post was also shared by the official Facebook page of Jamia Zia-ul-Uloom High School where Qari Mohammad Iqbal worked as a teacher. Alt News reached out to the school and they confirmed that Mohammad Iqbal taught there for 20 years.

In a video statement, also shared by the school’s Facebook page, Habib said it was unfortunate how media channels had spread misinformation on the martyred teacher, Mohammed Iqbal. He warned the channels to apologise for their coverage or face legal action.

Poonch was one of the many districts along the Line of Control (LoC) that witnessed cross-border artillery and mortar shelling by the Pakistan armed forces, resulting in casualties, especially in Poonch. Qari Mohammad Iqbal was among those who lost their lives in this crossfire. This was confirmed by the District Police Poonch. “The deceased, Maulana Mohd Iqbal, was a respected religious figure in the local community and had no affiliation with any terror outfit,” the police statement said.

PRESS RELEASE

Date: 08-05-2025

Subject: Clarification Regarding the Death of Maulana Mohd Iqbal in Poonch

Poonch, May…

Posted by District Police Poonch on Thursday 8 May 2025

Alt News also reached out to the family of the deceased Qari Mohammed Iqbal. His brother-in-law, Ishaq Khayan, told Alt News that their family was extremely hurt by the way media outlets labelled the late Mohammed Iqbal a terrorist. “We are Indians, we have immense love for the nation and we stand by the country and the armed forces. But my brother-in-law was killed in firing; he was martyred. In such circumstances, if one is labelled a terrorist, of course it is hurtful. It was traumatising.”

In a video, Qari Mohammad Farookh, the victim’s younger brother, stood alongside his family and condemned the misinformation spread about Qari Mohammad Iqbal. “We were already wounded, and now this tragedy has struck us. Godi media is spreading the falsehood that he was a Pakistani terrorist. We strongly condemn this and appeal to the District Collector (DC saab) to take appropriate action,” he said.

Qari Iqbal Mohammad’s family demands action against ‘Godi media’ for falsely labelling him a Pakistani terrorist.

They claimed that he was killed in Indian airstrikes in Pakistan.

Fact: He was killed in Pakistani shelling in Poonch. pic.twitter.com/cXpD2RYXaQ

— Alishan Jafri (@alishan_jafri) May 8, 2025

To reiterate, Qari Mohammad Iqbal was not a Pakistani terrorist. He was a teacher and a religious figure in the Poonch district in Kashmir. In a crucial moment of geo-political conflict, where news outlets should have played a key role as the source of factual and reliable information, they ended up fabricating a lie and spreading falsehoods. As a result, an ordinary man, most importantly, an Indian citizen, was demonised and linked to a terror outfit from Pakistan.

(With inputs from Diti Pujara)

The post His name was Qari Mohammad Iqbal. He was not a terrorist. appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Shinjinee Majumder.

Viral video of injured Pakistan pilot has nothing to do with current India-Pak conflict, Operation Sindoor

Oishani Bhattacharya — Fri, 09 May 2025 09:56:18 +0000

As tensions between India and Pakistan escalate, unverified visuals of military action by forces of both countries are being widely circulated on social media. One such clip shows an injured man in military uniform bearing the Pakistan flag lying on the ground. In some versions of this clip, wreckage of an aircraft in flames is also shown before visuals of the pilot. These are being shared with claims that a Pakistan Air Force pilot was injured after the aircraft he was flying was shot down by Pakistan amid India’s Operation Sindoor. Some social media users claimed that India shot down the Pakistani fighter jet JF-17 that the pilot was controlling.

https://video.twimg.com/amplify_video/1920027644164505604/vid/avc1/360x640/Vyj7Dy5nijGavqcn.mp4

The video has emerged amid the military strikes launched by India on May 7. Named Operation Sindoor, as a response to the terror attack in Kashmir’s Pahalgam on April 22 in which 26 civilians were killed, the Union ministry of defence has called the action “focused, measured and non-escalatory”. It added that the forces targeted nine sites in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir where terrorist activities were being planned. In response, the Pakistan Army has claimed it had shot down Indian fighter jets and vowed retaliation.

X user @MrSandeepPhogat shared the clip on May 7, claiming “Pakistani official down”. At the time of writing this, the post had 1.4 million views. (Archive)

BJP worker Sabhasad Badam Singh Kushwaha shared a longer version of a similar video on Facebook, claiming that it showed a Pakistani JF-17 fighter jet shot down by India.

X user Abhay Pratap Singh (बहुत सरल हूं) (@IAbhay_Pratap) also shared the clip and wrote in the caption: “Listen to the audio in the video… ‘Oye, bring the second pilot too’. India’s air defence system AKASH has shot down Pakistan’s F-16 and JF-17 fighter jets. Glory to the Indian Army — Jai Hind!” At the time of writing this, the post had over 750,000 views. (Archive)

वीडियो की आवाज सुनो…

‘ओए, दूसरा पायलट भी उठाकर लाओ’

भारत के एयर डिफेंस सिस्टम AKASH ने पाकिस्तान के F 16 और JF-17 फाइटर जेट मार गिराए हैं

जय हिंद की सेना….#OperationSindoor pic.twitter.com/zDdAv9TZig

— Abhay Pratap Singh (बहुत सरल हूं) (@IAbhay_Pratap) May 7, 2025

More social media users had also shared this clip. Screenshots below:

Click to view slideshow.

Fact Check

After breaking down the videos into several key frames, we ran a reverse image search on a few. This led us to an April 15 Facebook reel posted by a page called Narowal News Live. The reel showed smoke emerging from a field where an aircraft in flames could be seen. The reel also showed civilians gathered around the two injured pilots while some were seen attending to them. The caption of the post said: “Pakistan Air Force’s training plane crashed”. Additionally, some text in Urdu embedded in the video frame, translates to: “Pakistan Air Force training plane crashed” and “Both pilots landed safely by parachute”.

The date of the post made it clear that the visual was unrelated to the current conflict, as it predates the launch of the military strikes and the Pahalgam terror attack.

We compared the visuals of the viral clips showing the two injured pilots with footage from the reel dated April 15 and confirmed that both videos are identical. Below is a comparison.

Taking cue from this, we ran a relevant keyword search, which led us to an Instagram reel posted on April 16 that showed a burning jet that had crashed to the ground. The caption said, “On Tuesday, a Pakistan Air Force Mirage V ROSE crashed during a routine operational training sortie near Ratta Tibba, Vehari… Both pilots onboard initiated ejection procedures in time and landed safely. Rapid response and recovery units reached the site shortly after, confirming no life-threatening injuries to the crew.”

We also came across a news report by Pakistani news outlet Dawn from April 16, 2025. The report also mentioned that a Pakistani Air Force training aircraft had crashed in the fields at Ratta Tibba, Vehari, on April 15, and both pilots ejected themselves from the aircraft before it crashed and suffered minor injuries.

Alt News has already debunked the misleading claims on the crashed jet. Read: April video of Pakistani aircraft crash shared with false claims that Pak took down Indian Rafale jet

Therefore, the viral clips showing an injured Pakistan pilot and linking them to the ongoing conflict are false and baseless. The incident from which the video has been taken and presented out of context happened mid-April when a Pakistani Air Force training plane had crashed and the two pilots in it ejected themselves in time and were rescued with injuries. The clips have no relation to Operation Sindoor, launched on May 7, or the India-Pakistan conflict that spiralled after the April 22 Pahalgam attack.

The post Viral video of injured Pakistan pilot has nothing to do with current India-Pak conflict, Operation Sindoor appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Oishani Bhattacharya.

No, Union govt has not issued advisory on keeping ₹50k cash in hand or stocking two months’ medicines

Abhishek Kumar — Fri, 09 May 2025 03:36:15 +0000

Even as the Union government announced conducting a civil defence mock drill on May 7 across the country, a purported advisory went viral on social media which asked people to remain calm and alert in view of the current situation. The advisory includes several directives, such as keeping a cash reserve of Rs 50,000, filling fuel in vehicles, keeping a stock of medicines, food items and drinking water for two months, as well as keeping power backup sources, necessary documents, torches and candles available at home.

With the simmering tension between India and Pakistan since the Pahalgam terrorist attack transforming into a full-scale military conflict, the said advisory has gained wide circulation on social media platforms and messaging app WhatsApp.

BJP leader fro Bengal and former Union minister Debasree Chaudhury shared this advisory on Facebook and wrote, “Don’t panic, be cautious.” However, the politician later deleted this post.

In the Delhi and Ahmedabad subreddits of social media platform Reddit, people posted the viral advisory notice and wrote that it was being shared in society WhatsApp groups with the message that Prime Minister Modi would address the nation. Many users wrote that this was creating panic among the public.

Alt News also received a number of requests related to the viral advisory on its WhatsApp helpline (7600011160).

Apart from this, many users shared this advisory notice and asked whether the government had actually issued this document.

Fact Check

We performed a keyword search using terms related to the advisory notice, but did not find any credible evidence to confirm that it was indeed issued by the government. In this context, we found a tweet by the fact-checking wing of Union government’s Press Information Bureau. It is clearly mentioned here that the claims made in the viral advisory notice are fake and the government had not issued any such notice.

To sum up, the viral advisory notice is being falsely shared in the name of the government. The Indian government has not issued any such notice for its citizens.

The post No, Union govt has not issued advisory on keeping ₹50k cash in hand or stocking two months’ medicines appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Abhishek Kumar.

Video of cylinder-laden truck exploding in Dharavi, Mumbai, viral as Indian missile attack in Sialkot

Kinjal — Fri, 09 May 2025 03:34:02 +0000

After India launched Operation Sindoor targeting terrorist bases in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), several unverified videos and images claiming to be related to the conflict went viral on social media. BRS leader Y Satheesh Reddy shared a video that shows a loud explosion on a street lined with buses/trucks parked on one side with the claim that the footage was from Sialkot after India fired missiles targeting the city.

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 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”. Late on May 7, reports came in of heavy mortar shelling by Pakistan on forward villages along the Line of Control in Poonch and Rajouri areas of Jammu and Kashmir.

At the time of writing of this article, Reddy had deleted this post in question. However, a screenshot of it can be seen below:

The X account ‘@Thatdammgurl’ posted this video clip with the same claim. However, the post describes the video as unverified visuals. At the time of the writing of this article, it received more than 18 Lakh views. (Archive link)

Poonch ka badla Sialkot se
Jai Hind
[Unconfirmed visual] pic.twitter.com/EHYUGcUQMr

— komolika (@Thatdammgurl) May 7, 2025

X user @Zaheer_barakzai also posted this video clip claiming it to be from Sialkot. (Archived link)

Sialkot has become a living hell for Pakistan-based terrorists.”

Jai Hind – This was not just a strike; it was a message.@alpha_defense @AsYouNotWish @SpokespersonMoD @adgpi pic.twitter.com/uL0aym0WOh

— Zaheer Barakzai Sf (@Zaheer_barakzai) May 7, 2025

This video clip is also being posted on Facebook as visuals from Sialkot.

Fact Check

A reverse image search using frames from the viral footage revealed that the footage actually showed an explosion that occurred inside a truck loaded with gas cylinders in Dharavi, Mumbai, about a month ago. Many media outlets had published stories covering the blast.

News9 reported that on March 24, a car parked in a no parking zone caught fire, after which a truck loaded with cylinders parked behind the car caught fire, which caused the blast. No injuries were reported in this blast. In this video report, scenes from the viral video are visible after the 0:07 mark.

Mumbai TV posted this video on Instagram claiming it to be from Dharavi.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by MUMBAI TV (@mumbai_tv)

Aaj Tak and Times Now also covered the fire near Dharavi and showed the same visuals in their reportage.

To sum up, a video of a blast in a truck loaded with cylinders in Dharavi, Mumbai on March 24 is falsely being shared by linking it to Operation Sindoor.

The post Video of cylinder-laden truck exploding in Dharavi, Mumbai, viral as Indian missile attack in Sialkot appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Kinjal.

ABP Ananda shows Philadelphia plane crash scene as aftermath of INS Vikrant strike in Karachi

Oishani Bhattacharya — Fri, 09 May 2025 03:31:44 +0000

As the conflict between India and Pakistan escalated rapidly on May 8, a 37-second-long clip went viral on social media, claiming to show the situation in Pakistan after the Indian armed forces reportedly hit various strategic locations in the country. The clip depicts an open area with several parked cars, engulfed in flames and chaos, possibly caused by explosions. The video also has a voiceover imposed on it where a man could be heard announcing in Hindi/Urdu: “Take your kids and the elderly, lock your home and move towards the road ahead…”

Bengali news channel ABP Ananda played the above-mentioned video during their live broadcast. The viral clip appears at the 5:08 mark in the video attached below. While the clip is being played, the anchor can be heard saying, “Right now you are seeing visuals from Karachi, it has been completely destroyed…” Another anchor mentions that this shows the attack that INS Vikrant has carried out. (Archive)

The Bengali news outlet also used screengrabs from the same footage in their news report and their live news thread. The image carried in their news report was later replaced with a photo of INS Vikrant. (Archive 1, 2)

Click to view slideshow.

A screengrab of the viral clip was also shared on ABP Ananda’s official X account with a caption that said: “BIG BREAKING: Major action by INS Vikrant, massive explosion, Karachi devastated, consecutive attacks by India”. The account later edited the tweet, replacing the screengrab from the viral clip with an image of the Pakistani flag. (Archive)

The same video has been shared by several X handles.

X user Naina Yadav (@NAINAYADAV_06), who claims to be a journalist on their X bio, shared the viral clip on May 8 and mentioned in the caption: “Jinnah Market Road Lahore completely destroyed #IndiaPakistanWar”. (Archive)

जिन्ना मार्केट रोड लाहौर पूरी तरह से बर्बाद #IndiaPakistanWar pic.twitter.com/DnVzy2dZyV

— Naina Yadav (@NAINAYADAV_06) May 8, 2025

Several other users such as @IndiaTales7, @JaipurDialogues, @mkr4411, @wokeflix_, @iSinghApurva, @SonOfBharat7, @KreatelyMedia, @madhur_panktiya, shared the viral clip amplifying the claim that it depicted destruction in Pakistan after an Indian attack. Several of these posts are wildly viral, and some of them have received views in the millions.

Readers should also note that most of these users have often been found amplifying misinformation in the past.

Click to view slideshow.

Fact Check

To verify this claim, we broke down the viral clip into several keyframes and ran a reverse image search on a few of them. This led us to a post on Threads posted on February 1, 2025, which carried an image that had similar visuals as the viral clip. The caption said: “Another crash … Reports suggest a medical transport Learjet twin-engine jet aircraft has crashed in a populated area of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in the United States. Three buildings in the area are reportedly damaged.”

Taking a cue from this, we conducted a relevant keyword search, which led us to a YouTube Short uploaded on February 1. At the 25-second mark, the exact visuals seen in the viral clip appear in this video. In the description box of the video, it was mentioned that the visuals were from a plane crash that happened in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

In the viral clip, the person recording appears to be entering a Dunkin’ Donuts outlet. Although the footage is somewhat unclear, a Dunkin’ Donuts signboard is briefly visible. Based on the presence of the outlet and the shape and colour of the signage, it can be identified.

We geolocated the Dunkin’ Donuts outlet and confirmed that the location of the viral clip is indeed from Philadelphia.

Therefore, the viral clip claiming to show destruction in Pakistan due to INS Vikrant’s military action is actually three-month old and from Philadelphia.

The post ABP Ananda shows Philadelphia plane crash scene as aftermath of INS Vikrant strike in Karachi appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Oishani Bhattacharya.

April video of Pakistani aircraft crash shared with false claims that Pak took down Indian Rafale jet

Prantik Ali — Thu, 08 May 2025 15:38:51 +0000

Amid escalating tensions between India and Pakistan after the Indian armed forces launched a military strike on May 7, a 17-second long video showing a group of people surrounding the crashed remains of an aircraft was viral. Several social media users have shared this with the claim that Pakistan’s defence forces struck down an Indian fighter jet in the vicinity of Bahawalpur. Additionally, they also claimed that a pilot died in the crash.

These visuals follow India’s “non-escalatory” action against nine sites of “terrorist infrastructure” in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. Labelled Operation Sindoor, these strikes come in the aftermath of the April 22 terror attack in Kashmir’s Pahalgam, in which terrorists with alleged links to Pakistan-based outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba, killed 26 civilians.

X account @CPEC_UPDATE posted the viral video of the aircraft remains on May 7 and alleged that the Pakistan forces had downed a Rafale near Bahawalpur and the pilot had been killed. Since this account has been withheld in India, we have added the video below, followed by a screenshot of the X post. (Archive)

https://video.twimg.com/amplify_video/1919992041024421888/vid/avc1/720x1280/-cKno5XQonb1elDJ.mp4

Note that a Rafale is a fighter aircraft made by France’s Dassault Aviation. It is widely known that India deploys Rafales in the Indian Air Force. Also, in a press briefing on May 7, the Indian armed forces had said that Bahawalpur was one of the areas targeted under Operation Sindoor. At the time this article was written, the above X post had garnered over 450,000 views.

The same video was amplified by other X users, such as @yo2thok and @chandsitara12 with similar claims. (Archives: 1, 2)

Click to view slideshow.

Facebook users also shared the video with similar claims. Screenshots below:

Click to view slideshow.

Fact Check

A reverse image search on one of the key frames of the viral video led us to an Instagram post with the same video uploaded by the handle @falakser334 on April 15, 2025. The caption of the post said “#PakistanAirForce Mirage crashed near Ratta Tibba district Vehari. By the grace of Allah , both pilots ejected safely. No human or commodity loss reported Alhamduillah.”

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Falakser Air International (@falakser334)

We also came across the same clip in a YouTube video uploaded by user @Defence_Watch on April 15. The video title reads: ‘A Twin seat Mirage aircraft of Pakistan Air Force has crashed in Vehari. Both pilots ejected safely.’ Alt News also found a similar YouTube short by a different user.

Taking cue from these, we ran a keyword search and came across news reports from PTI, The Economic Times and India TV from April 16 saying that a Pakistan Air Force aircraft had crashed near the Punjab province.

The reports mention that a Pakistan Air Force Mirage V ROSE training aircraft had crashed in the fields of Ratta Tibba, in the suburbs of Vehari district, in the Punjab province of Pakistan. The crash had occurred during a routine flight, reportedly due to a technical fault. Both pilots had ejected safely, sustaining minor injuries, and were taken to a nearby army hospital.

We were also able to find other reports, most notably that of , to corroborate our findings.

Click to view slideshow.

To conclude, a video showing a Pakistani training aircraft that crashed in Pakistan’s Punjab province on April 15, has been amplified with false claims that an Indian fighter jet was brought down by Pakistani forces amid Operation Sindoor.

The post April video of Pakistani aircraft crash shared with false claims that Pak took down Indian Rafale jet appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Prantik Ali.

Video of a fire in Indonesia goes viral as Pakistan attacking Indian military base amid Operation Sindoor

Ankita Mahalanobish — Thu, 08 May 2025 12:34:15 +0000

After India’s military strikes on May 7 at several sites in Pakistan, a 10-second video showing fire and plumes of smoke began circulating on social media as footage of Pakistan’s retaliatory attack on an Indian military base. In the viral clip, thick black smoke billows from a fire-ravaged area while men attempt to douse the flames with water jets.

A fortnight after 26 civilians were killed by terrorists with alleged links to a Pakistan-based outfit in Kashmir’s Pahalgam, the Indian armed forces launched Operation Sindoor. This was a series of targeted strikes against nine sites of “terrorist infrastructure” in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. The Union ministry of defence described the action as “focused, measured and non-escalatory in nature”, with no Pakistani military facilities having been targeted.

Hours after the strikes were launched, an X user, Haroon Anjum (@_Haroon79), shared the video showing fire and smoke, claiming that Pakistan attacked an Indian military base “after offering the funeral prayers for the martyrs.” (Archive)

شہداء کی نماز جنازہ ادا کرنے کیبعد
پاکستان کا بھارتی فوجی کالونی پر حملہ ۔ ذرائع pic.twitter.com/LS6yGu5Mh2

— Haroon Anjum (@_Haroon79) May 7, 2025

At the time this was written, the post garnered over 170,000 views.

An account named Bhatti Sahab also shared the same video on Facebook with a similar claim. (Archive)

Multiple Facebook users, such as Salman Abbasi, Syed Naseeb Agha, King of Khari (کنگ آف کھڑی) have shared the same video, echoing similar claims.

Click to view slideshow.

Similarly, a YouTube channel, 2 News HD, uploaded the purported video clip claiming it features the condition of an Indian military base after Pakistan had attacked it.

Fact Check

After breaking the video into multiple keyframes, we ran reverse image search on a few of them, which led us to an Instagram account, Info Kejadian Jepara dan Sekitarnya (@infokejadianjeparaa), which posted the same video clip on May 5, 2025.

The account is an Indonesian news and media website. The caption of the post that features the same video translates to: “There was a fire in the HWI Pecangaan factory area. Several houses, food stalls, and a motorcycle parking area were burned. The chronology is not yet known.”

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Info Kejadian Jepara dan Sekitarnya (@infokejadianjeparaa)

Taking a cue from this, we conducted a keyword search that led us to several news reports from local Indonesian media outlets confirming that the visuals were of a fire. According to a report by Kompas.com, a major fire broke out on the afternoon of May 5 in the parking area of PT Hwaseung Indonesia (HWI) in Gemulung Village, Pecangaan District, Jepara, Central Java. The blaze engulfed multiple food stalls and spread to the motorbike parking area, setting workers’ vehicles ablaze.

An official of the Jepara Police told the publication that the fire was believed to have started from a stove explosion in one of the food stalls at around 3:00 PM, local time, eventually consuming four food stalls and hundreds of motorbikes.

We also found a YouTube video by “pos kupang” (Tribun Network) uploaded on May 5, 2025 that corroborates the incident. The video description says that “A fire broke out in the motorcycle parking area behind the PT Hwaseung Indonesia factory, located in RT 02 RW 01, Gemulung Village, Pecangaan District, Jepara Regency.” From the 1:15-minute mark in the video, the now-viral clip can be seen.

To sum up, the video showing thick black smoke from a fire-ravaged area is from Indonesia and does not show Pakistan attacking an Indian military base. The fire incident in Indonesia happened on May 5, two days before Operation Sindoor was launched, so claims linking the video to retaliation by Pakistan are completely baseless and outright false.

Note that the Indian government’s fact-checking unit has also debunked this viral claim, reiterating the same findings as above.

The post Video of a fire in Indonesia goes viral as Pakistan attacking Indian military base amid Operation Sindoor appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Ankita Mahalanobish.

Beirut port explosion video from 2020 shared as retaliatory missile attack by Pakistan

Pawan Kumar — Thu, 08 May 2025 12:21:52 +0000

Within hours of the news break about India’s Operation Sindoor targeting terrorist bases in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir on May 7, a video of an explosion was shared on social media claiming that Pakistan retaliated by attacking India with a missile.

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.

