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)

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.

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.

It’s a critical time for journalists. 

CPJ spoke to reporters and editors across India about their plans for covering these historic parliamentary elections in a difficult environment for the media, which has seen critical websites censored, prominent editors quit and independent outlets bought by politically-connected conglomerates, while divisive content has grown in popularity. 

Here are their biggest concerns:

Political violence 

During the run-up to the 2019 vote, there was a rise in assaults and threats against journalists during clashes between political groups, particularly in West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Punjab, and Jammu and Kashmir, according to data collected by CPJ and the Armed Conflict & Location Event Data Project. 

“Our state is now very famous or infamous for pre-poll, and post-poll, and poll violence,” Ishani Datta Ray, editor of Anandabazar Patrika newspaper in the eastern state of West Bengal, said at the launch of CPJ’s safety guide for journalists covering the election. “We have to guide them [our journalists] and caution them about the perils and dangers on the field.”

Dozens of citizens were killed in West Bengal’s 2019 and 2021 elections, largely due to fierce competition between the state’s ruling Trinamool Congress and the BJP.

Datta Ray described how she spent the night on the phone to one of her journalists who was part of a group who were beaten during a clash between two political parties and trapped in a building in Kolkata, West Bengal’s capital, as party activists attempted to set fire to one of the reporters, whom they had doused in petrol. The journalists were eventually rescued by police and locals.

“Nobody should die for a newspaper. Your life is precious,” said Datta Ray. “If there is a risk, don’t go out.” 

Mob violence

Many journalists fear that they will not receive adequate protection or support from their newsrooms on dangerous assignments. 

More than a dozen journalists were harassed or injured during the 2020 Delhi riots, the capital’s worst communal violence in decades, in which more than 50 people died.

One female reporter told CPJ on condition of anonymity, citing fear of reprisal, that she and a Muslim colleague were sent to out report without any safety gear.

“People were standing with knives and swords on the streets of Delhi and asking journalists for their IDs” to try to determine their faith based on their names, she said. 

The journalist’s colleague was beaten up and she was thrown on the ground by a rioter. After she posted about the incident on social media, her employer summoned her back to the office. 

“She said that everyone must be thinking that we are not protecting our reporters. I said, ‘Leave what everyone thinks. What are you doing? You are not protecting your reporter. In fact, you’re shooting the messenger,’” she told CPJ.

Datta Ray described how politicians sometimes try to turn their supporters against journalists by calling out their names at rallies and saying, “They are against us. Don’t read that newspaper.” 

“We’ve had to text people that ‘Just come out of the crowd … Don’t stay there,’” she said. “You don’t have to cover the meeting anymore. Just come out because you don’t know what could happen.’” 

Criminalization of journalism 

Since the last general election, a record number of journalists have been arrested or faced criminal charges, while numerous critical outlets have been rattled by tax department raids investigating fraud or tax evasion.  

For the last three years of CPJ’s annual prison census, India held seven journalists behind bars — the highest number since its documentation began in 1992. All but one of the 13 journalists recorded in CPJ’s 2021-23 prison censuses were jailed under security laws. Some appear in multiple annual censuses due to their ongoing incarceration. 

Six were reporting on India’s only Muslim-majority region, Kashmir, where the media has come under siege following the government’s 2019 repeal of the region’s constitutional autonomy. 

India’s longest imprisoned journalist, Aasif Sultan, was arrested in 2018 for alleged militant ties after publishing a cover story on a slain Kashmiri militant. 

Since 2014, CPJ’s research shows, at least 15 journalists have been charged under India’s anti-terror Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, which allows for detention without trial or charge for up to 180 days, since 2020.

Datta Ray also said she was dealing with a growing number of cases against local journalists.

“Every institution should have a very strong back up of a legal team,” she said, recounting how West Bengal police spent five hours raiding the house of Parkash Sinha, a journalist who covers federal investigative agencies for ABP Ananda news channel, which is part of the same media group.

“You don’t know if your write up, if your TV report, has angered any establishment, any police,” said Datta Ray, who worked with lawyers to advise the reporter via a conference call while the February raid was going on. “You can be slapped with any kind of charges.”

“They copied everything from his personal laptop and from pen drives … they cannot do but they did it,” she said. 

Sinha has denied the charges in the ongoing case, which relate to a land dispute.