X handle @QTHESTORMM shared the video and wrote, “Major update: Pakistan retaliates against India just now in recent missile attack”. (Archived link)

Another X account called @WatcherQAnon also shared this video of the explosion making a similar claim. The user also used the Operation Sindoor hashtags along with others linking it to the India-Pakistan war. (Archived link)

Fact Check

A reverse image search using some frames taken from the viral video led us to the source video posted on X on August 5, 2020. A user named Mohamed Ibrahim shared it and described the incident as occurring in the Shinra Tensei area of the Lebanese Capital, Beirut.

We also came across a report published in 9News which included screenshots from this video. According to this article, the explosion occurred as a result of a fire in a large stock of explosive material which had been stored for years at the port in Beirut.

According to reports by IBTimes and APNEWS.com, on August 4, 2020, about 3,000 tonnes of ammonium nitrate, which had been improperly stored for years, exploded at the Beirut port in Lebanon, killing more than 200 people. More than 7,000 were injured and the surrounding areas were devastated. The explosion was caused by a fire from an unknown source.

To sum up, this viral video actually depicts the ammonium nitrate explosion at the Beirut port in Lebanon which occurred around five years ago. This footage is being falsely circulated as a retaliatory attack by Pakistan in response to India’s Operation Sindoor.

The post Beirut port explosion video from 2020 shared as retaliatory missile attack by Pakistan appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Pawan Kumar.

Indian Army waving white flag? No viral clip is from 2019; shows Pak army retrieving soldier’s body

Shinjinee Majumder — Thu, 08 May 2025 12:18:34 +0000

After India launched Operation Sindoor targeting terrorist bases in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), several unverified videos and images claiming to be related to the conflict went viral on social media. One of them is a video of a soldier waving a white flag as a sign of truce, as he carries the body of another soldier. Pro-Pakistani accounts claim that the soldier seen waving the white flag was an Indian soldier asking Pakistanis not to ‘bomb them’.

A fortnight after a terrorist attack in Pahalgam had killed 26 people, Indian Armed Forces hit nine sites 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. Late on May 7, reports came in of heavy mortar shelling by Pakistan on forward villages along the Line of Control in Poonch and Rajouri areas of Jammu and Kashmir.

The video in question was shared, among others, by X user Dr Shama Junejo (@ShamaJunejo). The tweet garnered 1.1 million views. (Archive)

“Don’t bomb us please…”

Indian soldiers holding white flags and collecting bodies of their fellow soldiers killed at the LOC #IndiaPakistanWar

pic.twitter.com/cye0m60eCs

— Dr Shama Junejo (@ShamaJunejo) May 7, 2025

Another verified account, @Aadiiroy2, tweeted the same video with a caption in Urdu that translates to, “On the Line of Control, the Indian Army is waving white flags to retrieve the bodies of soldiers who have been sent to hell.” (Archive)

لائن آف کنٹرول پر انڈین آرمی سفید جھنڈے لہرا کر جہنم واصل ھوئےفوجیوں کی لاشیں اٹھا رہے ہیں۔ pic.twitter.com/GZz8N7IFbB

— صحرانورد (@Aadiiroy2) May 7, 2025

Several other X users also shared the video with the same claim. (Archives- 1, 2, 3)

Click to view slideshow.

Fact Check

Upon a relevant keyword search on Facebook, we found that the video could be traced back to September 2019. According to a Hindustan Times video report dated September 14, 2019, the video shows Pakistani rangers retrieving the bodies of their soldiers at the Line of Control after showing the white flag. Two Pakistani soldiers had been killed in retaliatory firing by the Indian Army on September 11, 2019. Pakistani troops retrieved the bodies after showing white flag.

Pak Army shows white flag, retrieves bodies of soldiers killed in cross border firing

Two Pakistani soldiers had been killed in retaliatory firing by Indian Army on September 11. Pakistan rangers retrieved the bodies of their soldiers at LoC after showing white flag.

Posted by Hindustan Times on Saturday 14 September 2019

The HT video report had the ANI watermark on it. We were able to find the ANI tweet from September 14, 2019, which also corroborated the HT report.

#WATCH Hajipur Sector: Indian Army killed two Pakistani soldiers in retaliation to unprovoked ceasefire violation by Pakistan. Pakistani soldiers retrieved the bodies of their killed personnel after showing white flag. (10.9.19/11.9.19) pic.twitter.com/1AOnGalNkO

— ANI (@ANI) September 14, 2019

According to a The Hindu article dated September 15, 2019, the video was released by the Indian Army. Between September 10-11, 2019, one of the Pakistani soldiers killed by Indian troops was Ghulam Rasool of their Punjab Regiment. Rasool was a ‘Punjabi Muslim’ who belonged to Bahawalnagar in Pakistan’s Punjab province.

Initially, Pakistani soldiers attempted to recover the body under the cover of intense ceasefire violations, but another Pakistani soldier was killed while doing so. Even after two days of repeated attempts, the Pakistani Army could not recover the bodies of their soldiers. Finally, on September 13, Pakistan’s Punjab Regiment soldiers raised the white flag and tried to recover the bodies. The white flag is raised to signal peace and truce. An Indian Express article from around the same time corroborates the chain of events.

The Press Bureau of India also released a fact-check debunking the viral claims about the video showing Indian troops waving the white flag.

Propaganda Alert

An old video from September 2019 of the #Pakistan Army raising white flag at LOC to recover…

Posted by PIB Fact Check on Wednesday 7 May 2025

Hence, a video from September 2019 of Pakistani troops waving a white flag as a truce to retrieve bodies of their soldiers is currently viral against the backdrop of the ongoing India-Pakistan conflict. Many pro-Pakistan accounts have shared the old video claiming that the Indian army was calling for a truce.

The post Indian Army waving white flag? No viral clip is from 2019; shows Pak army retrieving soldier’s body appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Shinjinee Majumder.

Footage does not show Pakistani jets shot down by Indian army; videos by gamers, predating Op Sindoor go viral

Oishani Bhattacharya — Thu, 08 May 2025 10:27:18 +0000

Soon after India launched Operation Sindoor in the early hours of May 7, unverified visuals of missiles and aircraft were viral on social media with claims that these depicted the Indian or Pakistani forces in action. Among these are two videos that reportedly show Indian defence forces shooting down fighter jets from Pakistan.

The Indian armed forces have called the military strikes in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) “focused, measured and non-escalatory” and said that no Pakistani military facilities were targeted. They added that the operation was undertaken to target nine sites where terrorist activities against India were being planned. The action comes a fortnight after the dastardly terror attack in Kashmir’s Pahalgam, where terrorists, allegedly associated with the banned Pakistan-based outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba, killed 26 civilians. Since the operation’s launch, however, there has been a spurt of misinformation and unrelated visuals on social media, manipulating perceptions of what unfolded in the strikes.

Video 1:

One such viral clip shows a C-RAM (Counter Rocket, Artillery, and Mortar) device and some jets flying. In the video, the C-RAM appears to destabilise the jets.

X user Manish Kasyap Son Of Bihar (@ManishKasyapsob) shared this clip on May 7 with a caption in Hindi that translates to: “This Pakistani F17 jet came and was shot down by the Indian Army. #OperationSindoor”. The post has received over 410,000 views and has been reshared over 300 times. (Archive)

ये पाकिस्तानी F17 जेट आया वो भारतीय सेना ने मार गिराया #OperationSindoor pic.twitter.com/OskkdoWe5i

— Manish Kasyap Son Of Bihar (@ManishKasyapsob) May 7, 2025

Another X user, Deepak Sharma (@SonOfBharat7), also shared the same clip on May 7, claiming it shows the Indian Army shooting down Pakistani jets. At the time of writing this, the post had over 1 million views and was been reshared by more than 2,800 users. (Archive)

Alt News has written about misinformation and communal content shared by this user.

Another X account, DreamThatWorks (@dreamthatworks), shared the same clip on May 7, claiming that the Indian forces shot down a Pakistani JF-17 thunder jet. The post has received over 3 million views and was reshared 1,200 times. (Archive)

Several others on X also shared the viral clip with the same claim.

Click to view slideshow.

Video 2:

A similar video that was also widely circulated amid Operation Sindoor showed jets flying and bullets being fired at them with a C-RAM device.

X user Nehra Ji (@nehraji77) shared this clip on May 7 and wrote in the caption, “Footage of Pakistani jets being shot down. Have fun!” This post has received over 670,00 views and has been reshared over 1,700 times. (Archive)

पाकिस्तानी फाइटर जेट मार गिराने का फूटेज

आनंद ले

#operation_sindoor #OperationSindoor pic.twitter.com/KoWIYYAeCX

— Nehra Ji (@nehraji77) May 7, 2025

Another X user, Sumit Tiwari (@thesumittewari), who identifies as a journalist in their bio, shared the same clip on May 7 with the caption, “Pakistan is being treated like a toy”. The post has been viewed 442,000 times and was reshared over 600 times. (Archive)

खिलौना की तरह रेला है पाकिस्तान को pic.twitter.com/3kyVPomx88

— Sumit Tiwari (@thesumittewari) May 7, 2025

Many others also shared this on X, claiming that it showed Pakistani jets being shot down by India. Below are a few instances.

Click to view slideshow.

Fact Check

Video 1:

To verify the first video, we broke it down into key frames and ran a reverse image search on a few. This led us to an Instagram reel featuring the same video.

We noticed that the page @alone65.1 had posted this on March 30, over a month before tensions escalated between the two countries.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Cloud260 (@alone65.1)

We found that this page had posted other videos with very similar visuals. One of these, also posted on March 30 before the now-viral clip, also showed a C-RAM firing at jets. In another video (here), one can see jets flying while bullets are fired at them. Sounds of shelling and cries of people can be heard in the background.

In the comments, one user indicated that the footage was from a video game.

On looking further, we found another post by the page shared on March 30 with its older username and bio. At the time, the page was categorised as a “Gamer” and its bio read, “Gaming is life”. It also included the hashtags #GG (short for “Good Game”) and #GameOn — both of which still appear in the current bio.

These findings suggest that the visuals uploaded here are from a video game. We also found several similar clips on YouTube where users had uploaded videos of games, such as Arma-3, that show a similarly realistic simulation with C-RAM and fighter jets.

Regardless, the date the now-viral clip appears on this page (March 30) predates the escalation of tension between India and Pakistan and is hence unrelated to Operation Sindoor.

Video 2:

We also broke down the second viral clip into several key frames and ran a reverse image search on some of them. This led us to a Facebook post with the same video posted on April 19 by a page called ‘Coffin Gaming’.

The post was titled: “S-401 Air Defense Targeted FPV Drone! Ep 115”.

S-401 Air Defense Targeted FPV Drone! Ep 115

S-401 Air Defense Targeted FPV Drone! Ep 115

Posted by Coffin Gaming on Saturday 19 April 2025

We checked the bio of the page, and it has been categorised as “Gaming video creator”. Several such videos could be found on the page, and the captions seem to mention episodes of these videos.

Thus, we were able to establish that the second clip too not only predates the recent Indian operation but is a gaming video showing strikes.

The post Footage does not show Pakistani jets shot down by Indian army; videos by gamers, predating Op Sindoor go viral appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Oishani Bhattacharya.

Pakistani media shows old images of crashed IAF aircraft claiming Indian jets shot down post Op Sindoor

Abhishek Kumar — Thu, 08 May 2025 07:47:11 +0000

Within hours of the news break about India’s Operation Sindoor targeting terrorist bases in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir on May 7, Pakistani media and social media users shared several visuals linking them to the operation. One such image sowed two crashed fighter planes.

While covering the strikes, Pakistani news channel ARY News ran images of two crashed planes and claimed that these were ‘exclusive’ images of the Pakistan Air Force shooting down Indian Air Force jets.

Pakistani news outlet Pakistan Observer ran both the viral images and claimed that Pakistan had shot down five Indian fighter jets. (Archived link)

Pakistani news outlet Daily Times also published a viral picture of two crashed aircraft and claimed that Pakistani Air Force had shot down two Indian fighter jets in retaliation. (Archived link)

Similarly, many social media users also shared the viral picture and made the same claim. These handles also included that of well-known Pakistani journalist Hamid Mir.

Fact Check

A reverse image search of the viral picture on Google led us to another version of the first picture in an article by the Indian Express dated May 21, 2021. According to the report, Indian Air Force fighter pilot Squadron Leader Abhinav Chaudhary died when a MiG-21 fighter plane crashed in a village in Moga district of Punjab. He was involved in night training at the time of the accident. In other words, this picture is four-year old and has no connection to Operation Sindoor.

We also performed a reverse image search of the second viral picture and came across an article by Dainik Jagran dated September 3, 2024. It stated that on September 2, during a routine night training mission of the Indian Air Force in the Barmer sector of Rajasthan, a serious technical fault occurred in the MiG-29. Due to this, the fighter jet crashed and the pilot was forced to eject. This makes it evident that this picture is also old and has no connection to Operation Sindoor.

News agency IANS had also tweeted a video of this incident on September 2, 2024.

During a routine night training mission in Barmer sector, an IAF MiG-29 encountered a critical technical snag, forcing the pilot to eject. The pilot is safe and no loss of life or property was reported. A Court of Inquiry has been ordered: IAF pic.twitter.com/Y9vPcqpWhU

— IANS (@ians_india) September 2, 2024

To sum up, Pakistani media outlets shared old pictures of fighter planes crashing during routine training of the Indian Air Force and falsely claimed that the Pakistani Air Force shot down two fighter jets of the Indian Air Force.

The post Pakistani media shows old images of crashed IAF aircraft claiming Indian jets shot down post Op Sindoor appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Abhishek Kumar.

‘Sunrise in Sialkot’? Images from 2021 Israeli air strikes in Gaza falsely viral

Shinjinee Majumder — Thu, 08 May 2025 07:42:31 +0000

After the Indian armed forces launched Operation Sindoor in the early hours of May 7, 2025, unverified claims of strikes by India in Sialkot in Punjab province of Pakistan started doing the rounds on social media. A night-time image of a building burning is viral on social media in this context.

Right-wing propaganda outlet @JaipurDialogues, which amplifies misinformation and propaganda on a regular basis, tweeted the image with the caption, “Sunrise in Sialkot.” (Archive)

Verified handle @GlobalUpdates24 tweeted the image linking it to the ‘strikes in Sialkot’. (Archive)

Several others amplified the viral image, linking it to the ‘strikes in Sialkot’. (Archives- 1, 2, 3)

Click to view slideshow.

Fact Check

There are two images being circulated with claims related to alleged strikes in Sialkot.

Click to view slideshow.

Upon Google reverse image searching the first image, we found that many reports from June 2021 had used the same photo. According to an Al Jazeera report, Israeli fighter jets had launched a series of air raids on the Gaza Strip, during that time, for the second time since a shaky ceasefire ended the preceding month’s 11-day war. The missiles reportedly hit several sites belonging to armed groups northwest of Gaza City and north of Beit Lahia in the besieged territory. The report carried the first viral image, attributed to AFP’s Palestinian photographer, Mahmud Hams.

Mahmud Hans himself had posted the same image on his Facebook profile on June 16, 2021.

#Explosions light-up the night sky above buildings in #Gaza City as #Israeli forces shell the #Palestinian enclave, early on June 16, 2021. (#Photo by MAHMUD HAMS / AFP)

Posted by Mahmud Hams on Wednesday 16 June 2021

Upon reverse-image searching the second image, we were led to a The Sun article dated May 16, 2021, which carried the same image. These images were taken during the 11-day war between Israel and Palestine, during which dozens of strikes were launched. This particular image is captioned, “Fire erupts from the Andalus Tower as it is destroyed by an Israeli airstrike in Gaza”, and has been attributed to AFP as well.

We were able to find this particular picture on Getty Images as well, photographed by Palestinian photographer Mohammed Abed. According to the caption, the image shows smoke billowing from a fire following Israeli airstrikes on multiple targets in Gaza City, controlled by the Palestinian Hamas movement, on May 16, 2021.

As it stands, two images from the Israel-Palestine conflict in 2021 are being circulated on social media with claims that Indian armed forces struck Sialkot in Pakistan.

ALSO READ: War-ravaged Gaza video from April shared as Operation Sindoor aftermath in Pakistan

The post ‘Sunrise in Sialkot’? Images from 2021 Israeli air strikes in Gaza falsely viral appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Shinjinee Majumder.

War-ravaged Gaza video from April shared as Operation Sindoor aftermath in Pakistan

Ankita Mahalanobish — Wed, 07 May 2025 16:36:26 +0000

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)

OPRETION SINDUR

‘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

A post shared by Nour Alzaharna (@nouralzaharna)

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.

The post War-ravaged Gaza video from April shared as Operation Sindoor aftermath in Pakistan appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Ankita Mahalanobish.

Aaj Tak, ABP, Zee News, others air 2023 footage of Israeli airstrikes in Gaza as visuals of India’s Operation Sindoor

Shinjinee Majumder — Wed, 07 May 2025 16:12:23 +0000

After the Indian armed forces launched Operation Sindoor in the early hours of May 7, 2025, targeting nine terrorist infrastructure sites in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), purported visuals of the strike, showing seven missiles being fired into the distance, went viral. Media outlets, journalists and social media users shared the clip, claiming this was footage from the Indian operation.

The military strike by India comes days after terrorists, allegedly linked to the outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), killed 26 civilians in Kashmir’s Pahalgam. The Ministry of Defence has called the strikes “measured and non-escalatory” and said that no Pakistani military facilities were targeted. The Hindu reported that the terror camps targeted are linked to various banned terror outfits, including LeT, Jaish-e-Mohammed and Hizbul Mujahideen. According to an Indian Express report, four of the nine sites India claims it has struck are Bahawalpur and Muridke (in Punjab, Pakistan), and Muzaffarabad and Kotli in PoK.

Hindi media outlet Aaj Tak aired the visuals of missiles being fired in a segment hosted by its senior journalist Anjana Om Kashyap. In its reportage, the outlet counted seven strikes in the city of Bahawalpur alone. In an X post, the channel shared the same visual with the caption, “Here’s how Jaish’s terrorist base was destroyed”. (Archive)

ऑपरेशन सिंदूर | ऐसे ध्वस्त हुआ जैश का आतंकी अड्डा #OperationSindoor #Pakistan #IndianArmy #IndianAirforce #IndiaStrikesTerroristan #PahalgamTerrorAttack | @anjanaomkashyap pic.twitter.com/DxwLnhmDUr

— AajTak (@aajtak) May 7, 2025

ABP, another Hindi news outlet, also aired the purported visuals in a segment hosted by one of its star anchors, Chitra Tripathi. (Archive)

#OperationSindoor BREAKING | भारत की तीनों सेनाओं ने ये एयर स्ट्राइक की थी@chitraaum | @neeraj_rajput | @MeghaSPrasad | @shivank_8mishra
https://t.co/smwhXUROiK #OperationSindoor #BreakingNews #IndianArmy #PahalgamTerrorAttack pic.twitter.com/LhIEYwOmbK

— ABP News (@ABPNews) May 7, 2025

Zee News Gujarati used a screengrab from the video in a photo gallery on Operation Sindoor, while News18 Bangla, Business Today, Amar Ujala and Bartaman used similar screenshots from the video in their articles.

Click to view slideshow.

Well-known News18 journalist, Rubika Liyaquat, also shared the video on X along with a list of the nine terrorist hideouts where the Indian army struck. (Archive)

आतंकियों के वो नौ ठिकाने जिन पर क़हर बन कर टूटी भारतीय सेना। #OperationSindoor

1.मरकज़ सुबहान अल्लाह, Bahawalpur
(Punjab, Pakistan)
जैश-ए-मोहम्मद का हेडक्वार्टर
पुलवामा अटैक में भी यहीं से हुई थी प्लानिंग और ट्रेनिंग

2.मरकज़ तैय्यबा, Muridke
(Punjab, Pakistan)… pic.twitter.com/beCuvUcVh6

— Rubika Liyaquat (@RubikaLiyaquat) May 7, 2025

Senior journalist and executive editor of TV9 Network, Aditya Raj Kaul, who has been fact-checked by Alt News several times in the past, also shared the footage with the caption “Missiles fired at Kotli, Muzaffarabad, and Bahawalpur—confirmed by DG ISPR to Pakistani journalists. India goes after terror state Pakistan.” (Archive)

#BREAKING: Pakistan Army confirms attack by India. India has launched an attack on Pakistan. Missiles fired at Kotli, Muzaffarabad, and Bahawalpur — confirmed by DG ISPR to Pakistani journalists. India goes after terror state Pakistan. pic.twitter.com/Tog4sHGjdM

— Aditya Raj Kaul (@AdityaRajKaul) May 6, 2025

Digital media outlet NEWJ also shared the video with the same claim. (Archive)

Pakistan Army confirms attack by India. India has launched an attack on Pakistan. Missiles fired at Kotli, Muzaffarabad, and Bahawalpur — confirmed by DG ISPR to Pakistani journalists. India goes after terror state Pakistan. pic.twitter.com/TwmwwFJ9UQ

— NEWJ (@NEWJplus) May 6, 2025

X user @MeghUpdates, who often shares far-Right content and has been fact-checked by Alt News several times, shared the video claiming that India launched a missile attack on Pakistan. At the time of writing this, the post had garnered over 680,000 views. (Archive)

MASSIVE NEWS

India launches MISSILE ATTACK on Pakistan.

Pakistan Army confirms attack by India.

Missiles fired at Kotli, Muzaffarabad, and Bahawalpur pic.twitter.com/JzN32a1EyF

— Megh Updates (@MeghUpdates) May 6, 2025

Pakistan-based journalist Sabir Shakir, who is associated with local news outlet ARY, shared the video with an Urdu caption that reads ‘Indian attack in Bahawalpur’. (Archive)

بھارتی حملہ بہالپور میں pic.twitter.com/tODgn5IYPv

— Sabir Shakir (@ARYSabirShakir) May 6, 2025

Several other X handles, including propaganda outlet Panchjanya, amplified the video with the same claim. (Archives- 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)

Click to view slideshow.

Fact Check

A reverse image search of key frames from the visuals shared above led us to a news report on Sputnik Armenia’s website from October 13, 2023 in which the same video was used. The Sputnik report said that Israel had struck 750 military targets in the Gaza Strip.

We also found a statement by the Israeli Air Force from October 13, 2023, claiming the same.

Several other social media accounts, too, shared this video on October 13. Here, here, here, here and here are links to their X posts. Screenshots below:

Click to view slideshow.

The video resurfaced again a few days later and was used by media outlet Al Mayadeen in its video report on the bombings in Gaza on October 23, 2023. On October 23, senior BBC journalist Shayan Sardarizadeh, had pointed out on X that the visuals were “from 10 days ago”.

Israel’s air strikes on Gaza have intensified, but this video, viewed 350,000 times, doesn’t show “Gaza right now”.

It’s from 10 days ago. pic.twitter.com/41ah1sx0Pb

— Shayan Sardarizadeh (@Shayan86) October 23, 2023

As it stands, several Indian media outlets ran a 1.5-year-old footage of Israeli airstrikes on Gaza with claims that these were visuals from India’s military operation against Pakistan-based terror outfits on May 7, 2025. These channels aired the footage without verification and these claims were also amplified by senior journalists and trickled down to social media users, resulting in misinformation regarding a sensitive issue spiralling.

The post Aaj Tak, ABP, Zee News, others air 2023 footage of Israeli airstrikes in Gaza as visuals of India’s Operation Sindoor appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Shinjinee Majumder.

Operation Sindoor: Edited Republic video, old visuals of IAF jet crash used to claim Pak army shot down Indian plane

Shinjinee Majumder — Wed, 07 May 2025 13:31:50 +0000

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)

Click to view slideshow.

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.

Click to view slideshow.

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.

Click to view slideshow.

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:

Click to view slideshow.

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.

Click to view slideshow.

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.

The post Operation Sindoor: Edited Republic video, old visuals of IAF jet crash used to claim Pak army shot down Indian plane appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Shinjinee Majumder.

Old footage of Russian air defence hitting targets over Moscow shared as visuals from Operation Sindoor

Ankita Mahalanobish — Wed, 07 May 2025 12:47:53 +0000

Within hours of the news break about India’s Operation Sindoor targeting terrorist bases in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir on May 7, an 11-second video showing multiple red lights across the night sky went viral on social media. At first glance, the footage appears to show an air defense system firing at an aerial target.

A Pakistani X handle, @Move111Forward, shared the clip in question with a caption in extremely derogatory language, which claimed that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi had been given a befitting reply by Pakistan. In other words, he claimed the clip showed Pakistan’s response to Indian strikes. (Archive)

مودی دی بنڈ پاڑ دتی گئی جے الحمدﷲ pic.twitter.com/Jl45TXOTrl

— GHQ 111 Brigade (@Move111Forward) May 6, 2025

The post has garnered over 4.5 Lakh views.

Another X user, Omer Butt (@omersarwar75), shared the video with similar claims. (Archive)

مودی دی بنڈ پاڑ دتی گئی جے الحمدﷲ #IndiaPakistanWar #war #PakistanZindabad
pic.twitter.com/aDpOJCnqAy

— Omer Butt (@omersarwar75) May 6, 2025

On YouTube, an account named Raza Joiya, shared the video clip claiming that it is the first strike from India.

Fact Check

After breaking the video into several key frames, we performed a reverse image search on a few of them, this led us to a post from April 10, 2025, on X by Maria Drutska. In the post, the user shared their concern over what they believed was an UFO spotted over Moscow, Russia.

During the night, the Moscow region was attacked by a UFO pic.twitter.com/0BKwbJTQEg

— Maria Drutska (@maria_drutska) April 10, 2025

We found another post on Facebook from April 10, 2025, by a Ukrainian media outlet Телекомпанія “Магнолія-ТВ” (Magnolia TV- broadcasting company). It shared a keyframe from the video with a caption that can be roughly translated as, “Meanwhile, in Russia – overnight, unidentified drone-helicopters attacked the Kaluga region and the Moscow suburbs. Specifically, Vnukovo Airport in Moscow and Kaluga Airport were temporarily closed under the “Carpet” protocol.”

Тим часом на росії – вночі невідомі дрони-гелікоптери атакували Калуську область та Підмосковʼє…
Зокрема аеропорти Внуково у Москві та Калузьский аеропорт закривались за планом «Килим».

Posted by Телекомпанія “Магнолія-ТВ” on Wednesday 9 April 2025

Taking a cue from this, we performed a relevant keyword search that led us to several news reports from Russian news outlets. An article by Newsweek published on April 10, 2025, refers to the same video and states that Russian air defence fired at mysterious objects in the sky, sparking speculation. It adds that “conflicting accounts have emerged from Russia concerning the intended target of an overnight air defense operation in the Moscow region.”

While “state-run news agency RT reported Thursday that air defenses targeted “helicopter drones,” several Russian Telegram channels suggested that Russia’s air defenses may have mistakenly targeted one of their own military helicopters, the report said.

To sum up, the video clip in question is neither recent nor related to Operation Sindoor. The footage is from Russia. While some Russian media outlets claimed it showed Russian air defence targeting helicopter drones, Telegram channels suggested that Russia’s air defenses might have mistakenly targeted one of their own military helicopters.

The post Old footage of Russian air defence hitting targets over Moscow shared as visuals from Operation Sindoor appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Ankita Mahalanobish.

Viral clip claiming to show Pakistani retaliation to Indian strikes at least a month old, unrelated to ongoing confict

Oishani Bhattacharya — Wed, 07 May 2025 10:27:15 +0000

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 Facebook page named Pakistan News shared the above-mentioned viral video on Facebook as a reel on May 7. The caption said, “Breaking: Fierce Cross-Fire in Kashmir – Pakistan Downs 2 Indian Jets”.

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)

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

Several users also shared the viral video, claiming it shows visuals of Pakistan’s retaliation against India. Below are a few instances.

Click to view slideshow.

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.

Click to view slideshow.

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.

The post Viral clip claiming to show Pakistani retaliation to Indian strikes at least a month old, unrelated to ongoing confict appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Oishani Bhattacharya.

Israel embassy refutes claims of IDF soldier’s sexual assault by Indian Army colonel amplified by Pak accounts

Pawan Kumar — Tue, 06 May 2025 14:46:28 +0000

Following the Pahalgam attack on April 22, a number of state heads including Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, condemning the terrorist attack and expressing support to India’s fight against terror.

Meanwhile, a note verbale (a diplomatic message or memo) signed by former Israeli ambassador to India Naor Gilon was shared on social media. In the note, Israel has seemingly accused an unnamed Indian Army officer of sexually abusing Israeli Defense Force female soldier Tzipi Cohen during a military exercise in Jammu and Kashmir. It is also mentioned that the incident marked a violation of India’s obligations under customary international law and called for a prompt, transparent and impartial investigation.

Pakistani X handle @commandeleven claimed that the Embassy of Israel had issued a note of formal diplomatic protest (Note Verbale) to the Indian ministry of external affairs accusing Indian Army Colonel Kamaldeep Singh, Commanding Officer of 6 Para (SF) of sexually assaulting IDF Sergeant Tzipi Cohen during a joint military exercise in the Jammu region of Kashmir. (Archived link)

Pakistani propaganda handle @MaddyViews also made a similar claim on X. (Archived link)

Pakistani website ‘The Pakistan Frontier’ made a similar claim by sharing a poster on its official Facebook page and Instagram. (Archived link 1, link 2)

Click to view slideshow.

Fact Check

Alt News noticed that the viral Note Verbale is signed by former Israeli Ambassador to India Naor Gilon, who was serving as Israel’s Ambassador to India until 2024, while the current ambassador is Reuven Azar.

A “Note Verbale” is a diplomatic communication sent from one government to another, and it is officially delivered through the embassy. It is a kind of formal communication that is usually written in the third person and not signed.

We performed a customised keyword search using terms from the Israeli Embassy’s Note Verbale, as per the viral claim, but could not find any credible media reports that could confirm this viral claim.

Next, Alt News came across a post by the Israeli Embassy in India on X (formerly Twitter). In this post, the screenshot of the viral ‘Note Verbale’ has been posted and the alleged claims have been denied and this ‘Note Verbale’ has also been called fake. The accompanying caption reads, “Unbelievable, the relationship between Israel and India is so solid, haters resort to fake news to try to harm it. It will not work.”

Unbelievable!
The bond between Israel and India is so solid, haters resort to fake news to try to harm it.
It won’t work.
#FakeNews #FactCheck #Pahalgam pic.twitter.com/KgX9HQe3Lh

— Israel in India (@IsraelinIndia) April 30, 2025

In other words, the Embassy of Israel has not issued any ‘Note Verbale’ to the Union ministry of external affairs of India. Furthermore, the viral claim that an Indian Army officer sexually harassed an Israeli female soldier is also false.

The post Israel embassy refutes claims of IDF soldier’s sexual assault by Indian Army colonel amplified by Pak accounts appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Pawan Kumar.

No, man seen in viral image with Akhilesh is not Pak politician Saifuallah Abro

Pawan Kumar — Tue, 06 May 2025 14:41:08 +0000

Amid escalating tensions between India and Pakistan since the Pahalgam terrorist attack on April 22, Pakistani politician and Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) senator Saifullah Abro said in a discussion in the Pakistani parliament, “The whole of Indian Opposition is condemning the Pahalgam attack. Be it the Aam Aadmi Party of Delhi or the Samajwadi Party of Uttar Pradesh, no one is supporting Modi. Everyone is protesting. No one supported Modi. Everyone said that this incident happened under your watch. You are already against Muslims and now you need something to shield yourself.”

Against this backdrop, a picture of Samajwadi Party national president and former UP chief minister Akhilesh Yadav is being widely circulated on social media. Users are sharing this picture and claiming that the man seen in the photo with Akhilesh Yadav is Saifullah Abro.

UP BJP Yuva Morcha social media in-charge and member of the state backward classes commission Dr. Richa Rajpoot shared this picture on Instagram and claimed, “Mr. Akhilesh’s close friend Mr. Saifullah, who was praising him in the parliament of Pakistan”. (Archived link)

On April 30, BJP MP from Godda, Jharkhand, Nishikant Dubey, also shared this picture and indirectly linked Akhilesh Yadav and Saifullah with each other. He wrote in the caption, “A wave of happiness in Pakistan on Akhilesh Yadav’s anti-India statement, seems the Samajwadi Party chief will contest the next election from Islamabad?” (Archived link)

Right-wing influencers Jitendra Pratap Singh, Zeenat Rana, Arun Yadav, Sandeep Mishra and journalist Sudhir Mishra also made similar claims of Saifullah being in the alleged photo with Akhilesh Yadav. (Archived link 1, link 2, link 3, link 4, link 5,link 6)

Click to view slideshow.

BJP Uttar Pradesh state general secretary Sanjay Rai also posted this photo targeting Akhilesh Yadav. (Archived link)

Fact Check

Alt News started an investigation to find out who the person standing with Akhilesh Yadav was. On doing a reverse image search of the photo, we reached the personal website for one ‘Ashish Saraf‘. The photo gallery of this website had the same photo and it reads, “With Ex CM of Uttar Pradesh Sri. Akhilesh Yadav”. (Archived link)

The ‘Indian Politicians’ folder in the website’s photo gallery has pictures of the same person with many prominent Indian leaders, including former Presidents, Vice Presidents and Prime Ministers. Alt News found that the person in the picture is Ashish Saraf.

Ashish Saraf’s biography on the website states that he was born in 1965 in Nagpur in central India, and is the Chairman and CEO of international trading firm Fecor Global Private Limited, and currently travels between New Delhi, London and Singapore. (Archived link)

A report in The Hindu also mentions Ashish Saraf’s name along with his picture.

In addition to this, the Samajwadi Party Media Cell tweeted Nishikant Dubey’s post and refuted his claim, writing that the person he was calling Saifullah was actually Ashish Saraf.

भाजपा सांसद @nishikant_dubey जी आप की या भाजपा की याददाश्त कमजोर है या आप एक अच्छे व्यक्ति को बदनाम करने की कोई सुपारी लिए हुए हैं?

आप जिसे कथित सैफुल्लाह बता रहे हैं वो एक शरीफ, बेहतरीन और अच्छे इंसान आशीष सर्राफ जी हैं।

आशीष सर्राफ जी की तस्वीरें तमाम भाजपा नेताओं के साथ हैं… https://t.co/PTZ0SxKGxi pic.twitter.com/xkt6vcVIIG

— Samajwadi Party Media Cell (@mediacellsp) May 1, 2025

To sum it up, the individual posing with Akhilesh Yadav in the viral image is Ashish Saraf and not Pakistani MP Saifullah.

The post No, man seen in viral image with Akhilesh is not Pak politician Saifuallah Abro appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Pawan Kumar.

Video shared on April 3 falsely linked to April 22 Pahalgam terror attack to malign Kashmiris

Prantik Ali — Mon, 05 May 2025 14:35:08 +0000

A 9-second-long video showing a few young boys crouching in a field while a loud bang goes off resulting in smoke has gone viral on social media. In the clip, after the loud noise is heard, one person collapses to the ground and a few moments later, laughter can be heard.

Referring to the loud noise in the clip as a gunshot, social media users sharing this video have linked it to the April 22 attack in Kashmir, in which 26 civilians were killed by terrorists. They claim that the laughter in the background is proof that when tourists were being shot dead, Kashmiri by-standers cheered on the reprehensible act.

On April 30, X user Janardan Mishra (@janardanmis) posted the viral video, with a caption in Hindi which roughly translates to: “Tourists were being shot dead and local Kashmiri ‘pigs’ stood there laughing… After this video, if any leftist motherf***** trumpets the ideals of Kashmiriyat, please take off your shoes and beat them up.”

At the time this article was written, the post had been shared more than 3,000 times. (Archive)

The same day, X account @ProfSudhaanshu also shared the video with a similar claim. The post has now been taken down but the last time Alt News checked when it was live, it had raked up over 120,000 views. Here’s an archived version of the now-deleted post.

Another X account, @IRinitiPandey, posted the video with a similar claim. (Archive)

The same video was amplified across X by several other users. (Archives: 1, 2, 3)

Click to view slideshow.

The video was also viral on Facebook with similar claims. Screenshots below:

Click to view slideshow.

Fact Check

To verify the truth behind the viral video, we broke it down into several key frames. We then ran a reverse-image search on one of these, which led us to a YouTube video from April 3, 2025, which is 19 days before the Pahalgam terror attack.

This clip in this YouTube short is exactly the same as the video that was recently viral and associated with the Pahalgam terror attack. We also found a Facebook reel uploaded on April 3 that features the same video.

It’s possible that the video was from earlier, but we were unable to find when exactly it happened. We know for sure that the viral clip was available on the internet since April 3, 2025, at least.

We have reached out to the Facebook account that shared this video on April 3 to understand what was happening in the clip. The story will be updated if and when they respond.

To conclude, a video, which has been on the internet since April 3, 2025, was falsely linked to the April 22 Pahalgam attack with hateful remarks against Kashmiris.

(With inputs from Oishani Bhattacharya)

The post Video shared on April 3 falsely linked to April 22 Pahalgam terror attack to malign Kashmiris appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Prantik Ali.

Four-year-old photo of Chinese aircraft edited to claim Pakistan Air Force plane crash

Abhishek Kumar — Mon, 05 May 2025 07:49:42 +0000

Amid foreboding about a possible military conflict between India and Pakistan against the backdrop of the Pahalgam attack, an image of a fighter plane that seemingly crash landed is doing the rounds on social media. The Pakistani flag is visible on the vertical stabilizer of the plane. The photo is being shared with the claim that it depicts a J-10C aircraft belonging to the Pakistani Air Force which crashed in the Mianwali area during the Zarb-e-Haideri training exercise.

A user named Ghatak made the same claim while tweeting this picture. (Archived link)

Riccha Dwivedi, chief editor of New India Junction, also tweeted the image. (Archived link)

A user named Subodh Sharma also tweeted a picture of the damaged plane in which the Pakistani flag is attached. (Archived link)

Fact Check

Alt News performed a reverse image search of the viral picture on Google, which led us to another version of it shared on X (Twitter) by a user named Simon Harley on October 23, 2021. This makes it clear that the photo in question is at least four-year old. In the tweet, Harley has mentioned that this is a Chinese fighter jet J-10. In addition, the flag of Pakistan is nowhere to be seen in this picture.

Chinese J-10 jets hatch underwater and then crawl to land in search of avgas. pic.twitter.com/NeTy0yw41V

— Simon Harley (@simonharley) October 23, 2021

We also performed a keyword search using related terms. This led us to an article on a website named Defence Blog, in which the viral picture and other pictures of the plane crash were shared. According to this report, the image shows a J-10 fighter plane of China’s People’s Liberation Army Air Force crashed into the Jialu River in Henan province on October 22, 2021.

We also found a report from October 23, 2021 on a website named Taiwan English News which contained the viral image. The report mentions that a J-10S fighter plane of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Air Force crashed into a river in Henan province on October 22, 2021. A video related to the plane crash is also included in this article.

Many social media users also posted the footage of the Chinese aircraft crash on social media on October 22, 2021.

a PLAAF J-10 trainer aircraft allegedly made emergency landing on Jialu River (賈魯河) in Henan province this morning (Oct 22). 2 pilots ejected from the fighter and landed on the river too.

1/n pic.twitter.com/mOltd7FidS

— Byron Wan (@Byron_Wan) October 22, 2021

Aviation news website Aeroflap also covered the crash on October 23, 2021 with images of the damage from different angles. The images found in all these articles clearly show that the plane did not have any Pakistani flag on it. This means that the viral image has been edited and the Pakistani flag was added later. The difference between the original image and the edited image can be seen in the graphic below.

To sum up, several users and journalists shared an edited image of a crashed Chinese fighter jet and claimed that it was a J-10C aircraft belonging to the Pakistan Air Force that crash landed.

The post Four-year-old photo of Chinese aircraft edited to claim Pakistan Air Force plane crash appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Abhishek Kumar.

Videos, press release claiming 102 Pakistani soldiers killed by BLA from 2024

Ankita Mahalanobish — Sat, 03 May 2025 14:47:51 +0000

A press release, allegedly by the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA), is being widely shared on social media with claims that the separatist militant outfit has killed 102 Pakistani soldiers. The press release has been signed off by a BLA spokesperson, Jeeyand Baloch. Along with this, videos showing a fleet of trucks on fire and a massive explosion in the distance were also being circulated.

After the April 22 terror attack in Kashmir’s Pahalgam, in which 26 people were killed, social media has been rife with several unverified reports, images, and videos. These online claims have especially targeted the armies of India and Pakistan, resulting in a lot of misinformation emerging amid the worsening ties between the two countries in the aftermath of the attack. India has blamed the neighbouring country for fostering terrorist outfits, which it believes are responsible for the carnage in Kashmir.

On April 30, X user @krishnakamal077 shared a video showing several trucks on fire along with the BLA press release, claiming that the Balochistan Liberation Army was on a “rampage” against the Pakistani armed forces and had killed 102 Pakistani soldiers as part of its “OperationHerof”. (Archive)

The Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) is on a rampage against the Pakistani military in Balochistan. They claim to have killed 102 Pakistani soldiers overnight after launching #OperationHereof #Balochistan #Pakistan #PakistanArmy pic.twitter.com/unHNNQMUK2

— PKMKB Forever (@krishnakamal077) April 29, 2025

At the time of writing this, the post had garnered over 220,000 views.

The same day, another X account, The Squadron (@THE_SQUADR0N), shared the same footage along with the letter, claiming that the BLA killed 102 soldiers belonging to the Pakistan army and held 22 captive as part of its overnight operation. (Archive)

Baloch Liberation Army announces they have ki!!ed 102 Pakistani soldiers in an overnight operation in Balochistan and 22 Pakistani Soldiers are still in custody of BLA. The fight for freedom continues. #Balochistan #BLA #Pakistan #PakistanArmy #PahalgamTerroristAttack pic.twitter.com/6SJmdfCYrr

— THE SQUADRON (@THE_SQUADR0N) April 29, 2025

The post has around 181,000 views.

These claims were also made by another X user, Vishalsena7 (@Vishalsena7_), who also shared similar footage and the BLA press release. (Archive)

The Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) is on a rampage against the Pakistani military in Balochistan. They claim to have killed 102 Pakistani soldiers overnight after launching #Balochistan #IndiaPakistanWar #PakArmy #IndianArmy #TrumpTariffs #worldwar3 pic.twitter.com/vM25zkohzX

— Vishalsena7 (@Vishalsena7_) April 29, 2025

Some social media users shared the BLA press release along with a short, 7-second video clip—different from the earlier footage—taken at night, showing a massive explosion.

X user Ayush Pandit (@ayush95_) shared the shorter clip and the same BLA press release claiming that 40 Pakistani soldiers were killed in an attack by the BLA. (Archive)

BREAKING NEWS

40 Pakistani soldiers eliminated by Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) and they have claimed responsibility for the attack.#IndiaPakistanWar pic.twitter.com/yodGdYWYwV

— Ayush Pandit (@ayush95_) April 29, 2025

At the time of writing this, the post garnered over 280,000 views

Another X user, Dr. Vivek Pandey (@Vivekpandey21), also shared the same footage and the letter along with a similar claim. (Archive)

“Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) has claimed responsibility for eliminating 40 Pakistani soldiers. After bangladesh, the time has come for Pakistan to break into more pieces.#IndiaPakistanWar #IndiaPakistan #PahalgamTerroristAttack #PakistanBehindPahalgam pic.twitter.com/T4Uus04TKW

— Dr Vivek Pandey (@Vivekpandey21) April 30, 2025

The post has over 24,000 views.

Several social media users also shared similar claims. A few of them are below in the gallery.

Click to view slideshow.

Fact Check

To verify the authenticity of the claim, we began by closely examining the press release allegedly issued by the Balochistan Liberation Army and found that it was dated August 26, 2024.

Making it clear that the press release is not a recent one, but rather almost 9 months old.

Next, we investigated the two viral videos separately.

Video 1

A simple keyword search led us to a post dated August 26, 2024, by the X account Bahot (@bahot_baluch), whose bio says they are a journalist and writer focused on armed groups in Balochistan. The post had the same footage of trucks in flames, with the Hakkal Media watermark and the BLA logo visible in the top right corner. The user credited Hakkal Media, a BLA mouthpiece, for the video.

Baloch Liberation Army fighters have blockaded the main highway in the Koh-e-Suleman AREA, during which vehicles carrying minerals were destroyed
August 25, 2024.

Video via #Hakkal media pic.twitter.com/L2mprpp3HM

— Bahot | باہوٹ (@bahot_baluch) August 26, 2024

A comparison of the two videos is given below.

The same day, this user also shared the BLA press release, dated August 26, 2024, that was viral recently.

Latest Statement from Baloch Liberation Army #OperationHerodBLA

Majeed Brigade’s Fidayeen Kill Over 40 Soldiers, Control Bela Camp for the Past 6 Hours: BLA

Under the Baloch Liberation Army’s fidayeen operation “Herof,” the fidayeen unit of the BLA’s Majeed Brigade attacked the… https://t.co/buSm4tIS8I pic.twitter.com/sWgR5gaALw

— Bahot | باہوٹ (@bahot_baluch) August 26, 2024

To be sure, we also checked for news reports from then and found several that used the same screengrab of the purported video. A report by The Economic Times published on August 26, 2024, said that the insurgent group BLA had launched “Operation Herof” and taken responsibility for attacking and killing 102 Pakistani soldiers.

On September 5, 2024, news outlet The France 24 Observers reported that on August 25 and 26 over 70 people were killed in a series of coordinated attacks across Pakistan’s Balochistan province by the BLA. Citing Pakistani officials, the report noted that the victims included migrant workers from the neighbouring Punjab province, who were pulled from their trucks and executed after they were identified as Punjabi. The article also sais that 14 soldiers and police officers were killed in the attacks. Meanwhile Pakistani security forces had killed 21 BLA militants.

Video 2

We then looked at the 7-second clip that showed a massive explosion. After breaking down the video into multiple keyframes, we did a reverse image search on a few of them, which led us to a Reddit post from October 6, 2024, of the same footage. The caption of the post read, “Heavy Bombing by Israeli Fighter Jets on the Southern Suburb of Beirut”.

Taking cue from this, we conducted a keyword search that led us to several news reports confirming Israel’s airstrike on the suburbs of Beirut in October last year. On October 6, 2024, Moneycontrol reported citing Lebanese media that there was a series of intense Israeli airstrikes on southern Beirut, including the Chweifat area. According to Lebanon’s National News Agency (NNA), five strikes were carried out—four of which were described as “very violent.” The targeted areas were reportedly under Hezbollah control, with ambulances quickly dispatched to the affected sites.