Attacks by other journalists 

Under Modi, Indians have become increasingly divided along political lines — and that includes the media. Government officials have labeled critics as “anti-national” and cautioned broadcasters against content that “promotes anti-national attitudes.” 

In February, India’s news regulator ordered three news channels to take down anti-Muslim content that it said could fan religious tensions, while the Supreme Court has called for divisive TV anchors to be taken off air.

Journalists are not immune.

“Indian media is very, very polarized now,” Dhanya Rajendran, editor-in-chief of The News Minute, said at CPJ’s launch event. “We are seeing a clear divide in the Indian media, where one side is continuously egging the government to go arrest people from the other side, to take action, branding them as ‘anti-national.’”

She highlighted October’s police raid on the news website NewsClick, which has been critical of the BJP, and the arrest of its editor Prabir Purkayastha, who remains behind bars on terrorism charges for allegedly receiving money from China.

“We saw many Indian TV anchors go on air and ask for the arrest of the editor Prabir. They continue to call him all kinds of names,” said Rajendran, as she called for more solidarity among journalists and newsrooms.

Online harassment

Ismat Ara was among 20 Muslim women journalists whose pictures and personal information were shared for a virtual “auction” in 2022 by an online app called Bulli Bai, a derogatory term to describe Muslim women. Ara filed a police complaint which led to the arrest of the app’s creators.

Trolling is still a regular occurrence for her. This month, she posted on social media about being on an election assignment in the northern state of Uttarakhand, which is known for its Hindu pilgrimage sites. One of the comments on X, formerly known as Twitter, said, “In future you will have to apply for visa to visit these places in India.”

Since she was chased by a mob at the Delhi riots, Ara said she usually hides her Muslim identity while reporting.

“I think it helps not to be visibly Muslim,” she said, adding that she removed a picture of herself in a hijab on X after a BJP aide asked for her handle to check for “negative stories.” 

Some journalists at The News Minute receive abusive comments whenever they publish stories, Rajendran said.

“People have disturbed sleep patterns, they lose their confidence, they self-censor themselves, they do not want to tweet out stories,” she said, urging journalists to talk about their experiences with friends and colleagues.

Online censorship

In recent years, India has become a world leader in imposing internet shutdowns, according to the digital rights group Access Now. 

Government requests to platforms like X, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube, to take down or block content and handles in India for defamation, impersonation, privacy and security, or inflammatory content have increased multifold in the last few years. From October to December 2023, India had the most video takedowns globally with over 2 million YouTube videos removed. 

In early April, YouTube blocked prominent Hindi language news channels Bolta Hindustan and National Dastak without explanation. 

On Tuesday, X said it had blocked several posts by politicians and parties, which made unverified claims about their opponents, in compliance with orders from the Election Commission of India, while noting that “we disagree with these actions” on freedom of expression grounds. 

Digital rights experts have criticized India for failing to respect a 2015 Supreme Court order to provide an outlet that has allegedly produced offensive content with a copy of the blocking order and an opportunity to be heard by a government committee before taking action.

Device hacking 

Digital security is another growing concern. After The News Minute was raided by the income tax department, Rajendran said she organized a training for her staff on how to respond if an agency wants to take your device or arrest you.

Siddharth Varadarajan, editor of The Wire news website, has been repeatedly targeted with Pegasus spyware. 

“We need to fight for our right to work as journalists without this sort of intrusive, illegal surveillance,” he told CPJ. “A first step is to educate ourselves and devise technologically sound strategies to cope with surveillance.” 

In the wake of the revelations, Varadarajan’s devices were analyzed by a committee established by the Supreme Court but its findings have not been made public. 

“Until recently, journalists were primarily trained to uncover and disseminate the truth,” Rajendran concluded. 

“In today’s landscape, it is equally vital to educate both aspiring journalists and seasoned professionals on methods to safeguard themselves, their sources, and their personal devices.”

B.P. Gopalika and Naresh Kumar, chief secretaries of the states of West Bengal, and Delhi, respectively, did not respond to CPJ’s emails seeking comment on authorities’ efforts to protect journalists during the election.

Secretary of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting Sanjay Jaju did not respond to CPJ’s email seeking comment on social media censorship. 

Secretary of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology S. Krishnan did not respond to CPJ’s email seeking comment on the allegations of hacking.