To be sure, we also conducted multiple keyword searches to check if there were any recent news reports of a BLA attack in Pakistan, considering the claims said 102 soldiers were killed, but found no credible coverage on it.

In conclusion, the claim that the separatist militant group Balochistan Liberation Army carried out an attack in Pakistan during the last week of April 2025, killing 102 Pakistani soldiers, is false. The videos circulated to support such claim are old and unrelated. The BLA press release being circulated also dates back to August 2024.

The post Videos, press release claiming 102 Pakistani soldiers killed by BLA from 2024 appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Ankita Mahalanobish.

Burqa-clad woman hit by car: Video of Kerala accident falsely viral as targeted attack on Muslims in India

Shinjinee Majumder — Fri, 02 May 2025 15:00:00 +0000

The story uses only screenshots and not the actual video in view of the graphic nature of the content.

A CCTV footage of a burqa-clad woman getting hit by a car while walking with a child is viral on social media. Users claim that the woman was killed because of her religious identity. User @Th_LebanonTimes tweeted that human rights of Muslims in India are being violated ‘like Israel’. The tweet has garnered over 5 Lakh views. (Archive)

Verified X handle @voiceofhumans01 tweeted the video and said that she had been ‘deliberately targeted’. The tweet has garnered over 150,000 views. (Archive)

Several other users shared the video with the same claim. (Archives- 1, 2, 3, 4, 5)

Click to view slideshow.

Fact Check

Alt News found that Malayalam news outlet Mathrubhumi reported on the incident on Tuesday, April 29. According to the report, on Saturday, April 26, the accident victim, Badhariya, a native of Swagathamadu, Kottakkal town in Malappuram distrcit, was on her way back with her son Emir Mohammad from an anganwadi centre, when she was hit by a car in front of HMS Hospital in Kottakkal.

Mathrubhumi also attached a video to the report in which the car can be seen stopping immediately after the accident, and two people can be seen descending from the car and rushing to help. This indicates that the occupants of the car did not intend to flee after the incident. Another Mathrubhumi report on the incident also states that the driver of the car had apparently fallen asleep at the wheel.

Alt News reached out to Kottakkal Police, who informed us that the victim, Badhariya, was currently recovering from her injuries. We were told that the FIR had been filed as an accident report. Alt News accessed the FIR copy and found that the accused is a Muslim man named Mohammed Sanoop. The FIR additionally states that Badhariya was hit due to negligent driving and sustained bruising on her right leg, a cut on her upper lip and left cheek and an injury at the back of her head. The FIR was filed on April 29, three days after the accident.

As it stands, the incident of a burqa-clad woman being hit by a car in Kottakkal in Malappuram, Kerala, is being given a false communal angle and presented as a case of targeted attack against a Muslim woman. In reality, the car had immediately stopped after the incident, and the passengers descended to help her. Moreover, the accused in the FIR copy is a Muslim man.

The post Burqa-clad woman hit by car: Video of Kerala accident falsely viral as targeted attack on Muslims in India appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Shinjinee Majumder.

Clip of Pakistan army chief General Asim Munir visiting LoC viral after Pahalgam attack actually from 2022

Oishani Bhattacharya — Fri, 02 May 2025 14:33:35 +0000

A 57-second clip showing Pakistan’s army chief, General Asim Munir, with armed troops is viral on social media. Claims have emerged online that Munir is visiting the Line of Control (LoC) to inspect war-readiness and boost the morale of Pakistani soldiers. The LoC is an over 700-km long de facto border or military control line that separates the Indian and Pakistan-administered areas of Kashmir.

The viral video comes days after terrorists shot at civilians enjoying their time at the lush meadows of the Baisaran valley near Kashmir’s Pahalgam. The dastardly terror act, on April 22, claimed the lives of at least 26 people. India has held Pakistan-backed terror groups responsible for the attack and taken several stringent steps, such as suspending the 1960 Indus Water treaty, shutting the integrated check post at the Attari border, halting access to travel under the SAARC Visa Exemption Scheme (SVES) and closing India’s airspace to Pakistani airplanes. Several Pakistan-based social media accounts have also been banned in the country. Needless to say, already frigid diplomatic ties between the two countries have worsened. In a high-level security meet on April 29, Prime Minister Narendra Modi gave the Indian armed forces “complete operational freedom to decide on the mode, targets and timing” of India’s response to the attack.

Readers must also note that the viral video surfaced online soon after social media was abuzz with rumours that the Pakistan army chief had disappeared after the Pahalgam attack. Several media outlets also published reports citing ‘unverified’ social media claims.

X page South Asian Perspective, recognised as an official organisation by the platform, shared the clip showing General Munir on April 30. The caption said that Pakistani accounts had shared a video of the army chief visiting the LoC to inspect Pakistan’s war-readiness and boost the morale of soldiers. At the time this article was written, the post had gained more than 340,000 views. (Archive)

X user Dr Shama Junejo (@ShamaJunejo) shared the same clip on April 30 with a caption that said, “Pakistani Army Chief General Asim Munir at the front posts. Karo Hamla… (bring it on)”. The post has received over 225,000 views and was reshared over 300 times. (Archive)

Several other X users shared the same clip, claiming that it’s recent footage of General Munir visiting the LoC as Pakistan gears up for war.

Click to view slideshow.

Fact Check

To verify this claim, we broke down the viral clip into multiple keyframes and ran a reverse image search on a few of them. This led us to a thread by an X account called Intelligence Directorate (@IntelDte). The bio of the page said, “Directorate of Pakistan Strategic Defence Force “. This thread was posted on December 3, 2022, and the first post of the thread carried the now-viral video of General Asim Munir interacting with Pakistani soldiers. However, this video did not have any voiceover, unlike the viral clip.

The caption accompanying the video said: “General Syed Asim Munir, Chief of Army Staff (#COAS) visited frontline troops in Rakhchikri Sector of Line of Control (LOC) today. COAS was briefed on latest situation along LOC & operational preparedness of the formation.”

The account @IntelDte is based in Pakistan, hence, at present, it remains banned in India. We are attaching the archive links of the original X posts in the thread and a screen recording of the first X post that had the same video. (Archive 1, 2, 3)

We then ran a relevant keyword search and found a YouTube video posted on the channel of ISPR Official; ISPR stands for Inter-Services Public Relations and is the media and public relations wing of the Pakistan Armed Forces. The video was posted on December 3, 2022, and the title reads, “Press Release No 108/2022 – COAS Visited Troops in Rakhchikri Sector of LoC – 3 Dec 2022 | ISPR”.

The same news was also covered by Pakistan-based media outlet Dunya News on December 3, 2022. While reporting on it, the channel aired visuals from the now-viral video.

Further, we found a news report by Al Jazeera from December 3, 2022, which said that Pakistan Army Chief Asim Munir visited the LoC and vowed “not only to defend every inch of our motherland, but to take the fight back to the enemy if ever war is imposed on us”.

Therefore, it is clear that the clip showing General Asim Munir visiting the LoC to check Pakistan’s war-readiness is from three years ago and not recent.

The post Clip of Pakistan army chief General Asim Munir visiting LoC viral after Pahalgam attack actually from 2022 appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Oishani Bhattacharya.

Pahalgam: Pak media falsely claims Indian Army Lt Gen M V Suchindra Kumar sacked, detained, following attack

Abhishek Kumar — Fri, 02 May 2025 11:04:25 +0000

At least 26 people lost their lives in the terrorist attack in Pahalgam in Anantnag district of Kashmir on April 22. According to survivors’ accounts, the terrorists asked tourists enjoying their time in Baisaran Valley about their religion before shooting them. The Resistance Front (TRF), an outfit linked to the Lashkar-e-Taiba, initially claimed responsibility for the attack, but later denied it. Jammu and Kashmir Police released sketches of the terrorists based on the description of the survivors and revealed the perpetrators included Ali alias Talha (Pakistani national), Asif Fauji (Pakistani national), Adil Hussain Thokkar (resident of Anantnag) and Ahsan (resident of Pulwama). In response to this terrorist incident, India suspended the Indus Water Treaty and canceled the visas of Pakistani citizens with immediate effect.

Since then, several Pakistani X handles and media houses are claiming that Lieutenant General M V Suchindra Kumar has been detained because he publicly blamed the Indian government for the Pahalgam terror incident.

Pakistani journalist Maleeha Hashme posted a report from a Pakistani news channel claiming that Lieutenant General M V Suchindra Kumar had been sacked and summoned to Delhi. Sharing this news, Maleeha claimed that the Indian Army officer had accepted responsibility for the Pahalgam incident and was subsequently sacked. (Archive link)

An X user named ‘Pakistan Strategic Prism’ also tweeted that Lieutenant General M V Suchindra Kumar had been detained for violating military protocol because he blamed the Indian government for the Pahalgam attack. (Archive link)

A user named Taimur Malik tweeted that the Modi government sacked and detained India’s Northern Army Commander Lieutenant General M V Suchindra Kumar because he had refused to attack Pakistan after the Pahalgam incident. Lieutenant General Prateek Sharma will be appointed in his place on May 1, this user claimed. (Archive link)

Pakistani media outlets Times of Karachi, Dunya News, Geo News Urdu and other Pakistani social media users also made similar claims.

Fact Check

When we searched for keywords related to Lieutenant General M V Suchindra Kumar, we found a report from Indian news agency United News of India dated April 20, 2025. This report clearly states that Lieutenant General Suchindra Kumar is retiring on April 30 and Lieutenant General Prateek Sharma would take over as the new Commander of the Northern Command headquartered in Udhampur.

It is clear from this that the news that Lieutenant General Suchindra Kumar is retiring at his pre-determined time was published even before the terrorist incident in Pahalgam on 22 April. Therefore, his retirement has no connection with the Pahalgam terrorist attack.

The fact-check unit of the Union government, too, denied the news of the detention of Lieutenant General M V Suchindra Kumar amplified by Pakistani users and media, and said that Lieutenant General Kumar was to retire on April 30. Lieutenant General Prateek Sharma would succeed him.

Several pro-Pakistan social media accounts falsely claim that Northern Commander Lt Gen Suchindra Kumar has been removed from his post after the Pahalgam incident#PIBFactCheck

The claims being made in these posts are #fake

Lt. Gen MV Suchindra Kumar is attaining… pic.twitter.com/MogYJABl1Z

— PIB Fact Check (@PIBFactCheck) April 30, 2025

To sum up, several Pakistani media outlets and social media users falsely claimed that Lt. Gen M V Suchindra Kumar had publicly blamed the Indian government for the Pahalgam terror incident and was sacked and/or detained.

The post Pahalgam: Pak media falsely claims Indian Army Lt Gen M V Suchindra Kumar sacked, detained, following attack appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Abhishek Kumar.

Pahalgam terrorists celebrating? Old video by Kazakhstan content creator falsely viral

Abhishek Kumar — Fri, 02 May 2025 10:56:34 +0000

Following the terrorist attack in Pahalgam, Kashmir, a video has been doing the rounds on social media. In the footage, five men are sitting inside a car and heard declaring ‘Assalamu Alaikum’ and ‘Allahu Akbar’. Social media users have shared the video claiming terrorists who carried out the Pahalgam attack were seen celebrating.

An X user named Ujjwal shared the video and wrote that the video showed terrorists of Pahalgam, who have made it viral on social media while celebrating. (Archived link)

Jitendra Pratap Singh, a BJP supporter who amplifies misinformation and communal propaganda on a regular basis, shared the video and wrote that this was a video of terrorists who opened fire on Hindus in Pahalgam after asking about their religion. (Archived link)

ध्यान से देख लो इन्हें,

धर्म पूछ कर @तंक की गोलियां बरसाने वाले,
पहलगाम में मारे गए 28 निर्दोष हिंदुओं के हत्यारे

स्थानीय तुतल!मान की मिलीभगत से रचा गया
नर!संहार का खू!नी खेल। pic.twitter.com/Qr3qVvuC47

— Jitendra pratap singh (@jpsin1) April 24, 2025

A user named Piyush also shared the video with the same claim. (Archived link)

Fact Check

We performed a reverse image search of a few frames taken from the viral video on Google, which led us to the source video which was tweeted on April 12, 2025 by an account named Radio Roma. In other words, this video was posted online 10 days before the terrorist attack in Pahalgam, which occurred on April 22, 2025.

Contrôle au faciès obligatoire pic.twitter.com/8LoMGirqeU

— RADIOROMA (@RadioRomaX) April 12, 2025

Among the search results, we also came across the Instagram account of a user named Sadiq, a content creator from Kazakhstan, where the video was posted on April 11, 2025. Sadiq’s Instagram handle (@_sadiq999_) has more than 2.75 Lakh followers. His timeline had many such videos, almost all of which, including the viral video, have been taken down since the Hindi version of this article was published on April 26, 2025. Here is, however, a screenshot of the timeline before posts were deleted.

Alt News has reached out to Sadiq for a statement on the matter and this article will be updated once we receive a response from him.

To sum up, several users shared a video uploaded by a Kazakhstan-based creator on social media days before the terror attack in Pahalgam, Kashmir, and falsely claimed that it was a video of the terrorists responsible for the attack celebrating after carrying out the violence.

The post Pahalgam terrorists celebrating? Old video by Kazakhstan content creator falsely viral appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Abhishek Kumar.

2023 video during ex-Pakistan PM’s arrest falsely linked to Indian army’s action along LoC after Pahalgam attack

Ankita Mahalanobish — Fri, 02 May 2025 06:44:05 +0000

A video showing a crowd of men and thick smoke with yellow blaze in the background was widely shared on social media. In the footage, captured at night, some men can be seen trying to record the scene on their phones, while others in masks try to move away from the smoke. Social media users sharing this video claimed that the footage is from April 26, 2025 and shows the Indian army destroying posts held by the Pakistan army along the Line of Control (LoC).

The LoC is an over 700-km-long de facto border along Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh that separates Pakistan and India. The viral video emerges amid escalating tensions between the two countries following the terrorist attack in Kashmir’s Pahalgam, in which at least 26 were killed. India has accused the neighbouring country of not acting firmly against terrorists taking refuge in the country and allowing terror groups to thrive on their land.

On April 27, X user Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury (@salah_shoaib) shared the video, claiming that the Indian army would not show mercy to the “Terrorist Republic of Pakistan” and that multiple Pakistani posts were destroyed along the LoC on the night of April 26, 2025. (Archive)

Indian Army shall not show any mercy to the Ter*rorist Republic of Pakistan. Multiple Paki posts being des*troyed in the Line of Control (LoC) last night. pic.twitter.com/SQ8ekL1t2t

— Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury (@salah_shoaib) April 27, 2025

Choudhury is a journalist and editor of Bangladesh-based tabloid, Blitz. His post garnered around 371,000 views.

Another X account, Voice of Hindus (@Warlock_Shubh), shared a similar video clip claiming that several Pakistani posts were dismantled across various locations at the LoC. (Archive)

Pakistan faced heavy losses at the LOC with multiple posts being dismantled across various locations

Indian Army is in no mood to show mercy on these terrorist nation pic.twitter.com/6S1L9AO26f

— Voice of Hindus (@Warlock_Shubh) April 27, 2025

The post has approximately 900,000 views.

X user Satyaagrah (@satyaagrahindia) also posted the video with similar claims.

Pakistan faced heavy losses at the LOC with multiple posts being dismantled across various locations

Indian Army is in no mood to show mercy on these terrorist nation #IntelligenceBureau #Security #Delhi #PahalgamTragedy #PakistanArmy
Join | https://t.co/bq8DAxMRoA pic.twitter.com/QOSaSzOH1v

— Satyaagrah (@satyaagrahindia) April 27, 2025

Several others also made similar posts. A few of them have been documented in the gallery below.

Click to view slideshow.

Fact Check

To verify the claims, we broke down the video into several key frames and performed a reverse image search on a few of them. This led us to a similar video posted by the official X account of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf or PTI (@PTIofficial) on May 11, 2023. PTI is a key political party in the neighbouring country.

The caption of the post indicated that the footage was during shelling at the Kashmir Highway (now Srinagar Highway) in Islamabad, It was followed by the hashtag #ReleaseImranKhan.

Heavy shelling at Kashmir Highway as protesters number is increasing. Its time for people of Pakistan to come out and defend Pakistan. #ReleaseImranKhan pic.twitter.com/ymhBUqeYKt

— PTI (@PTIofficial) May 10, 2023

For context, on May 9, 2023, former Pakistan prime minister Imran Khan, then the leader of PTI, was arrested when he appeared at the Islamabad court to face corruption allegations. Khan’s arrest sparked protests across Pakistan. These protests by enraged supporters of Khan had caused widespread violence and rare attacks on state and military facilities. A May 10 report by Reuters said that the police had called in the military to help control protests that had started spiralling out of control.

Later on May 11, 2023, the Pakistan Supreme Court ruled that Khan’s arrest on corruption charges was illegal and ordered his immediate release.

The frames of May 10 video shared by PTI matched the viral video. Thus we were certain that the video being circulated on social media after the Pahalgam attacks was from at least two years ago and was shared with false claims. But to be sure, we also ran keyword searches to look for news reports on Indian army’s demolition of Pakistani posts along the LoC on April 26.

We found a few reports that said that Pakistan had violated the ceasefire along the LoC in Jammu and Kashmir by resorting to unprovoked small arms firing from multiple posts across the Kashmir valley on the intervening night of April 25-26. “No casualties have been reported,” a Srinagar-based defence spokesperson told the Times of India. Even on days following that, there were several instances of ceasefire violations along the LoC but no credible news report said that the Indian army had demolished Pakistani posts along the de facto border.

To sum up, the video showing blaze and heavy smoke is two years old and dates back to 2023 when widespread protests erupted during the arrest of former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan. It is unrelated to the current tensions between India and Pakistan. Furthermore, no credible news media reports or army statements could corroborate that the Indian army had destroyed multiple Pakistani posts along the Line of Control.

The post 2023 video during ex-Pakistan PM’s arrest falsely linked to Indian army’s action along LoC after Pahalgam attack appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Ankita Mahalanobish.

Video of rape-accused lynched in Bangladesh shared with claims that Hindu boy beaten & killed in Bengal

Prantik Ali — Thu, 01 May 2025 08:51:28 +0000

Trigger Warning: The story has visuals of graphic violence. Readers’ discretion advised.

A 90-second-long video of a boy brutally lynched by a mob is doing the rounds on social media. In the clip, the person, already bleeding, is kicked and thrashed with sticks until he collapses. Alt News has only used a screenshot of the posts with the videos owing to their graphic nature.

On April 19, X user @AstroCounselKK shared the video with a Hindi caption claiming that the incident happened in West Bengal. The social media user also alleged that the boy, a Hindu, was lynched and killed by ‘Jihadis’ or Muslim fundamentalists following protests over the Waqf (Amendment) Act. Readers must note that after the passage of the Waqf (Amendment) Act, protests had erupted in several parts of the country. In Bengal’s Murshidabad, these had turned violent. At least three people had died, several others, including police personnel, were injured, and vehicles and property vandalised.

At the time of this article being written, the post has garnered nearly 13,000 views and has been reshared close to 300 times. (Archive)

Another X user, @PraharajDebasis, also shared the video, adding that the kid was six years old. (Archive)

Some on social media, such as Facebook user Pradeepa Gowda, have also alleged that the lynched boy, a 10-year-old, was a Dalit, who was beaten up by a Muslim mob. Gowda’s Facebook post (screenshot below) was shared around 1,200 times at the time of this article being written.

Alt News also received several requests on its WhatsApp helpline (+91 7600011160) to verify the authenticity of these claims.

Fact Check

A relevant keyword search in Bengali led us to a Facebook video, posted on March 19. The caption of the video, when translated into English, says that a youth had raped six-year-old child in the Khilket region of Bangladesh. However, while he was taken to the police station, people took matters into their own hands and thrashed him brutally, eventually resulting in his death, it read.

আজকে আমাদের খিলক্ষেত লোকেশনে ৬ বছরের বাচ্চাকে ধর্ষণ করেছে একজন ছেলে। পুলিশ আসামিকে নিয়ে থানায় যাওয়ার সময় জনগন আসামিকে ধরে গন ধোলাইয়ে আসামিকে কে মেরে ফেলে। এটাই সঠিক বিচার।#followers #vairalvideo Bangladesh #

Posted by Md Emon Ahmed Bappi on Wednesday 19 March 2025

After carefully examining this video, we were able to conclude that it depicts the same instance of mob violence from a different angle. In both these videos, the victim can be seen wearing identical clothing.

We then searched for local news reports from around that time with relevant keywords, and came across one by a Bangladesh-based publication, The Business Standard. According to this report, a 17-year-old boy, accused of raping a five-year-old child, was critically injured in a mob attack in Dhaka’s Khilkhet area on the night of 18 March. According to police, the suspect was taken into custody but was forcibly taken from the police vehicle and assaulted by a crowd. The mob also vandalised the police vehicle in front of Mannan Plaza, in the Khilket area, despite attempts by officers to control the situation.

We then tried a keyword search in Bengali and found a news report by Samay News, a news outlet from Bangladesh. It said that the youth, accused of rape, was apprehended by the mob, resulting in a situation of chaos in which police officers were also injured.

Another keyword search in Bengali led us to a March 19 news report by ‘Kaaler Kontho,’ a Bangladesh-based news outlet, which identified the youth as Rabiul Hasan.

Other Bangladeshi news outlets, including Dhaka Tribune, Prothom Alo and The Daily Star, also reported on the incident. All of these outlets also clarified that the lynched youth was alive and under treatment owing to critical injuries.

Click to view slideshow.

Alt News also came across a news segment on the YouTube channel of DBC News Live, a Bangladeshi TV news channel, which was uploaded on March 19. It shows the victim of the assault, under treatment at the Dhaka Medical College Hospital.

To sum up, a video from March from the Khilkhet area in Bangladesh showing a boy, accused of raping a child, being beaten up by a mob is being shared on social media with claims that it depicts the mob lynching of a Hindu teenager in West Bengal. Some users also claimed that a Muslim mob was thrashing a Dalit youth. In reality, the person, identified as Rabiul Hasan, is from Bangladesh and the lynching was over rape accusations. The viral allegations are misleading and baseless.

The post Video of rape-accused lynched in Bangladesh shared with claims that Hindu boy beaten & killed in Bengal appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Prantik Ali.

Welsh church fire has no Indian or Pakistani links, South Wales Police rubbishes social media claims

Oishani Bhattacharya — Thu, 01 May 2025 06:46:12 +0000

On April 24, a huge fire engulfed a 19th-century Welsh chapel in Port Talbot town of Wales. A video of the ablaze Bethany English Calvinistic Methodist Chapel quickly went viral on social media, sparking widespread speculation about the identities of those responsible for it. On social media, some claimed that the perpetrators were Indian immigrants named Raghav Patel and Rahul Kumar, while others alleged that two Pakistani nationals were behind the attack. Claims online went as far as suggesting that immigrants were contributing to an assault on Christianity in the United Kingdom.

These claims come amid heightened communal tensions within India following the terrorist attack in Pahalgam, Kashmir, on April 22, in which at least 26 were killed. Since then, there have been multiple reports of targeted ‘retaliatory’ attacks against Muslims, particularly Kashmiris, in various parts of the country. On social media, accounts that blatantly share pro-Hindu or pro-Pakistan content and misinformation have also been on the rise.

READ: Pahalgam and after: Tracking ‘retributive’ hate crimes against minorities across India

On April 27, X user Julia Kendrick (@JuKrick) shared a clip showing the Welsh church on fire, claiming that two Indian immigrants (Raghav Patel & Rahul Kumar) were behind the attack. This user also said, “Christianity is under attack in the UK”. At the time this article was written, the X post had over 389,000 views and was reshared over 3,200 times. (Archive)

Another X account, @seriousfunnyguy, also shared a clip of the burning church and claimed that two Pakistani nationals were responsible for it. The user also insinuated that cultural plurality was inevitably resulting in the destruction of locals’ culture. It said, “… they are destroying your culture and your religion for Sharia!”

At the time of writing this, the post has more than 106,000 views and was reshared over 15,000 times. (Archive)

You welcomed them with open arms in the name of Multiculturalism, they are destroying your culture and your religion for Sharia!

Wales Church burnt down by 2 Pakistani nationals

pic.twitter.com/Swl1rzsby4

— SUDHIR (@seriousfunnyguy) April 27, 2025

Several other X users shared these claims, including Shefali Vaidya (@ShefVaidya), whose posts amplifying communal misinformation we have often flagged.

Click to view slideshow.

Fact Check

A simple keyword search led us to several local news reports that said two teenage boys suspected of causing the fire were arrested. A report by Wales Online said that a 14-year-old boy from the Sandfields area and a 15-year-old boy from Bryn were arrested by South Wales Police on suspicion of arson. Both localities fall within Neath Port Talbot in Wales. The identity of the boys, including their full names or ethnicities, was not disclosed, likely because they are minors.

We then checked the official social media handles associated with South Wales Police for an official statement on the incident. On April 28, they shared an update on the case, which said that two teens from the Port Talbot area were arrested on suspicion of arson. It further added, “Other rumours circulating online are false and inflammatory, and we urge people not to share such claims.”

Two teenagers from the #PortTalbot area have been arrested on suspicion of arson following a fire at a chapel in the town earlier this week.

Other rumours circulating online are false and inflammatory and we urge people not to share such claims. https://t.co/3d2lOmbeVj pic.twitter.com/MLcVT8maEh

— South Wales Police (@swpolice) April 27, 2025

Alt News also reached out to South Wales Police for further clarification on the teens’ identities. In an email response, a spokesperson for the police confirmed there was “no link to India or Pakistan at all.” They further stated that the rumours circulating on social media over the weekend are “completely false,” and that the two teenagers are local residents from Neath Port Talbot.

Thus, the above findings make it amply clear that the viral posts claiming that Indian or Pakistani immigrants were behind the fire at the historic Welsh chapel are baseless.

The post Welsh church fire has no Indian or Pakistani links, South Wales Police rubbishes social media claims appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Oishani Bhattacharya.

Mass resignations in Pakistan army after Pahalgam attack? Media outlets’ reportage based on fabricated letter

Shinjinee Majumder — Wed, 30 Apr 2025 08:44:34 +0000

In the aftermath of the horrific terror attack in Kashmir’s Pahalgam on April 22, in which at least 26 people were killed, social media remains rife with several unverified claims, videos and images. Among these is an advisory purportedly issued by the media and public relations wing of the Pakistan Armed Forces, saying that it would sternly deal with unauthorised resignations by Pakistani soldiers from service. The advisory says several army personnel have deserted service or resigned en masse over “fears of war with India” after the Pahalgam incident.

The gun attack in Pahalgam has been dubbed among the deadliest acts of terrorism in the country targeting civilians in recent history. The incident has also worsened fraying ties between India and Pakistan; India has accused the neighbouring country of fostering cross-border terrorism and suspended the Indus Water Treaty as a result. In this context, the viral “advisory” allegedly published on behalf of the Pakistan army assumes greater significance.

On April 28, journalist Aditya Raj Kaul, who has been fact-checked by Alt News several times, shared the letter on X and said, “Huge. Mass resignations are being reported in Pakistan Army as morale is at its lowest under Asim Munir’s leadership.” Asim Munir is the Pakistan army chief. At the time this article was written, his post had garnered 1.2 million views. (Archive)

The advisory shared by Kaul was purportedly issued by the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the public relations wing of the Pakistan Armed Forces. It is addressed to officers of “All Ranks, Pakistan Armed Forces” by one Major General Faisal Mehmood Malik. According to the letter, Malik is the Director General of the Inter-Services Public Relations (DGISPR).

The letter mentions that the Pahalgam incident and fears of war with India resulted in “huge requests for resignation and desertion among army personnel”. The letter addresses all officers of the Pakistan armed forces as ‘Mujahideens’ and directs them to uphold their oath to defend the nation. “Unauthorized resignation or desertion from service will face strict action under the Pakistan Army Act, 1952”, the letter says before ending with the words “Pakistan Jinabad!”

Kaul’s post was cited in a news segment by independent journalist Ajeet Bharti titled ‘Pahalgam: Pak Army Sees Mass Resignations | Secular Roast | New Video Emerges’.

Several media outlets published reports or broadcast news segments based on the so-called military directive. On April 28, The Economic Times published a report titled ‘Mutiny in Pakistan Army? Viral letter claims mass resignation amid fears of India-Pakistan war after Pahalgam attack’. The outlet mentions it has not independently verified the letter. An X post containing the viral advisory is embedded in the report. (Archive)

News18 Hindi also published a report on the resignations, which is similar to the content of the letter, but did not cite the viral advisory. (Archive)

The same day, republic’s Hindi counterpart, Republic Bharat, cited the mass resignations in its segment ‘Pakistan News Today: भारत की हुंकार से पाकिस्तानी सेना में विद्रोह | Pahalgam Terror Attack’. The resignations were also reported by Hindi channels Zee News and News Nation. Hyderabad-based local news channel RTV and Bengaluru-based English channel News9 also aired segments talking about the resignations. Most of these channels said these were “classified” army documents that were “leaked” without clearly mentioning where they obtained it from. Zee News’ reportage attributed the letter to “some reports”.

Click to view slideshow.

Several other social media users, including @MeghUpdates and @RealBababanaras, also shared similar images of the letter, claiming that the Pahalgam terror attack and the subsequent escalation of tensions between the countries led to mass resignations in the Pakistan army due to low morale. (Archives 1, 2, 3, 4, 5)

Click to view slideshow.

The image of the advisory was also viral on Facebook.

Click to view slideshow.

Fact Check

While verifying the authenticity of the directive, we noticed that the letter shared by many, including Kaul, appeared cut off from the top and bottom. We then performed a reverse-image search and found a full-page version of the letter, with the same content, shared by Instagram user @sarcasmic_troll on April 28. Below is a screenshot from the Instagram post with the handle’s watermark ‘Sarcasmic Troll’ on the top right corner.

Apart from this, several things in the so-called army directive struck us as odd. First, the news of mass resignations was not reported by local media outlets in Pakistan on the mass resignations but did not find any.

Two, according to the official website of the ISPR, the current Director General is Lieutenant General Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry, not Major General Faisal Mehmood Malik, who had signed off on the viral letter as the DGISPR or Director General of the Inter-Services Public Relations.

A keyword search of Malik’s full name yielded no results for a military official.

Three, when we tried to call the number mentioned in the ‘advisory’ (+92-51-9271600), a pre-recorded operator message said the number was not listed. We also sent an email to the mail ID ‘ispr@ispr.gov.pk’ mentioned in the viral letter, but it bounced back.

Four, the letter ended with the phrase ‘Pakistan Jinabad’ instead of the correct Urdu term ‘Zindabad’. It seemed unlikely that a classified military document would have such typos, especially considering Urdu is an official language and widely used in the country.

Five, we noticed that the logo at the top of the letter had a greyish square background, contrasting with the rest of the white page. This suggests the logo was likely cropped from another source and pasted onto the letter. A similar square outline is visible around the signature at the bottom of the advisory, indicating that it may have also been copied and pasted. The signature appears partially cropped and the colour in the background of the signature does not match that of the document. For the sake of clarity in the fact check, we have used the full-page letter uploaded by Instagram user @sarcasmic_troll with the handle’s watermark.

A closer examination of the logo shows that it was attributed to the “Chief of Army Staff” and featured two swords—alluding to the army. However, the letter was signed off by the DGISPR, which deals with all armed forces, including the navy and air force. Unlike the green logo in this letter, the official ISPR logo is multicoloured and represents all three branches of the military: the army, navy, and air force. We also compared the logo on the viral advisory with the logo on the official website of the Pakistan Army and found that this too was different. To put it simply, Alt News was able to establish that none of the official websites of the armed forces used the logo in the viral letter.

Lastly, we found glaring grammatical errors in the letter. For instance, the phrase “The incident done by our Mujahideens in Pahalgam” is grammatically incorrect. Also, the term ‘Mujahideens’ is unlikely to be used in official communication.

A senior military official at the Peshawar Corps headquarters also told Pakistan-based media outlet, Dawn, that “The resignation of army personnel is totally baseless. This is the fake news which is circulated by Indian social media accounts.”

Based on these findings, we were able to conclude that the advisory, widely broadcast by news outlets and shared by social media users, alleging that the Pahalgam attack on April 22 led to mass resignations in the Pakistani military is fabricated and baseless.

The post Mass resignations in Pakistan army after Pahalgam attack? Media outlets’ reportage based on fabricated letter appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Shinjinee Majumder.

Trump’s Immigration Crackdown: Images of handcuffed Guatemalan, Mexican immigrants shared as Indian deportees

Shinjinee Majumder — Thu, 06 Feb 2025 14:34:13 +0000

The United States, under President Donald Trump’s administration, has begun its crackdown against illegal immigrants. On Wednesday, February 5, news outlets reported that an American aircraft carrying over 100 Indian migrants landed in Punjab’s Amritsar. On social media, these reports of Indians being deported were shared with images and clips showing people chained and in handcuffs.

A report by Turkish public broadcaster TRT World showed one such image of “handcuffed” Indian immigrants being escorted to US military aircraft. (Archive) Delhi-based media outlet The Daily Guardian also used the same image in its report on Indians’ deportation from the US. (Archive)

Click to view slideshow.

Meanwhile, Congress leader Pawan Khera also issued a statement that photos showed Indian immigrants handcuffed. “Looking at the pictures of Indians getting handcuffed and humiliated while being deported from the US saddens me as an Indian…” he wrote in a post on X (formerly Twitter). Khera’s initial post had four images, apparently of Indian migrants, showing their wrists and feet in shackles. Khera later edited the post and removed the images. Below are screenshots. (Archives 1, 2)

Click to view slideshow.

Fact Check

Alt News found that the image showing handcuffed immigrants in TRT World’s report and the image on the top right in Khera’s post actually shows Guatemalans, not Indians. These images were shared by news agency Associated Press in a report dated February 1.

According to the AP report, a US Air Force jet deported 80 migrants with their writsts and ankles cuffed to Guatemala on Thursday, January 30. The caption of the widely shared image says migrants with face masks and shackles on their hands and feet sit on a military aircraft at Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas awaiting deportation.

Click to view slideshow.

A reverse image search of the second of the four photos in Khera’s post — showing masked migrants with their hands cuffed behind their back walking in a line led — us to a video shared on X on January 30. The image is a key frame in this video which, according to the caption, shows migrants being deported to Mexico. A location stamp in the video mentions Hidalgo, Texas.

Border patrol walking them right back in to Mexico.

(Repost ) pic.twitter.com/rRQ7JcifDr

— Viral News NYC (@ViralNewsNYC) January 30, 2025

Taking cue from this, we ran a keyword search and found a compilation of photos by Reuters showing scenes from the frontlines of the immigration crackdown from January 29. One of the pictures in the compilation showed migrants being escorted across the Hidalgo international border bridge in McAllen, Texas. The same migrants can be seen in the Reuters compilation, the video on X uploaded on January and in Khera’s now-edited post. Below is a comparison.

We were also able to locate the third image shared by Khera in the same Reuters picture compilation. The January 23 photo shows detained migrants waiting to take off on a US Air Force C-17 Globemaster III removal flight at the Tucson International Airport in Tucson, Arizona. Again, this image was taken two weeks before Indians were deported.

Alt News was also able to verify the last image used in Khera’s post. This is one of the key frames of a video shared by the US Homeland Security on X on January 28. “In the first week of the Trump Administration, we have fulfilled President Trump’s promise to the American people to arrest and deport violent criminals illegally in the country,” the post said.

Also, while some news reports claim that nearly 200 Indians were deported, Punjab minister Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal, who looks into affairs of overseas Indians, put the number at 104.

Mirror Now airs clips of deportation

Indian news outlet Mirror Now aired clips claiming it showed Indians being deported. Note that these videos featured scenes from the airport and US officials escorting a line of immigrants but immigrants were not seen handcuffed here. (Archive)

#BreakingNews: US military aircraft carrying 205 deported Indians set to arrive in Amritsar today afternoon @kaur_poviet brings in more details | @NivedhanaPrabhu pic.twitter.com/d1Yzo5HE0S

— Mirror Now (@MirrorNow) February 5, 2025

Fact Check

The clips in Mirror Now’s broadcast show migrants deported from the United States arriving in Guatemala; these are not related to Indians’ deportation. The clips were published by AP in a report on January 25.

Below are comparisons of keyframes from Mirror Now’s reportage and Associated Press’s video.

Click to view slideshow.

One can see the words ‘Instituto Guatemalteco de Migración’ on a hoarding. This translates to Guatemalan Institute of Migration. The words ‘Guatemala, C.A.’, can also be seen.

Congress spokesperson condemns ‘humiliation’ faced by Indian migrants

Congress spokesperson Shama Mohamed also shared an image showing handcuffed immigrants being lined up and escorted into an aircraft. “Why can’t we protest against the US for this humiliation and for treating Indians as criminals?” she wrote on X. (Archive)

Another X account, @IndianTrendX, also shared a similar image claiming Indians were being deported from the US under Trump’s administration. “In the first week of the Trump Administration, we have fulfilled President Trump’s promise to the American people to arrest and deport violent criminals illegally in the country,” the post, dated January 28, said. (Archive)

Fact Check

Alt News found that the images shared by the INC spokesperson and in the X post are not of Indians. Both images were originally shared on X by White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt on January 25 — at least 11 days before the deportation to Amritsar.

Deportation flights have begun.

President Trump is sending a strong and clear message to the entire world: if you illegally enter the United States of America, you will face severe consequences. pic.twitter.com/CTlG8MRcY1

— Karoline Leavitt (@PressSec) January 24, 2025

The images were also used in the video shared by the US Homeland Security on X. The post, dated January 28, claimed that in just a week, US law enforcement officials had “removed and returned 7,300 illegal aliens”.

In the first week of the Trump Administration, we have fulfilled President Trump’s promise to the American people to arrest and deport violent criminals illegally in the country. In one week, law enforcement officials have removed and returned 7,300 illegal aliens. pic.twitter.com/JKZYMD0f00

— Homeland Security (@DHSgov) January 28, 2025

Another image claiming to showcase deportation of Indian migrants viral

A similar image was used by Punjab-based news outlet The Tribune in their report on Indians’ deportation. (Archive)

Fact Check

A reverse image search of the photo used in The Tribune piece led us to a Reuters report on the cost of the these deportations using military aircraft where the same image has been used. The picture, a handout by the US Department of Defense, was taken on January 23 at Fort Bliss, Texas and shows US Customs and Border Protection security agents guiding detained migrants to board a the US Air Force C-17 Globemaster III aircraft.

The image is from two weeks before Indian migrants were deported.

Alt News’s fact-check report has verified several unrelated images and clips being circulated with claims that these are Indians but actually show migrants of other nationalities being deported. However, this does not imply that Indian deportees did not face the same conditions. On Thursday, February 6, The Indian Express reported that Indians illegally living there were indeed sent back to India handcuffed and chained. The report, citing one of the deportees, said that Indians were shackled for 40 hours on the aircraft, “not allowed to move an inch,” were allowed to “drag” themselves to the washroom after repeated requests. The official Instagram handle of the US Border Patrol also released visuals of the deportation wherein the shackled Indian immigrants can be seen entering the aircraft. “USBP and partners successfully returned illegal aliens to India, marking the farthest deportation flight yet using military transport”, reads the caption of the video.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by U.S. Border Patrol (@borderpatrol)

Also, it is important to mention here that this is not the first time the US has deported Indian migrants but never before have military aircraft been deployed for doing so.

The post Trump’s Immigration Crackdown: Images of handcuffed Guatemalan, Mexican immigrants shared as Indian deportees appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Shinjinee Majumder.

Wedding called off after groom danced to ‘Choli k peeche’? No, it was an ad that the media picked up as news

Abhishek Kumar — Thu, 06 Feb 2025 11:10:50 +0000

A newspaper clipping has been doing the rounds on social media featuring an alleged story about a groom in New Delhi dancing to the song ‘Choli Ke Peeche Kya Hai’ to entertain the wedding guests on January 18. According to the ‘report’, this angered the bride’s father and led to the marriage being called off. Placed next to this is an advertisement of Amazon MX Player, an OTT platform that provides free content, which states that everyone likes free entertainment.

Since the news story is related to the entertainment of the wedding guests and the promotion mentions free entertainment, the clipping is being widely circulated as the perfect example of ad placement.

probably the funniest ad placement i’ve seen till date pic.twitter.com/a189IFuRPP

— Xavier Uncle (@xavierunclelite) January 30, 2025

After the image had gone viral, a number of media outlets reported on the said ‘incident’. This included several major Hindi and English media outlets such as News18, Times of India, LiveMint, Deccan Chronicle, Economic Times, India TV News, DNA, Mathrubhumi, Indian Express, Republic, Deccan Herald, ABP News, News18 Hindi, One India, NDTV, Jansatta, as well as ABP News Hindi.

Click to view slideshow.

Fact Check

At first glance, the ‘story’ appears to be part of the advertising next to it as both the single -column piece and the ad next to it are in the same box and are separated from text above them by a solid line.

In newspaper layouts, one often finds news cluster or news packages, where similar items or related stories are put together. Their purpose is to provide context to several related news stories and enhance the reader’s understanding. When two or more news items are related in some way, for example, two different aspects of the same story, or news items that share a theme, presenting them together helps readers understand them in a more comprehensive way. Newspapers often make use of news clusters, keeping them separate and within a border so that the relationship is clearly visible.

In this case, the advertisement and the apparent news story were presented in a package or cluster.

Two more things are to be noted here:

Borders have special significance in newspaper layouts, as they are used to show separation or connection between two news items or advertisements. The presence of this news item and the advertisement within the same border or box raises suspicion of the placement being pre-planned and related.
This alleged news item completely matches the theme of the advertisement. Apart from this, a full stop has been used in its headline, which is not usually used in newspaper headlines. Furthermore, this news story neither has a byline nor a placeline.

Upon zooming in on the viral image, we saw two to three lines from another news story in small characters at the top. One line seen here states, “I will make them excellent. But if you ask me to engage in abuses”. When we performed an advanced search of this line on Google, we found a similar news article published on January 30 on a website called The Pioneer, which featured the headline, ‘Kejriwal calls Congress ‘vote cutter’.

Since this article was published on January 30, Alt News also examined the e-paper of the Delhi edition of The Pioneer from the same day. We found this advertisement and the alleged news story on the third page of the newspaper. Now, it is also worth noting that the alleged news story from January 18 about the marriage being called off due to the groom dancing to the song ‘Choli Ke Peeche Kya Hai’ was published in the newspaper on January 30, which is very odd.

We spoke to an official from ‘The Pioneer’ newspaper on this matter. He confirmed on the condition of anonymity that the news of the marriage being called off because of the groom dancing to ‘Choli Ke Peeche Kya Hai’ was not a factual news story, but an advertisement which an advertising agency had given him to publish.

Too Cheeky or Lack of Editorial Intervention?

Sometimes newspapers run advertisements that appear to be news stories, but they mention words like ‘advertorial’ or ‘consumer connect’ as a disclaimer somewhere on the page to indicate this to readers. This is part of basic editorial practice. For example, page 25 of the Mumbai edition of the Times of India newspaper published on February 5, 2025 was a full-page advertisement, and the word ‘ADVERTORIAL’ was mentioned in smaller text on the top right of the page.

Publishing advertisements that appear like real news stories without issuing a disclaimer shows a lack of editorial integrity and can be misleading to readers. Newspapers have a responsibility to maintain a clear distinction between news and advertisements. When they fail to do so, it affects readers’ trust in them and leads to the spread of misinformation. The recent case is an excellent example of this, where so many media outlets themselves fell for it and mistook the ad published by The Pioneer newspaper as a factual story, and created a cycle of misinformation.

The post Wedding called off after groom danced to ‘Choli k peeche’? No, it was an ad that the media picked up as news appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Abhishek Kumar.

Video showing BJP’s Kapil Mishra making communal remarks is doctored, uses fake audio

Prantik Ali — Wed, 05 Feb 2025 07:18:37 +0000

A video showing Bharatiya Janata Party’s Delhi wing vice president Kapil Mishra making communal remarks is viral on social media. In the 37-second long video, widely circulated a day before the Delhi election, Mishra can be heard asking a crowd of people, “Toh phir inn Musalmaano ko chhod doge tum?” (“So, will you let off these Muslims then?”). The listeners reply in unison that they won’t.

Mishra can also be heard telling these people that the BJP is winning seats where Muslims are contesting. He is referring to the Delhi polls taking place on February 5.

He further claims that Muslim votes are getting split among three parties. The All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) led by Asaduddin Owaisi and the Congress party are cutting into the ruling Aam Aadmi Party’s vote share thus giving the BJP an edge. Towards the end of the video, Mishra rouses the audience by declaring that once Muslim votes are divided, the BJP’s victory will be guaranteed. “So, will you let off these Muslims then?… No, right? We must hoist the saffron flag in every corner of the city,” he says in Hindi.

X user @MeMdHaider, whose bio claims he is AAP’s zonal president posted the video, alleging that Kapil Mishra was promoting communal disharmony between Hindus and Muslims. (Archive)

कपिल मिश्रा बोल रहा है की दिल्ली में अगर भाजपा की सरकार बनी तो हिन्दू-मुस्लिम भाइयों से आपस में लड़ाकर यह फ़िर से दंगे करायेगा।

मेरी दिल्ली के सभी भाइयों से अपील है की एक भी वोट बटने ना दे, सोच समझकर वोट दे।

दिल्ली में भाजपा और नफ़रत को सिर्फ़ @ArvindKejriwal जी ही हरा सकते है। pic.twitter.com/6QYeB7DP2B

— Er. Md. Haider । محمد حیدر । मोo हैदर (@MeMdHaider) February 4, 2025

Facebook user Shakeelur Rahman also shared the video, which at the time of this article being written was viewed over 3,000 times.

Posted by Shakeelur Rahman on Tuesday 4 February 2025

Alt News received several requests on its WhatsApp Helpline (+917600011160) to authenticate the footage.

Fact Check

To begin with, we observed that Kapil Mishra’s voice and the ambient sound in the viral video appeared artificial. Upon closer examination, we noticed that the audio did not match Mishra’s lip movements either. This is clear towards the end of the viral clip, where he says, “… bhagwa lehraoge ki nahi….”

Next, we were able to find the full video from which the viral clip was extracted by going through the past live videos uploaded on Kapil Mishra’s official Facebook page. We found that the viral footage is part of a longer livestream uploaded on January 23.

The clipped bit begins at the 8:59-minute mark of this stream and goes on till 9:36 minutes. This bit does not show him making any such remarks as seen in the viral video. Mishra can be heard asking supporters rhetorically whether AAP ministers were of any help during communal disturbances in the area five years ago.

Around the 8:38-minute timestamp, Mishra requests for the audience’s votes , saying, “Yaad rakhna… jab hamaare ghari me aag lagaane ke liye bheed aayi thi, toh sadkon pe koi nahi aaya tha sirf Kapil Mishra nikla tha.” (Remember when they gave to torch your homes, nobody except Kapil Mishra went out on the streets.) He further goes on to say that he was neither a legislator nor had a senior post in the BJP at the time. “These people (AAP leaders) are now coming and telling you vote for AAP as locals, but did anyone come during that time?” he says, to which the crowd replies unitedly, “No”. The audience replying in negative is very clearly visible in the viral video.

Thus the viral video is morphed. Fake audio mimicking Mishra’s voice has been overlaid in an unrelated video to give the false impression that he made remarks on Muslim votes getting split. In reality, the viral clip is a small part of Mishra’s speech canvassing votes for the BJP and targeting AAP for doing nothing during the 2020 Northeast Delhi communal violence. Alt News was not able to conclusively determine whether the audio was AI-generated.

The post Video showing BJP’s Kapil Mishra making communal remarks is doctored, uses fake audio appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Prantik Ali.

Fake ABP, Aaj Tak opinion polls viral in run-up to Delhi elections; channels issue statement

Shinjinee Majumder — Tue, 04 Feb 2025 15:41:32 +0000

In the run-up to the Delhi assembly polls to be held on February 5, several opinion polls are viral on social media. Some opinion polls project a landslide win for the incumbent Aam Aadmi Party while some project a win for the BJP.

Is AAP Projected to Win with 58-60 seats as Claimed by its Leader?

On February 4, the district president of AAP women wing in Delhi Sakshi Gupta tweeted an opinion poll purportedly released by news outlet ABP, which projected a whopping 58-60 seats for AAP, 10-12 seats for the BJP and zero seats for Congress. “Kejriwal is making a comeback”, remarked Gupta while sharing a video of the purported opinion polls. The video momentarily shows ABP journalist Pooja Sachdeva before tickers detailing the opinion poll show up on screen. (Archive)

Several other users, noticeably signed with the Aam Aadmi Party, tweeted the video. (Archives- 1, 2, 3)

Click to view slideshow.

Fact Check

It is pertinent to note that opinion polls are usually conducted after the voting ends. Consequently, we did not find any opinion poll officially released by ABP News. Furthermore, ABP News issued a statement wherein they denied having published any such opinion poll.

#FakeNewsAlert | सोशल मीडिया पर abp न्यूज़ के नाम से एक फर्जी वीडियो वायरल किया जा रहा है. इस तरह का कोई भी ओपिनियन पोल abp न्यूज़ द्वारा नहीं चलाया गया है.

आपसे अनुरोध है कि फर्जी खबरों से बचें और सही खबरों के लिए हमारे सोशल मीडिया हैंडल पर ही भरोसा करें.

IG -… pic.twitter.com/yxPxJX8y2s

— ABP News (@ABPNews) February 4, 2025

Upon a closer look at the video, we also noticed some discrepancies in the viral video. For instance, the audio does not match what Sachdeva says in the beginning. A slowed-down version of this part is attached below.

https://www.altnews.in/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/Untitled-video-Made-with-Clipchamp-36.mp4

Taking cue from this, we took a key frame from the beginning of the viral video where Sachdeva is visible and ran it through Google reverse image search. We were able to trace it back to an ABP news clip. The original clip shows Pooja Sachdeva reporting on Rahul Gandhi’s campaign in Delhi’s Patparganj and Okhla on January 28. A side-by-side comparison of the viral clip and the original clip is attached below. If one compares Sachdeva’s hand gestures, one can understand that the clips are same, only the audio replaced.

Similar Opinion Poll also Tweeted by AAP Leader, this time Attributed to Aaj Tak

Sakshi Gupta had put out another opinion poll projecting AAP win, this time attributing it to Aaj Tak. The tweet, now deleted, consisted of a video which predicted AAP would win 56-58 seats while BJP would win 12-14 seats and Congress would win zero seats. Here is an archive of her tweet.

This has also been tweeted by several users. (Archives- 1, 2, 3)

*दिल्ली चुनाव से ठीक पहले आजतक का सर्वे*

केजरीवाल का फिर से मुख्यमंत्री बनना तय

आम आदमी पार्टी को *56-58 सीटों पर बढ़त*
कांग्रेस एक बार फिर 0⃣

*ये तो प्रचंड जीत है, वाक़ई में मान गये केजरीवाल को, हमें भी विधायक उसी का बनाना है जिस पार्टी का मुख्यमंत्री बन रहा हो* pic.twitter.com/yZEqXamv5u

— Tarun Kumar (@taarun_seth) February 4, 2025

A Facebook page named Phir Layenge Kejriwal-फिर लाएंगे केजरीवाल also posted the viral video and garnered 2.6k likes and over 450 shares.

सबसे बड़ा ओपिनियन पोल, चौथी बार इतिहास रचने जा रही है AAP

Posted by Phir Layenge Kejriwal-फिर लाएंगे केजरीवाल on Sunday 2 February 2025

Fact Check

Aaj Tak released a fact-check report of the viral video stating that no such opinion poll had been conducted by them. The report additionally states that the voice of Aaj Tak anchor Saeed Ansari had been modified using AI to make the commentary that can be heard in the background. Ansari also denied announcing any such opinion poll. Moreover, the report noted that certain text seen in the video has overlapping text, which is unusual for news tickers.

Graphic retrieved from Aaj Tak fact-check report

Another feature that indicates that the audio may have been AI-generated is that a lot of words have been pronounced in an anglicized manner. For instance, the word Delhi has been pronounced with a ड-sound instead of a द-sound.

Opinion Poll viral, this time Projecting Landslide Win for the BJP

A video of a purported opinion poll by ABP News is also viral on social media. According to it, the BJP is projected to win 49 seats while the AAP and Congress parties are projected to win 16 and five seats respectively. User @ManojSr60583090 tweeted the video and garnered 20.5k views and 544 retweets at time of the writing of this article. (Archive)

*दिल्ली चुनाव के*

*ओपिनियन पोल में AAP को 16*

*काँग्रेस को 5 सीटें*

*और*

*BJP को 49 सीटों को अनुमान*

*सुन लो*

*मोदी है तो ही सब मुमकिन है* pic.twitter.com/bdYCqmj8sT

— Manoj Srivastava (@ManojSr60583090) December 17, 2024

Right-wing influencer @JaipurDialogues also tweeted the viral video and garnered close to 27k views. (Archive)

Another Opinion Poll is also viral which projects the BJP winning 47 seats, 17 seats for AAP and six seats for the Congress. (Archive)

वो सब छोड़ ये बता कैसी रही अब भी जनता को पागल बनाना छोड़ दो निट्ठलो
ताजा आंकड़ों के आधार पर @BJP4Delhi 41-46, Aapदा 17-22, Congress 1-2 लेकर आ सकती हैं। AAPदा के दिग्गजों की हार का मार्जिन ऐसे रहेगा।@ArvindKejriwal 8000-12000@msisodia 10000 से 13000@AtishiAAP 8000 से 11000 https://t.co/kW7S5cG7kV pic.twitter.com/Rm85gYLXht

— Mahesh Yadav (@MAHESHYGGN) January 30, 2025

Fact Check

As mentioned earlier, ABP News has not conducted an opinion poll for the Delhi elections yet. Taking to Twitter, the outlet categorically denied publishing such opinion polls They issued two consequent statements for the two viral opinion polls.

“We will take legal action against such people”, read one of their statements. Read here and here.

Click to view slideshow.

The trend of politicians and influencers sharing misleading opinion polls on social media often falsely attributing them to reputable media outlets is, however, not a new one. The 2025 Delhi assembly polls have proven to be no exception.

The post Fake ABP, Aaj Tak opinion polls viral in run-up to Delhi elections; channels issue statement appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Shinjinee Majumder.

Haryana CM drinking Yamuna water: Kejriwal, AAP shared clipped video with misleading claim

Pawan Kumar — Tue, 04 Feb 2025 15:10:02 +0000

Polling for the 70 seats of the Delhi assembly is set to be held on February 5, with results slated for February 8. Ahead of the elections, the ever-present issue of Yamuna water has again taken centre stage with the BJP and Congress questioning the AAP government regarding the cleaning of the Yamuna river.

At the same time, the Aam Aadmi Party alleges that the Haryana government is poisoning the water of the Yamuna river. Meanwhile, former Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal along with many senior leaders of the Aam Aadmi Party shared a 14-second slow motion video and claimed that Haryana chief minister Nayab Singh Saini pretended to drink water from the Yamuna, which he then spat out.

Arvind Kejriwal shared the video and wrote, “Haryana chief minister Nayab Singh Saini pretended to drink water from the Yamuna and then spat the same water back into the river. When I said that Yamuna water can be a threat to the lives of Delhiites due to ammonia adulteration, he threatened to file an FIR against me. They want to make the people of Delhi drink the same poisonous water which they themselves cannot drink. I will never let this happen.” (Archived link)

हरियाणा के मुख्यमंत्री नायब सिंह सैनी जी ने यमुना का पानी पीने का ढोंग किया… और फिर वही पानी वापस यमुना में थूक दिया।

जब मैंने कहा कि अमोनिया की मिलावट के कारण यमुना का पानी दिल्लीवालों की जान के लिए ख़तरा हो सकता है, तो इन्होंने मुझ पर FIR करने की धमकी दी।

जिस ज़हरीले पानी… pic.twitter.com/xQEVAu9bWh

— Arvind Kejriwal (@ArvindKejriwal) January 29, 2025

Aam Aadmi Party leader and Patparganj MLA Manish Sisodia retweeted Arvind Kejriwal’s tweet, saying that the BJP was unmatched when it came to hypocrisy and deceit. (Archived link)

ढोंग और पाखंड में भाजपा का कोई सानी नहीं!

मुख्यमंत्री नायब सिंह सैनी जी ने जहरीले पानी की सच्चाई खुद कैमरे में दिखा दी।

जिस यमुना के पानी का सेवन करने में सैनी साहब असुरक्षित महसूस कर रहे हैं, वही पानी हरियाणा की भाजपा सरकार दिल्ली भेज रही थी।

केजरीवाल जी पर FIR करने से सच… https://t.co/80ECmihErR

— Manish Sisodia (@msisodia) January 29, 2025

Aam Aadmi Party national spokesperson and advocate Priyanka Kakkar shared the video and wrote that the BJP did not care about people’s lives and are simply causing a scene by pretending to drink the water and then spitting it back out. (Archived link)

लोगों की जान की परवाह नहीं इनको, नौटंकी करवा लो बस।

पानी थूक दिया। pic.twitter.com/YqEweF1srU

— Priyanka Kakkar (@PKakkar_) January 29, 2025

The X handles of the Aam Aadmi Party, Aam Aadmi Party Delhi and Aam Aadmi Party Haryana also tweeted videos with similar claims. (Archived link 1, link 2, link 3)

Click to view slideshow.

Apart from this, Aam Aadmi Party and Arvind Kejriwal accused Nayab Singh Saini of hypocrisy in a press conference, while explaining the harm caused by the amount of ammonia present in water from the Yamuna river. At the 5:36 mark in this press conference video, a viral video of Nayab Singh Saini was played and it was claimed that he spat out the water after taking it in his mouth. (Archived link)

Fact Check

We performed a reverse image search using one of the key frames taken from the viral video. We found a longer video depicting the same incident in a January 29, 2025 post by Asian News International (ANI) on X (formerly Twitter). ANI’s tweet stated, “Haryana CM Nayab Singh Saini drinking water from the Yamuna river at Palla village in Delhi”.

At the 3-second mark in this 57-second video, scenes from the viral video appear in which Saini is seen taking water in his hand and spitting it out. However, eight seconds later in the same video, Saini is again seen taking water from the Yamuna river in his hand and taking it in his mouth. He then wets both his hands and splashes the water on himself. This part has been removed from the video being circulated by Arvind Kejriwal and other Aam Aadmi Party leaders.

#WATCH | Haryana CM Nayab Singh Saini takes a sip of water from the Yamuna River in Delhi’s Palla Village. pic.twitter.com/v1rkJXrcbQ

— ANI (@ANI) January 29, 2025

The video is also available on the X handle of Press Trust of India (PTI) and Indo-Asian News Service (IANS). After coming out of the river, he gives news bytes to other media channels, in which he talks about drinking the water from the Yamuna and accuses Kejriwal of creating panic among the people.

VIDEO | Delhi: Haryana CM Nayab Singh Saini (@NayabSainiBJP) drinks Yamuna water at Palla Ghat, from where the river enters Delhi from Haryana.

The AAP had accused the ruling BJP in Haryana of intentionally draining industrial waste into the Yamuna, with Kejriwal alleging that… pic.twitter.com/ClhrYqnB5N

— Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) January 29, 2025

Media outlets like Live Hindustan, ETV Bharat and India TV have also covered this incident. Their reports state that Nayab Singh Saini tried to answer Arvind Kejriwal’s allegations of poisoning the Yamuna by drinking water from the river.

To sum up, Arvind Kejriwal and Aam Aadmi Party leaders shared a clipped video of Nayab Singh Saini and made misleading claims.

The post Haryana CM drinking Yamuna water: Kejriwal, AAP shared clipped video with misleading claim appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Pawan Kumar.

AAP shares AI-generated video calling it PM Modi’s new residence ‘Rajmahal’

Pawan Kumar — Tue, 04 Feb 2025 15:06:58 +0000

With Delhi assembly elections knocking on doors, the Bharatiya Janata Party shared a video and accused the national convener of Aam Aadmi Party Arvind Kejriwal of cheating the residents of Delhi and living a luxurious life in a ‘five-star palace’.

In response, the Aam Aadmi Party shared a video on its social media accounts including Instagram, Facebook, YouTube and X. In this video, expensive luxury chandeliers, furniture and shoes are seen inside a luxurious bungalow. The footage was being circulated as the first look inside the residence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi proposed as part of the Central Vista Project. The accompanying caption states, “The video of the royal palace has been shown to the people for the first time. Could this be why its doors are not open to the public?” (Archived link 1, link 2, link 3, link 4)

Big Breaking

राजमहल का Video पहली बार आया जनता के सामने

क्या इसलिए ही राजमहल के दरवाज़े जनता के लिए नहीं खोले जाते? pic.twitter.com/P52Ph2ak9n

— AAP (@AamAadmiParty) January 27, 2025

Fact Check

Alt News looked at the design of the Pradhan Mantri Awas being constructed under the Central Vista Project to verify the Aam Aadmi Party’s claim. We did not find any video similar to the one shown in the viral video.

Upon closer inspection of the unnatural lighting, the interiors, and the objects and their design in the viral video, we noticed discrepancies that indicated that the clip had been altered or entirely made with the help of artificial intelligence.

We found several differences in the design of the building and the garden area seen at the beginning and end of the viral video. These have been highlighted below.

Readers can also take a look at the shoe circled in red at the 0:32 mark in the video. It clearly appears to be created by AI.

In addition, at the 1:06 mark, an unnatural transition is seen in the tap of the kitchen wash basin. This inconsistent change can also be seen on the glasses, flowers placed on the table, etc.

Alt News observed that the video contains a watermark of Sora, a video creation tool by Open AI, visible at the 2:12 and 2:32 mark. It has been highlighted with a red arrow in the picture below. This confirms that the video was created using Sora.

Further, we uploaded several keyframes of the video to Hive AI Image Detector and tested it. The report scored it against AI video generator sites like Sora, Pika, Stable Diffusion, and Flux and came to the conclusion that the video to be AI generated.

To sum up, the Aam Aadmi Party falsely shared an AI generated video and claimed that it depicted scenes from the residence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

AI generated videos or photos are being used a lot these days to make false and misleading claims. Here are some easy ways to identify them:

If you look closely at the AI generated photos/videos, the unnatural texture of the eyes and smooth skin of the person featured in them is clearly visible.
The shadow created by the light falling on a person or object also helps in identifying AI generated photos and videos.
Apart from this, we can also check and verify AI generated photo videos with the help of Hive Moderation, Optic AI or Not and Google’s AI Detector Tool.

The post AAP shares AI-generated video calling it PM Modi’s new residence ‘Rajmahal’ appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Pawan Kumar.

Delhi polls: Viral pamphlet calling Arvind Kejriwal messiah of Muslims at least 5-year old

Pawan Kumar — Tue, 04 Feb 2025 14:50:04 +0000

Polling for the 70 seats of the Delhi assembly elections is set to be held on February 5, with results slated for February 8. Against this backdrop, a pamphlet with a picture of former Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal is doing the rounds on social media. It states that Muslims from New Delhi should vote for Kejriwal for the betterment of the community, and that he is the messiah of the community.

BJP and Narendra Modi supporter Jitendra Pratap Singh, who often spreads false information, shared an image of the pamphlet on his X handle and wrote, “On one hand Kejriwal is becoming a Hinduist, on the other hand his party is distributing such pamphlets in Muslim areas. The Hindus of Delhi should read this.” (Archived link)

एक तरफ केजरीवाल हिंदूवादी बन रहा है दूसरी तरफ मुस्लिम एरिया में केजरीवाल की पार्टी ऐसे पर्चे बटवा रही है

दिल्ली के हिंदुओं यह पढ़ लो pic.twitter.com/vr29hR7wFJ

— Jitendra pratap singh (@jpsin1) January 25, 2025

BJP-supporter and verified X user @kreatelyMedia has often been found posting misleading and communal, hate-filled posts. @kreatelyMedia, too, made the same claim by tweeting the image. (Archived link)

देख लो दिल्ली के हिंदू

फिर मत बोलना हमने बताया नहीं pic.twitter.com/nTqhYmHclX

— Kreately.in (@KreatelyMedia) January 25, 2025

Chandan Sharma, another X user who has been found spreading misinformation in the past, shared the image and made an appeal to residents of New Delhi to vote for BJP for the sake of their children’s future. (Archived link)

दिल्ली निवासियों
यह पोस्टर दिख रहा है?

यदि अब भी समझ नही आएं तो आपके भविष्य का कुछ नही हो सकता है।

दिल्ली के मुसलमानों द्वारा अरविंद केजरीवाल के लिए वोट मांगा जा रहा है।

अब आपकी बारी है
अपने बच्चों के भविष्य के लिए BJP को वोट करें pic.twitter.com/hXtZC4gWrN

— Chandan Sharma (@ChandanSharmaG) January 25, 2025

Alt News also received several requests to verify the image on the WhatsApp helpline (7600011160).

Fact Check

We performed a reverse image search of the viral image of the pamphlet, which led us to a report by Aaj Tak, published on February 6, 2020. According to the report, the same pamphlet had also gone viral during the 2020 elections. However, the report does not mention which party or individual was responsible for publishing it.

We noticed that the image in the Aaj Tak report shows a newspaper placed below the pamphlet with the date Thursday, February 6, 2020 written on it, indicating that the image of the viral pamphlet is not recent.

X handle @vimal_thinks also shared a picture of this pamphlet on February 6, 2020.

To sum up, a five-year-old picture of a pamphlet that calls Arvind Kejriwal the messiah of Muslims is falsely being shared in connection with the upcoming Delhi assembly elections.

The post Delhi polls: Viral pamphlet calling Arvind Kejriwal messiah of Muslims at least 5-year old appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Pawan Kumar.

Delhi polls: Viral pamphlet calling Arvind Kejriwal messiah of Muslims at least 5-year old

Pawan Kumar — Tue, 04 Feb 2025 14:50:04 +0000

एक तरफ केजरीवाल हिंदूवादी बन रहा है दूसरी तरफ मुस्लिम एरिया में केजरीवाल की पार्टी ऐसे पर्चे बटवा रही है

दिल्ली के हिंदुओं यह पढ़ लो pic.twitter.com/vr29hR7wFJ

— Jitendra pratap singh (@jpsin1) January 25, 2025

देख लो दिल्ली के हिंदू

फिर मत बोलना हमने बताया नहीं pic.twitter.com/nTqhYmHclX

— Kreately.in (@KreatelyMedia) January 25, 2025

दिल्ली निवासियों
यह पोस्टर दिख रहा है?

यदि अब भी समझ नही आएं तो आपके भविष्य का कुछ नही हो सकता है।

दिल्ली के मुसलमानों द्वारा अरविंद केजरीवाल के लिए वोट मांगा जा रहा है।

अब आपकी बारी है
अपने बच्चों के भविष्य के लिए BJP को वोट करें pic.twitter.com/hXtZC4gWrN

— Chandan Sharma (@ChandanSharmaG) January 25, 2025

Alt News also received several requests to verify the image on the WhatsApp helpline (7600011160).

Fact Check

X handle @vimal_thinks also shared a picture of this pamphlet on February 6, 2020.

To sum up, a five-year-old picture of a pamphlet that calls Arvind Kejriwal the messiah of Muslims is falsely being shared in connection with the upcoming Delhi assembly elections.

The post Delhi polls: Viral pamphlet calling Arvind Kejriwal messiah of Muslims at least 5-year old appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Pawan Kumar.

Delhi polls: Viral pamphlet calling Arvind Kejriwal messiah of Muslims at least 5-year old

Pawan Kumar — Tue, 04 Feb 2025 14:50:04 +0000

एक तरफ केजरीवाल हिंदूवादी बन रहा है दूसरी तरफ मुस्लिम एरिया में केजरीवाल की पार्टी ऐसे पर्चे बटवा रही है

दिल्ली के हिंदुओं यह पढ़ लो pic.twitter.com/vr29hR7wFJ

— Jitendra pratap singh (@jpsin1) January 25, 2025

देख लो दिल्ली के हिंदू

फिर मत बोलना हमने बताया नहीं pic.twitter.com/nTqhYmHclX

— Kreately.in (@KreatelyMedia) January 25, 2025

दिल्ली निवासियों
यह पोस्टर दिख रहा है?

यदि अब भी समझ नही आएं तो आपके भविष्य का कुछ नही हो सकता है।

दिल्ली के मुसलमानों द्वारा अरविंद केजरीवाल के लिए वोट मांगा जा रहा है।

अब आपकी बारी है
अपने बच्चों के भविष्य के लिए BJP को वोट करें pic.twitter.com/hXtZC4gWrN

— Chandan Sharma (@ChandanSharmaG) January 25, 2025

Alt News also received several requests to verify the image on the WhatsApp helpline (7600011160).

Fact Check

X handle @vimal_thinks also shared a picture of this pamphlet on February 6, 2020.

To sum up, a five-year-old picture of a pamphlet that calls Arvind Kejriwal the messiah of Muslims is falsely being shared in connection with the upcoming Delhi assembly elections.

The post Delhi polls: Viral pamphlet calling Arvind Kejriwal messiah of Muslims at least 5-year old appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Pawan Kumar.

Delhi polls: Viral pamphlet calling Arvind Kejriwal messiah of Muslims at least 5-year old

Pawan Kumar — Tue, 04 Feb 2025 14:50:04 +0000

एक तरफ केजरीवाल हिंदूवादी बन रहा है दूसरी तरफ मुस्लिम एरिया में केजरीवाल की पार्टी ऐसे पर्चे बटवा रही है

दिल्ली के हिंदुओं यह पढ़ लो pic.twitter.com/vr29hR7wFJ

— Jitendra pratap singh (@jpsin1) January 25, 2025

देख लो दिल्ली के हिंदू

फिर मत बोलना हमने बताया नहीं pic.twitter.com/nTqhYmHclX

— Kreately.in (@KreatelyMedia) January 25, 2025

दिल्ली निवासियों
यह पोस्टर दिख रहा है?

यदि अब भी समझ नही आएं तो आपके भविष्य का कुछ नही हो सकता है।

दिल्ली के मुसलमानों द्वारा अरविंद केजरीवाल के लिए वोट मांगा जा रहा है।

अब आपकी बारी है
अपने बच्चों के भविष्य के लिए BJP को वोट करें pic.twitter.com/hXtZC4gWrN

— Chandan Sharma (@ChandanSharmaG) January 25, 2025

Alt News also received several requests to verify the image on the WhatsApp helpline (7600011160).

Fact Check

X handle @vimal_thinks also shared a picture of this pamphlet on February 6, 2020.

To sum up, a five-year-old picture of a pamphlet that calls Arvind Kejriwal the messiah of Muslims is falsely being shared in connection with the upcoming Delhi assembly elections.

The post Delhi polls: Viral pamphlet calling Arvind Kejriwal messiah of Muslims at least 5-year old appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Pawan Kumar.

Delhi polls: Viral pamphlet calling Arvind Kejriwal messiah of Muslims at least 5-year old

Pawan Kumar — Tue, 04 Feb 2025 14:50:04 +0000

एक तरफ केजरीवाल हिंदूवादी बन रहा है दूसरी तरफ मुस्लिम एरिया में केजरीवाल की पार्टी ऐसे पर्चे बटवा रही है

दिल्ली के हिंदुओं यह पढ़ लो pic.twitter.com/vr29hR7wFJ

— Jitendra pratap singh (@jpsin1) January 25, 2025

देख लो दिल्ली के हिंदू

फिर मत बोलना हमने बताया नहीं pic.twitter.com/nTqhYmHclX

— Kreately.in (@KreatelyMedia) January 25, 2025

दिल्ली निवासियों
यह पोस्टर दिख रहा है?

यदि अब भी समझ नही आएं तो आपके भविष्य का कुछ नही हो सकता है।

दिल्ली के मुसलमानों द्वारा अरविंद केजरीवाल के लिए वोट मांगा जा रहा है।

अब आपकी बारी है
अपने बच्चों के भविष्य के लिए BJP को वोट करें pic.twitter.com/hXtZC4gWrN

— Chandan Sharma (@ChandanSharmaG) January 25, 2025

Alt News also received several requests to verify the image on the WhatsApp helpline (7600011160).

Fact Check

X handle @vimal_thinks also shared a picture of this pamphlet on February 6, 2020.

To sum up, a five-year-old picture of a pamphlet that calls Arvind Kejriwal the messiah of Muslims is falsely being shared in connection with the upcoming Delhi assembly elections.

The post Delhi polls: Viral pamphlet calling Arvind Kejriwal messiah of Muslims at least 5-year old appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Pawan Kumar.

Delhi Elections: BJP Delhi’s official Facebook page violates EC’s silence period rule

Abhishek Kumar — Tue, 04 Feb 2025 13:15:07 +0000

With all the 70 constituencies in Delhi going to the polls on February 5, 2025, the three major parties, Aam Aadmi Party, BJP and Congress, have made extensive use of every possible means, including digital platforms, to woo voters. Social media platforms have proved to be an effective way to convey political messages to the people, with parties investing heavily in targeted advertisements to engage voters.

As per the guidelines of the Election Commission, the ‘silence period’ has come into effect from 6 pm on February 3 and rallies, campaigning etc. for the Delhi elections have stopped.

Silence Period….. #DelhiElections #DelhiElection2025 @ECISVEEP pic.twitter.com/P7BPAEU1kR

— CEO, Delhi Office (@CeodelhiOffice) February 3, 2025

After the Delhi election notification was issued on January 10, 2025, the Election Commission issued a directive on January 17, 2025, the last day of nomination, reminding the parties that Section 126(1)(b) of the Representation of the People Act, 1951 prohibited the display of any election matter by means of television, cinematograph or similar devices in polling areas during the ‘silence period’ of 48 hours ending with the hour fixed for the conclusion of the poll, to provide voters with a quiet atmosphere to take decisions without the influence of last-minute campaigning.

Point 4 of the guidelines issued by the Election Commission clearly states that “Political advertisements on any election matter in TV, cable networks, radio, Cinema Halls, use of bulk SMS/voice messages, audio visual displays in any polling area during the period of 48 hours ending with the hour fixed for the conclusion of the poll for any election in the polling area is also prohibited. Political advertisements relating to election matters, even if disguised in another form, like ads masquerading as news items/headlines, are strictly prohibited from being displayed during the silence period in the polling area, regardless of prior scheduling.”

Alt News has been monitoring the official Facebook pages of the three major parties contesting the Delhi Assembly elections in the Meta Ad Library. We found that the official page of BJP Delhi is currently running ads during the ‘silence period’, which is a clear violation of the Election Commission guidelines.

The violation of the norms set by the Election Commission raises questions about the party’s intent to follow the electoral rules. This is not the first time that the ‘silence period’ has been violated by parties. Alt News has also exposed violations of the ‘silence period’ by BJP proxy pages in the Gujarat Assembly elections , Karnataka Assembly elections and Jharkhand Assembly elections .

We have mailed Facebook’s parent company Meta regarding this violation. This article will be updated if any action is taken or response is received from them.

The post Delhi Elections: BJP Delhi’s official Facebook page violates EC’s silence period rule appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Abhishek Kumar.

Despite NBDSA order, News18 India does not take down offending bits from debate on Arvind Kejriwal

Prantik Ali — Tue, 04 Feb 2025 10:59:08 +0000

In an order dated January 24, the News Broadcasting and Digital Standards Authority (NBDSA) directed News18 India, a channel affiliated with Mukesh Ambani-led Network18, to remove offensive sections from a controversial debate aired on its channel last year.

The debate featured in an episode of the popular segment ‘Goonj with Rubika Liyaquat’ and aired on News18 India on March 28, 2024. The topic of discussion was alleged corruption by the Aam Aadmi Party following the arrest of former Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal the on March 21, 2024 over charges of corruption and money laundering in the now-scrapped liquor policy.

The NBDSA is an independent self-regulatory body which monitors news content in the broadcast and digital mediums. It was of the opinion that the programme and the way its anchor Rubika Liyaquat conducted the debate violated its guidelines on neutrality and “attributed guilt in a matter that is sub judice”.

The NBDSA gave the channel seven days (up to January 31) to comply and make edits to this episode. However, as of February 3, Alt News found that News18 India had not removed these “offending portions” and the episode in its entirety was available online for all to see.

Why did the NBDSA issue this order?

Action by the NBDSA came after Pune-based activist Indrajeet Ghorpade’s complaint against the show and its anchor, Liyaquat. Ghorpade, in a formal complaint dated April 1, 2024, said that the channel justified the “falsehood promoted by the BJP spokesperson, who said the courts have found the Delhi CM guilty”.

During the debate, around the 7:58-minute mark, BJP spokesperson Shehzad Poonawala wrongly claimed that the court said Kejriwal cannot be granted any relief because he committed a “scam”. Note that Kejriwal was indicted or accused of executing the excise policy and allegedly laundering money from it, the court had not convicted him in the case. He was arrested for skipping Enforcement Directorate summons nine times. Liyaquat, however, does not correct Poonawala.

Additionally, throughout the programme, Liyaquat uses phrases that imply Kejriwal was guilty and convicted. Around the 14:30-minute time stamp, responding to the AAP spokesperson, Liyaquat says questioning the ED was bizarre and that the party should “admit” that the truth had been exposed.

In another instance, she says “Agar bhrashtachar nahi hiya hota aur itne bade aarop nahi lagte, toh main keh deti ki aap jo keh rahen hai usme dum hai.” (“Had your party not committed corruption, such grave charges were not levelled against you, I would have said what you are saying has substance.”)

Not just that, Ghorpade’s complaint says that Liyaquat’s defence of the prime minister almost indicates a partisan attitude. This can be seen around the 37:25-minute mark of the debate, where Liyaquat subjects viewers to a bitter diatribe against Samajwadi Party spokesperson, Ameeque Jamei for calling Modi a corrupt Prime Minister. When Jamei accuses Modi of running a national-level extortion racket through the Electoral Bonds scheme (which has since been decreed unconstitutional) as well as the ED, Liyaquat angrily demands that he maintain etiquette and decorum while talking about the country’s Prime Minister. Modi, she insinuates, must be respected for the sole reason that he is the country’s Prime Minister. She then challenges the speaker to prove that Modi is corrupt. “I will defend the Prime Minister of my country—why wouldn’t I?” she says.

She then implicates the speaker as being a stooge of the opposition party, levelling the defamatory accusation that he receives monetary benefit from West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to turn a blind eye towards corruption by her. “Are you on Mamata didi’s payroll? He (Narendra Modi) is the Prime Minister of my country. Like I respect your Akhilesh Yadav, won’t you respect the Prime Minister of the country? You hate that man so much that you don’t even respect his chair. This (hate) is what is drowning you. The hate inside you is eating you up, and you don’t even know it. Are you on Didi’s payroll? Is she giving you money? You say what you want about the Bharatiya Janata Party, but don’t say anything against my country’s Prime Minister. You speak against any politician you want, but don’t say anything against my Prime Minister. You say what you want to the politicians. You are filled with hate, and this hate will consume you.”

देखिए तहज़ीब कौन सीखा रहा है।
ई विल डिफेंड दा प्राइम मिनिस्टर ऑफ माई इंडिया। वाई विल आई नाट डिफेंड। आप भाजपा को कहिए मगर मेरे देश के प्रधान मंत्री को मत कहिए।
अनौपचारिक भाजपा प्रवक्ता @RubikaLiyaquat pic.twitter.com/AaPqIbhmNY

— Mohammed Zubair (@zoo_bear) March 31, 2024

“I will certainly defend the Prime Minister of the country, taal thok ke, I will defend him. No mai ka laal can stop me. Is that clear?” Rubika exclaims. What makes this even more convoluted is the fact that this debate programme had been aired less than a month before the commencement of the Lok Sabha Elections 2024.

News18 India submitted its reponses against Ghorpade’s complaints to the NBDSA on April 11, 2024. It outright denied that the episode in any way implied or attributed guilt to Kejriwal and said that Liyaquat was merely raising questions as part of her “journalistic duty” without violating “principles of impartiality”.

However, the NBDSA found that Liyaquat’s phrasing and conduct during the debate did violate Specific Guidelines for Reporting Court Proceedings (as laid down by the News Broadcasting Standards Authority) and the principle of neutrality under the Code of Ethics & Broadcasting Standards. The regulatory body, in its order, said that “the anchor had attributed guilt in a matter that is sub judice”.

The NBDSA also observed that this section was violative of the judgment of the Bombay High Court in Nilesh Navlakha & Anr. vs UOl & Ors (2021) SCC Online BOM 56, which held that the right to freedom of speech and expression enjoyed by media broadcasters cannot trump the right to fair information enjoyed by the citizenry. As such, media houses must have an adequate protocol for publishing information, especially on sensitive court proceedings to ensure that their reporting does not hamper the ongoing investigation in any way.

News18 India also said that Liyaquat’s defence of the Prime Minister did not violate any guidelines and that it was the natural reaction of an “ordinary citizen” against someone using “objectionable language” for someone occupying one of the highest constitutional posts in the country.

Ghorpade’s complaint said that Liyaquat’s conduct and defence of Modi fed into the larger narrative that anyone criticising the government was a traitor and anti-national.

The NBDSA found that Liyaquat’s behaviour did violate the Code of Conduct. It said that while the anchor was well within her rights in defending the Prime Minister, she should have exercised restraint and maintained a professional tone to ensure that the discussion did not retract from a meaningful debate.

Not the first time

It is interesting to note that this is not the first time the NBDSA has flagged News18 India’s content. Alt News previously reported on several violations, including one such instance from November 2024, where the NBDSA had issued a warning to the broadcaster for airing an interview with Hindu seer Dhirendra Shastri, also known as Baba Bageshwar, on July 10, 2024. Shastri had made communally divisive statements and encouraged the conspiracy on ‘love jihad’, violating specific guidelines on reportage related to Racial and Religious Harmony, as well as the guidelines on Supernatural, Occultism, and Paranormal content, as laid down by the NBDSA.

The NBDSA has come down heavily on News 18 asking it to take down within 7 days an interview of Hindu seer Dhirendra Shastri, which it found violative of several principles, including those related to religious harmony | @Shinjineemjmdr https://t.co/aRVy5ELkUU pic.twitter.com/k7igWlGkkE

— Alt News (@AltNews) November 11, 2024

In February 2024, the NBDSA had fined the broadcaster Rs 50,000 for stereotyping the Muslim community as barbaric and perpetuating the ‘love jihad’ conspiracy in the case of Shraddha Walker, who was killed by her partner in Delhi and later hacked to pieces.

NBDSA fined Times Now Navbharat Rs 1 lakh, News 18 India Rs 50,000 in cases I filed against painting the entire Muslim community as barbaric & guilty of conducting organised crimes against Hindu women, by malicious linking Shraddha Walker’s murder to the ‘love jihad’ conspiracy. pic.twitter.com/RO5jJR0iLN

— Jeet (@jeetxg) February 29, 2024

In 2023, News18 India was fined Rs 25,000 by the NBDSA for having vilified the Muslim community and celebrating extrajudicial violence against Muslim men.

Based on complaints filed by me and @cjpindia , News18 India has been fined Rs.25,000 by NBDSA for painting Muslim men as perverts who attend Garba events to harass Hindu women, vilifying the entire Muslim community, celebrating police violence against Muslim men. pic.twitter.com/UMISu8zbUO

— Jeet (@jeetxg) February 28, 2023

In October 2022, News18 India was slapped with a Rs 50,000 fine for associating Muslim female protestors with terrorism. Along an order for the news cwith the fine, the NBDSA ordered the channel to train its anchor Aman Chopra on how to host debates on sensitive issues.

Basis a case I filed & argued, News Broadcasting & Digital Standards Authority (NBDSA) has slapped a Rs.50,000 fine on News18 India for linking Muslim female student protestors with terrorism. News 18 ordered to train Aman Chopra on how to conduct debates on sensitive matters. pic.twitter.com/eYbsCZcTNb

— Jeet (@jeetxg) October 26, 2022

In June 2022, News18 India was asked to take down a fake video that perpetuated the conspiracy of ‘thook jihad’, which had been broadcast in 2021.

Last year I filed a grievance against Thook Jihad by Aman Chopra & News18. News18 used fake videos to demonise the Muslim community. NBDSA found the debate violating and passed an order today asking News18 to delete the video from the web. Does this undo the damage caused?! pic.twitter.com/9Szua41yxt

— Jeet (@jeetxg) June 14, 2022

Repeated violations of the NBDSA guidelines is testimony to the fact that News18 India has compromised its journalistic spirit in favour of an almost partisan take. It does this by lecturing and castigating speakers from the opposition parties, as well as clamping down on any oppositional views and critiques of the Prime Minister. Moreover, the channel has frequently amplified misinformation as well as run smear campaigns on Opposition parties.

The post Despite NBDSA order, News18 India does not take down offending bits from debate on Arvind Kejriwal appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Prantik Ali.

NBDSA slams Sudhir Chaudhary, asks Aaj Tak to remove show on same-sex marriage

Oishani Bhattacharya — Tue, 04 Feb 2025 07:15:26 +0000

The News Broadcasters & Digital Association (NBDSA) has asked Aaj Tak to remove an entire episode of its prime-time show ‘Black and White’ aired on April 19, 2023, anchored by the channel’s consulting editor Sudhir Chaudhary, which it found, had violated the dignity of the LGBTQIA+ community by failing to maintain neutrality, impartiality, and adherence to guidelines on the prevention of hate speech.

The directive, dated January 24, came after a series of complaints filed by activists Indrajeet Ghorpade and Utkarsh Mishra. It also included the instructions to remove specific sections from two interviews conducted by Chaudhary, featuring Union home minister Amit Shah and his cabinet colleague Kiren Rijiju, in which they discussed the Supreme Court’s deliberations on marriage equality.

At the time of this article being written, the channels, however, have not removed or edited any of the three shows that the NBDSA found problematic.

Show 1:

This episode of ‘Black and White’ aired on April 19, 2023, had a Hindi title that could be translated to, “Black And White: A new debate on homosexuality in the highest court | Same-Sex Marriage | Supreme Court”. The episode was aired in the context of a hearing of petitions seeking legal recognition of same-sex marriage in the Supreme Court by a five-judge bench led by former Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud.

In his April 24, 2023 complaint to the NBDSA regarding the aforementioned video, activist Ghorpade alleged that the broadcaster violated the Code of Ethics and Broadcasting Standards, including neutrality, impartiality, objectivity, accuracy, privacy, and guidelines on the prevention of hate speech, potentially defamatory content, and reporting court proceedings. Two days later, on April 26, Mishra filed a similar complaint, stating that the broadcast violated fundamental principle Number 4, as well as Principles 1 and 2 of self-regulation, which mandated impartiality, objectivity, and neutrality in reporting.

The channel’s initial response was that these complaints were ‘without any basis and, therefore, deserve to be rejected’. They stated that the programme in question discussed the consequences of same-sex marriage.

What Happened on the Show?

Anchor Sudhir Chaudhary opened the episode by stating, “India is still considered a third-world country because our issues consist of electricity, water, roads, healthcare, hunger, employment, etc. Developed or first-world countries do not face these concerns; their battles are different. Our country’s concern is hunger, while in the case of first-world countries, it is depression or same-sex marriage. But today, we have prioritised this issue (same-sex marriage) without finding solutions to the problems concerning the masses. This is why, these days, a hearing regarding ‘same-sex marriage’ has been going on at the Supreme Court which is quite interesting.”

In what one might consider an act of dog-whistling against same-sex couples, he then asked viewers to imagine their son marrying a man or their daughter marrying a woman, emphasizing the shock such a situation might cause. At the 1:00 mark in the show, Sudhir Chaudhary described a same-sex marriage as a “big shock” (bada jhatka) and questioned how traditional wedding rituals in Hindu, Muslim, and Christian marriages would apply to such unions.

At 2:12, the air of homophobia and stereotyping in the bulletin hit an unprecedented high (or low) when the screen displayed an image of a person half dressed as a man and the half as a woman (image below). With a smirk on his face, Chaudhary quipped, “In this image, you would be able to see both your son-in-law and daughter-in-law”.

Chaudhary also made the point that even after homosexuality was decriminalized, some privileged upper-class individuals from big cities would begin ask why homosexual marriages should not be allowed. It is noteworthy that in October 2023, the Supreme Court had ruled against legalising same-sex marriages and left it to the Parliament to decide on the issue.

The complainant highlighted how the usage of such imagery as the one cited above was not only distasteful but also “promotes false notions and stigma against the LGBTQIA+ community.”

During the hearing, the broadcaster defended the use if the image stating, “One may disagree with the manner of projecting it, which some may consider unpalatable; however, the same does not violate the code of conduct. The picture cannot be construed to be in bad taste, as it is merely a manner of projecting people’s views on both sides and cannot be regarded as violative of good taste and decency.”

It was also stated in the complaint that the channel played videos featuring LGBTQIA+ individuals and couples throughout the episode without their informed consent. Besides, according to the complainant, statements like “imagine your son marrying a man or your daughter marrying a woman” were intended to instill fear among viewers. In addition to that, the anchor echoed the “false and malicious idea” that this was an “urban elite” issue, the complaint noted.

It is important to note that even today, many in Indian society continue to stigmatize the LGBTQIA+ community, making it difficult for non-heterosexual individuals to openly express their sexual orientation. This challenge is even greater in rural areas, where orthodox and conservative beliefs remain more deeply ingrained than in urban spaces. Many individuals who have come out with their sexuality have been made to undergo malicious and traumatising experiences such as conversion therapy in order to “fix them”, even after Section 377 was removed. On the other hand, queer individuals hailing from urban India have the privilege of better access to resources such as support groups and a relatively better financial situation, which makes it somewhat more feasible for them to come out and speak on such matters.

The NBDSA in its decision observed that Aaj Tak’s broadcast on same-sex marriage violated the dignity of the LGBTQIA+ community by failing to maintain neutrality, impartiality, and adherence to guidelines on the prevention of hate speech. It noted that the anchor’s remarks were inappropriate and did not include perspectives from LGBTQIA+ individuals. Further, the NBDSA directed Aaj Tak to remove the video from all platforms within seven days from the date of the order.

Show 2:

In his second complaint, the activists flagged a section of an interview conducted by Chaudhary with Union minister Kiren Rijiju. According to the complaint, the anchor falsely attributed statements to the CJI in the LGBTQIA+ marriage equality case and misrepresented the Supreme Court’s stance. Chaudhary also inaccurately claimed that the solicitor general’s arguments were being disregarded and made defamatory remarks implying the CJI was acting like a dictator.

The complaint said that the broadcast violated the code of ethics & broadcasting standards concerning impartiality, objectivity, and neutrality, as well as guidelines on defamatory content and court reporting. Additionally, it breached the Contempt of Court Act, 1971.

At the 30:21 mark of the above interview, Chaudhary stated, “The government has said that this is an elitist matter and CJI disagreed with that and said ‘here only what I say goes’ (Sarkar ne bola ye toh elitist vichaar dhara hain, aur unhone (CJI) ne kahan ki nahi aisa nahi hain aur yahan wahin hoga jo main chahunga)“. The complaint says that the CJI never made such a comment. The channel said in its response that the host only pointed out that the Chief Justice had stated that the government could not decide what would be heard in court and remarked that the Chief Justice himself would determine this.

At the 33:03 mark, the anchor said that it seemed like the solicitor general’s arguments were not being given importance at the court and that the Supreme Court appears as if they had already decided their judgement in favour of the petitioners (Solicitor General ki Supreme Court mein chal nahi rhi hain, aur Supreme Court aisa lag rha hain ki mann bana chuka hain ki wo chahta hain aisa ho). Further, at the 34:53 mark of the video, Rijiju talks about how, in a democracy, it is the citizens of the state who decide, as sovereignty lies with them. Chaudhary then says, ‘So, to make it simpler for the larger public to understand, you are saying — and have said in the past as well — that ‘Hindustan kisi ke baap ka nahi hai, desh ke logon ka hai, aur kuch log ise chalane ki koshish kar rahe hain‘ (Hindustan does not belong to anyone’s father; it belongs to the people of the country, and some people are trying to control it).”

NBDSA has directed the channel to remove the aforementioned parts from the interview video and asked the anchor to show more maturity in future while conducting such programmes.

Show 3:

Ghorpade’s third complaint flagged certain parts of another interview conducted by Sudhir Chaudhary featuring Union home minister Amit Shah at India Today’s Karnataka Roundtable 2023.

At the 39:43 mark in the interview, while posing a question to Shah, Chaudhary said, “It seems that the Supreme Court bench is bringing in a new logic to justify why this should happen in our country. What is your take on this matter as the home minister of the country”? The complaint says that the anchor’s statement was inaccurate, as the Supreme Court bench had not made any official comments or declared that same-sex marriage should be legalized. In response, the channel argued that the statement in question needed to be understood in context and that the complaint lacked objectivity, as it directly targeted the host and his interviewing style, which is inherently subjective.

NBDSA ordered the anchor to maintain maturity in future broadcasts. Additionally, India Today was directed to edit and remove the problematic portions of the broadcast within seven days of the order.

The post NBDSA slams Sudhir Chaudhary, asks Aaj Tak to remove show on same-sex marriage appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Oishani Bhattacharya.

Muslim rickshaw driver’s body found in Bangladesh river; Footage falsely viral as Hindu student’s murder

Prantik Ali — Mon, 03 Feb 2025 14:58:49 +0000

Trigger Warning: Graphic Visuals

A video showing a man’s still, lifeless body in a pool of water in the midst of a field is viral on social media. A group of people surrounding the body can be heard saying that his hands were tied.

Users on social media circulating this video have claimed that the deceased was a Hindu man named Sumon living in Bangladesh to insinuate that it was a case of persecution of Hindu minorities in Bangladesh.

X user @pakistan_untold shared the video alleging that the Yunus Mohammed-led Bangladesh government had opened the “floodgates of Hindu persecution”. At the time of this article being written, the post had over 10,000 views and has been reshared almost 900 times. (Archive)

Bangladeshi Hindu boy Sumon mu₹dered & his body dumped in river in Islamic Bangladesh.

Regime change in Bangladesh has opened floodgates of Hindu persecution.

VC: @avroneel80 pic.twitter.com/UgVQ1a2k0a

— Pakistan Untold (@pakistan_untold) January 30, 2025

Aanother X user @avroneel80 shared a similar video alleging that student league leader Sumon was targeted and killed by “terrorists”. (Archive)

Chhatra League leader Sumon was brutally killed by terrorists. The terrorists left the bodies under the bridge in Langalbanda Brahmaputra river. pic.twitter.com/m6TIcnIMmx

— Avro Neel Hindu (@avroneel80) January 29, 2025

Verified X user @MithilaWaala also shared the video claiming he was killed by Islamists in Bangladesh. (Archive)

SHOCKING

Hindu Student Union leader Sumon has been brutally k!lled and his body dumped under the bridge in Langalbanda Brahmaputra river by i&lamists in Bangladesh. #HinduGenocideInBangladesh #SaveBangladeshiHindus pic.twitter.com/I2rr3CyOpG

— Amitabh Chaudhary (@MithilaWaala) January 31, 2025

Meanwhile X account @@zamalhossain alleged that the minority Hindu population in Bangladesh is under threat and the country is full of corpses. (Archive)

The terrorists brutally killed Chhatra League leader Suman and left his body under the bridge in the Langalband Brahmaputra River. All around Bangladesh, there are only corpses and corpses!#UnitedNations #UnitedNationHumanRights #Amnestyinternational #BangladeshCrisis #CNN #BBC… pic.twitter.com/3UiFiuoTze

— MD Zamal Hossain (@zamalhossain) January 30, 2025

Fact Check

To understand the truth behind the viral video, we ran a reverse image search on some key frames from the video. This led us to a report by a Bangladesh news outlet Live Narayanganj.

The report said that the body of a man named Nayan Mia was recovered from the Brahmaputra river in Sonargaon upazila of the Narayanganj district on the morning of January 28. Mia was reportedly an autorickshaw driver and resident of the Sonargaon area. The police suspect a snatching gang was behind the killing.

We then did keyword search in Bengali and came across other articles by Bangladeshi news portals reporting the murder. Several of these carried the same visuals.

News outlet Jugantor cited Mahbubur Rahman, in-charge of the Baidyerbazar Naval Police Outpost in Sonargaon, saying that Mia left home in an auto in the afternoon of January 27 but did not return home. Police suspect that he may have been killed as robbers tried to seize his battery-powered rickshaw.

To sum up, the deceased in the viral video is of a Muslim rickshaw driver, Nayan Mia, and not of Hindu student leader Sumon. The killing was likely on account of theft and had no communal angle to it.

The post Muslim rickshaw driver’s body found in Bangladesh river; Footage falsely viral as Hindu student’s murder appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Prantik Ali.

Viral video of men raising pro-Akhilesh slogans at Maha Mukbh was shot 2 days before stampede

Abhishek Kumar — Fri, 31 Jan 2025 05:57:23 +0000

Several people were killed and many seriously injured in a stampede that took place at around 2 am on January 29 at the ongoing Maha Kumbh in Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh. According to official figures, the death toll is 30 and the number of injured stands at 60. According to eyewitnesses, the main trigger for the stampede was the sudden rush of pilgrims at the Sangam who were eager to take a bath at 3 am on the beginning of the auspicious muhurat of Mauni Amavasya. Since it was the morning of Mauni Amavasya, one of the most auspicious days of the Hindu calendar, the rush of crowd that gathered to take a holy bath on this occasion transformed into a stampede.

Following this incident, a flurry of different types of videos and claims are being widely circulated on social media. In one such video, a group of men can be seen raising slogans in support of Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav. Sharing this video, it is being claimed that these men caused the stampede at the Kumbh Mela in which many people lost their lives.

A collage of two video clips is also being shared in which one side features a report by The Lallantop. In this, a person is claiming that a bus had stopped here with 15 to 20 youths getting down from it, which caused the stampede. The second video shows footage of a group of youths shouting slogans of ‘Long live Akhilesh Yadav’. It is being claimed that these boys triggered the stampede.

An X user named Ocean Jain shared this video and wrote, “If eyewitnesses are to be believed, some people got down from a bus and caused a stampede. And you can see in the second video how they are shouting ‘Akhilesh Yadav’ as if they have come to a rally. Was this video taken before the stampede? The police and administration should investigate from this angle.” It is worth noting that this user has been found spreading misinformation earlier as well.

चश्मदीदों की माने तो कुछ लोग एक बस से उतरे और भगदड़ मचाए

और आप दूसरी वीडियो देख सकते है कैसे अखिलेश यादव चिल्ला रहे है जैसे किसी रैली में आए हो

कहीं यह वीडियो भगदड़ वाली स्थिति के पहले का तो नहीं है??

पुलिस ओर प्रशासन को इस एंगल से जांच करनी चाहिए pic.twitter.com/asS8eOlIIg

— ocean jain (@ocjain4) January 30, 2025

BJP supporter Raushan Sinha shared the video and wrote that the Uttar Pradesh government should investigate whether these young men were the reason behind the stampede. (Archived link)

BJP supporter Rajiv Bhatia (@Ra_Bies) tweeted this video and called it a shocking incident and slammed Akhilesh Yadav. (Archived link)

BJP supporter Nitin Shukla also shared the video and made a similar claim. (Archived link)

Fact Check

We performed a reverse image search using frames taken from the viral footage and found the source video uploaded on Instagram by a user named Pradeep Yadav with over 1.57 lakh views. We reached out to Yadav, who told us that he had recorded the video on January 27 at 5 am.

He also shared with us a screenshot of the metadata details from the phone that was used to record the viral video. It can be seen below that the video was captured at 5:25 am on January 27.

In addition, Pradeep told us that his friend Virendra Yadav is also seen in the video. Virendra also posted the video on his social media accounts on January 27. Pradeep shared with us the link to the video posted by Virendra on Facebook and Instagram. It can be clearly seen that this video was posted on January 27. In other words, the video was posted on social media two days before the stampede, which occurred on the morning of January 29. Therefore, the claim that these youths caused the stampede is false.

To sum up, many BJP supporters shared a video of some men raising slogans of ‘Long live Akhilesh Yadav’ at the Maha Kumbh Mela and falsely claimed that these men caused the stampede which led to the death of many people. However, in reality, this video was posted online two days before the incident.

The post Viral video of men raising pro-Akhilesh slogans at Maha Mukbh was shot 2 days before stampede appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Abhishek Kumar.

Video of injured woman from West Bengal peddled as Hindus being abused in Bangladesh

Ankita Mahalanobish — Thu, 30 Jan 2025 13:04:00 +0000

Over the past week, several social media users shared distressing footage showing a severely injured woman to insinuate that Hindu women were being exploited and tortured in Bangladesh.

The video shows a bleeding woman, sitting by the road, barely able to string together words coherently. When asked where her house is, she replies indistinctly. Those around her then ask if she is from Murshidabad, she nods in agreement.

On January 25, X account @Bangladesh_Fact shared this footage, claiming that it was from the country ruled by “fascist Yunus,” who “fosters terrorism”. (Archive)

Two days later, the graphic video was amplified by X account @ajaychauhan41. The accompanying caption in Hindi said: “Naked women! Mother and sister stripped naked! Naked red freedom…! This is not a film shoot! This is an anti-Hindu picture of the new country of the Islamic Yunus government of Bangladesh which promotes extremism!” (Archive)

The post acquired around 207,000 views.

Other social media users also shared similar claims:

Click to view slideshow.

Fact Check

While trying to authenticate the video, Alt News found a similar clip shared on Facebook on January 22. Rekha Patra, a BJP-nominated candidate from Sandeshkhali, West Bengal, posted a video with similar visuals claiming that a woman was hacked to death in a village falling under the Bakultala Police’s jurisdiction in Jayanagar.

Taking cue from this, we tried a Bengali keyword search, which led us to several news reports on the incident. A report by TV9 Bangla said that a woman’s body was found in the Jayanagar constituency with her face smashed. A local toto driver found her lying in a bloody state next to an empty paddy field in the Anandapur-Rathtala area of Mayahauri gram panchayat late on January 21. He called people in the nearby area and informed the chief, who in turn, informed the Bakultala police. The cops reached the spot, rescued the woman and took her to Nimpeeth Rural Hospital where they pronounced her dead on arrival.

An ABP report said that the woman’s body had wounds that seemed to indicate that she was attacked with a weapon. One side of her face was crushed and teeth broken and locals reportedly said that she was bleeding profusely.

Zee 24-ghanta‘s report added that CCTV footage identifying the murder suspect was released and police have started investigating. “Bakultala police are searching for a suspicious bike and a suspicious person caught on CCTV in the area. According to sources, the person and two people on a bike may be involved in the incident,” it said. However, the identity of the deceased woman remained unknown.

Online news portal Nirvik Barta also documented the incident on its YouTube channel.

The video includes footage of the crime scene, where the police can be seen marking the area. The brick road too is visible. In the report, a man named Abdul Salam explains that he approached the distressed woman and asked her where her house was. Owing to the injuries on her face, he couldn’t understand her response and repeated “Murshidabad?” to which she nodded. Note that Murshidabad is a city in West Bengal.

News reports by Sangbad Pratidin and Hindustan Times Bangla identified the victim as Latifa Khatun and the accused as Giyasuddin Gazi, a resident of Manirtat, which falls under the Bakutala police’s jusrisdiction. Gazi reportedly confessed that he had called Khatun to his home in the area to kill her.

Alt News reached out to Bakultala police who confirmed that they managed to track down and detain the alleged perpetrator—her husband—on January 28. The police also clarified that domestic feud led to the woman getting killed and there was no communal factor in this case. The woman was from Murshidabad while her husband was from the Jaynagar area. Both belonged to the Muslim community.

To sum up, the video is from West Bengal and not Bangladesh and has been wrongly given a communal tinge.

The post Video of injured woman from West Bengal peddled as Hindus being abused in Bangladesh appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Ankita Mahalanobish.

‘Activist’ Dilip Mandal’s claim that Fatima Sheikh is a ‘non-existent’ character is a travesty of historical truth

Oishani Bhattacharya — Wed, 29 Jan 2025 14:20:26 +0000

January 9 has widely been recognised as the birth anniversary of Fatima Sheikh, dubbed one of the first female Muslim educators and a close associate of educationist social reformer Savitribai Phule. However, this year, discourse around her on social media took a complete turn.

On her birth anniversary this year, former journalist, author and self-proclaimed activist Dilip Mandal took to X to a pen a post titled “Confession”. In this, he claimed that Fatima Sheikh never actually existed and was a character “fabricated” by him.

“I had created a myth or a fabricated character and named her Fatima Sheikh. Please forgive me. The truth is that ‘Fatima Sheikh’ never existed; she is not a historical figure. Not a real person. It is my mistake that, during a particular phase, I created this name out of nothing—essentially from thin air. I did that knowingly,” Mandal writes.

Confession:

I had created a myth or a fabricated character and named her Fatima Sheikh.

Please forgive me. The truth is that “Fatima Sheikh” never existed; she is not a historical figure. Not a real person.

It is my mistake that, during a particular phase, I created this name… pic.twitter.com/8pHjiQXTfG

— Dilip Mandal (@Profdilipmandal) January 9, 2025

The “fictional sketch” here refers to an article by him published in The Print on January 9, 2019 titled: ‘Why Indian history has forgotten Fatima Sheikh but remembers Savitribai Phule’. After Mandal’s latest post on X, however, The Print retracted this piece.

Three days later, on January 11, Mandal posted another thread on X titled: “11 Points of Agreement in the Fatima Sheikh Controversy”, where he outlined claims supporting his latest argument that Fatima Sheikh is a fictional character he created and not a real historical figure.

He claims there is no historical evidence that points to Fatima Sheikh’s existence and association with Savitribai Phule since there are “no books, poems, government documents, letters, or newspapers from that era that mention her”.

11 Points of Agreement in the Fatima Sheikh Controversy:

A thread highlighting key points of consensus among otherwise disagreeing parties.

— Dilip Mandal (@Profdilipmandal) January 11, 2025

Finding Fatima Sheikh

In this report, we will try to tackle Mandal’s latest claim that “no contemporary evidence from that era exists to confirm the existence of ‘Fatima Sheikh’ during the time period she is said to have lived” and whether this can be used to establish that the discourse around Fatima Sheikh predates Mandal’s writing around her.

1. Books and letters

One of the first and easily locatable academic references to Fatima Sheikh is in an anthology of Indian women’s writing — “Women writing in India: 600 B.C. to the present” — edited by Susie Tharu and K Lalitha, published in 1991. This collection delves into the literary contributions of Indian women from ancient times to the early 20th century and brings to the mainstream voices of historically marginalised women writers. The anthology features poetry, prose, letters and autobiographical fragments, all of which reflect the socio-political and cultural contexts of their time.

Savitribai Phule’s name emerges prominently each time there’s any mention of Indian women who made significant contributions to society but were excluded from historical records. Tharu and Lalitha’s anthology dedicates a chapter to Phule, in which Fatima Sheikh is clearly mentioned. In a brief introduction to Phule and her work, Sheikh is referred to as a colleague of Savitribai and her husband Jyotirao Phule, who was also an activist and reformer. The book says:

“In 1848, when Savithribai was only seventeen, they (Jyotirao and she) opened five schools in and around Pune, and in 1851, one meant especially for the girls from the mang and mahar castes. Savithribai and Jotiba, together with another colleague, Fatima Sheik, taught in them until 1856 when Savithribai fell seriously ill and went back to her parental home in Naigaon (Khandala taluk, Satara district), where she was nursed back to health by her elder brother, ‘Bhau’.”

The edition also has a letter Savitribai wrote to her husband in October 1856, from her parental home where she was recovering from her illness. This letter, translated from Marathi to English by Maya Pandit, who has translated 18 books, including Marathi Dalit women’s autobiographies, again mentions Sheikh.

Savitribai writes:

“…I’ll come to Pune as soon as I have completely recovered. Please don’t be worried about me. This must be causing a lot of trouble to Fatima. But I am sure she will understand and won’t grumble.”

When we reached out to Susie Tharu to learn more on the scholarship regarding Sheikh and her primary sources, she said much of Phules’ life, including what the chapter contains, has been documented by eminent scholars specialising in Marathi literature, Dalit history and the role of Muslims in social reform in India, such as Vidyut Bhagwat, Ram Bhapat, Gail Omvedt and Gail Minault. The chapter on Phule was written in consultation with some of these scholars and their work. She also told Alt News that the burden of proof of Fatima Sheikh’s non-existence should be placed on Dilip Mandal and not the other way around.

“It’s clear now that Dr Mandal’s claim that he invented Fatima Sheikh is false… Mandal should be asked what evidence he has that the Sheikhs (Fatima and her brother Usman Sheikh) were not involved?”

The other mention of Sheikh and Phule together is in M G Mali’s biography of Savitribai Phule titled ‘Kranti Jyoti Savitribai Phule’. In this biography, first published in 1980, Mali mentions Fatima Sheikh alongside others who assisted and made significant contributions to Savitribai Phule’s efforts:

“Just as Savitribai contributed to Mahatma Phule’s work in the social field, contributions from progressive thinkers such as Sagunabai Kshirsagar, Vishnupant Thate, Vamanrao Kharaatkar and Fatima Sheikh also played a role. Fatima Sheikh, who studied at the normal school opened by the Phule couple, became the first student and the first Indian Muslim woman teacher at that school. Savitribai and Fatima Sheikh taught in schools for girls from the lower untouchable society, while other assistant teachers taught in schools for Brahmin or wealthy girls. Both Savitribai and Fatima were fully capable of teaching”.

Dr. M.G. Mali, in his biography क्रांतीज्योती सावित्रीबाई फुले (Kranti Jyoti Savitribai Phule), originally published in 1980, writes: “Just as Savitribai Phule contributed to the social reform efforts of Mahatma Phule, pic.twitter.com/eXhkh1cehu

— Revolutionary Memes For Bahujan Teens (@RMBT_tweets) January 10, 2025

This debunks Dilip Mandal’s claim that there are no historical records, or books or letters mentioning Fatima Sheikh before he wrote about her. References to a person named ‘Fatima’ as a close associate of the Phules appear in Tharu and Lalitha’s 1990 anthology on women writers as well as Mali’s 1980 biography of Phule.

2. Photograph with Savitribai Phule

Another piece of evidence that cements Sheikh’s association with the Phules is a photograph of them from over a century ago.

This appears in another book on Savitribai Phule titled ‘Savitribai Phule – Samagra Vangmaya’, which was also edited by M G Mali. It was first published in 1988; subsequent editions were published by the Maharashtra government’s Literature and Culture Board. Page 49 of the digital copy of this book has a note by editor M G Mali followed by several photographs of Savitribai and Jyotirao Phule with some of the people in their lives. Page 54 of the book has a photograph of three women — two sitting and one standing behind them — along with two young girls. The accompanying caption says, “Savitribai Phule and Fatima Sheikh with two students from their school (A rare photograph developed from a negative over a hundred years ago)”. Scholars believe that in this photograph, the woman standing behind the two others who are seated is Fatima Sheikh.Thus while it is true that evidence surrounding Fatima Sheikh’s existence is limited, enough records predating Mandal’s article point to the fact that she did, in fact, exist and was closely associated with Savitribai Phule.

Mandal only speculates about Fatima Sheikh’s existence, fails to disprove it

In his January 11 X thread, Mandal says that only one letter from Savitribai Phule to her husband has a reference to Fatima Sheikh, and even that is just a single line. He claims that this brief mention offers no concrete evidence of Fatima Sheikh’s existence or her key role as an educator. This letter, originally in Marathi, is the same one appearing in Tharu and Lalita’s anthology.

He further adds, “It is unclear who this ‘Fatima’ was, what work burden she had, and why she would not complain. These questions remain unanswered and likely unanswerable. In Marathi, the phrase ‘not complain’ is written as ‘kurkur’ nahi karegi, which does not convey much respect toward Fatima… She may have been a household servant or helper”.

His argument that the word “kurkur” used in Savitribai Phule’s letter denotes a lack of respect is farfetched because the connotation of disrespect is based on a generic idea of how the word may have been spoken or used in popular culture. “Kurkur” is a common Marathi term for ‘grumble’ or ‘complain’.

Mandal goes on to say that it’s possible the ‘Fatima’ mentioned in Savitribai’s letter could be Christian: ‘she could have been Fatima Ansari, Fatima Kunjra, or Fatima Dhuniya’.

5. This “Fatima” might have been a Christian, as the name was common among Christian women long before the advent of Islam. Alternatively, she could have been Fatima Ansari, Fatima Kunjra, or Fatima Dhuniya. She may have been a household servant or helper. pic.twitter.com/8KgfZFCmzK

— Dilip Mandal (@Profdilipmandal) January 11, 2025

This too seems mere speculation on Mandal’s part. His phrase “She could have been…” is a wide net to cast doubt without any substantial evidence.

To put it simply, by introducing alternative theories Mandal is perhaps exploiting the limited historical evidence of her existence and contributions. And while the lack of availability of written, textual material is a genuine issue, it cannot be used to conclusively establish that Sheikh did not exist or had no contribution to the education movement.

According to Professor Shraddha Kumbhojkar, head of the History department at Savitribai Phule Pune University, while there is only one concrete piece of evidence suggesting the existence of Fatima Sheikh, there is a strong implication that a female colleague took on responsibilities during Savitribai Phule’s absence. The letter to her husband could be seen as her reference to an able colleague like Sheikh.

She adds that it is very plausible that a Muslim woman like Sheikh was a close associate considering the Phules’ Satyashodhak movement included individuals across castes and religions, with Muslims forming a significant part of it.

We reached out to Pune-based researcher Tahera Shaikh, whose work focuses on Fatima Sheikh. Shaikh, who has written a book in Urdu titled ‘Krantijyoti Savitribai Phule’, specifically told us that her interest in Fatima Sheikh was primarily born out of the fact that there was so little material available.

“I went to all the spaces in person and tried to document as much as I could but while we were able to establish what her life entailed and what her contributions primarily were, public records on Sheikh are few,” she said. She added that some references to Sheikh could be found in the works of Marathi scholars and in Marathi books on Phule but these too are not easily accessible.

“I visited every nook and corner in Pune to meet elderly persons who had any knowledge vis-à-vis Fatima Shaikh. But I hardly got anything in writing i.e. any evidence which can be used as reference in the book… Unlike Fatima Shaikh, there are plenty of materials and books available on Savitribai Phule and we know basic things about her… Savitribai used to write what she would do; therefore many things are available in writing with regard to her works. And, as she has mentioned about Fatima Bi several times, we also know about her. But, the unfortunate thing is that Fatima Bi herself did not write about herself and her works,” the scholar said in a podcast in 2022.

Not just Shaikh, the lack of archival records and written material, especially on women, is something several scholars have faced and have written about in detail. So, at best, Mandal’s half-baked claims on Fatima Sheikh’s (lack of) existence only highlight this issue.

The post ‘Activist’ Dilip Mandal’s claim that Fatima Sheikh is a ‘non-existent’ character is a travesty of historical truth appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Oishani Bhattacharya.