CPJ’s India Election Safety Kit is available in English, हिंदी, ಕನ್ನಡ, தமிழ் and বাংলা

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Kunal Majumder/CPJ India Representative.

On Monday, police arrested Pan, who works for the privately owned news broadcaster Republic Bangla, while he was reporting from a woman’s home in the village of Sandeshkhali, about 80 kilometers (50 miles) east of West Bengal’s state capital, Kolkata, and remanded him in police custody for three days, according to news reports. Pan’s arrest was captured in a video by Republic World. 

Pan, who was freed on bail on Thursday, was reporting on weeks of protests by local women over alleged rape and sexual assault by officials with West Bengal’s ruling All India Trinamool Congress (AITC). One of the alleged assailants has fled, while another was arrested.

On Thursday, Calcutta High Court ordered a stay on further proceedings in the police investigation into Pan for violating multiple sections of the penal code. If charged and found guilty of criminal trespass, Pan could face imprisonment for up to three months; for house trespass, imprisonment for up to one year; for outraging the modesty of a woman, imprisonment for up to three years; for voyeurism, imprisonment for up to three years; and for criminal intimidation, imprisonment for up to two years.

The unrest in Sandeshkhali started on January 5, when hundred supporters of an AITC official attacked federal officials with the Enforcement Directorate who had arrived to conduct a raid on the official’s house over an alleged scam regarding government-subsidized food distribution, according to news reports. Several officials were injured, their vehicles set on fire, and their laptops and phones were looted, those sources said.

Journalist Ayan Ghoshal of the privately owned news broadcaster Zee 24 Ghanta, reporter Sandeep Sarkar, and camera operator Sanjoy Chattopadhyaya of the privately owned news broadcaster ABP Ananda, and Monalisa Chaudhuri, a correspondent with The Telegraph newspaper, were stoned, beaten with sticks, and kicked, during clashes between crowds and officials in Sandeshkhali, those source said, as well as Ghoshal. Their cameras and other equipment were stolen and broken, and their vehicles were damaged, those sources said.

Sarkar said in an interview with his outlet ABP Ananda that he was beaten by the crowd and forced to unlock his phone. When the crowd saw the photos that he had taken, Sarkar and his driver were beaten again, their car was damaged, and their video live streaming equipment was stolen, he said. The crowd also beat his colleague Chattopadhyaya and snatched and broke his camera, Sarkar added.

Chaudhuri said in an article in The Telegraph that she was chased and beaten by people who snatched her camera and destroyed it. She is undergoing medical tests after vomiting, she added. Ghoshal told CPJ that his vehicle was the first to be targeted and damaged by the crowd with stones, bricks, and sticks.

“It is disturbing to witness the growing intolerance of press freedom in West Bengal,” said Kunāl Majumder, CPJ’s India representative. “Authorities in West Bengal must drop all charges against journalist Santu Pan, investigate the violence meted out against reporters covering unrest in Sandeshkhali, and ensure that the media can do their jobs without fear or interference.”

West Bengal Director General of Police Rajeev Kumar did not respond to CPJ’s email requesting comment on the incidents.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina of the ruling Awami League party returned to power for her fifth term amid an opposition boycott and low voter turnout. The U.S. State Department said the elections were “not free or fair.”

Mujib Mashal, South Asia bureau chief for The New York Times, told CPJ that the newspaper was denied prior approval by the Bangladesh government to report on the polls.

Separately, on Saturday, January 6, the day before the election, the Daily Manab Zamin newspaper’s website was blocked in Bangladesh following its critical reporting on the government, according to Matiur Rahman Chowdhury, the outlet’s editor-in-chief.

Chowdhury said the outlet did not receive a government notice detailing why the website was blocked, and access was restored on Monday, January 8.

At around 1 p.m. on election day, around 15 to 20 men wearing Awami League badges attacked seven journalists– MA Rahim, a correspondent for the broadcaster Ananda TV, Rimon Hossain, a camera operator with Ananda TV; Masud Rana, a correspondent with the online news portal enews71; Sumon Khan, a correspondent with the broadcaster Mohona TV; Elias Bosunia, a correspondent with the broadcaster Bangla TV; Minaj Islam, a correspondent with the newspaper Daily Vorer Chetona; and Hazrat Ali, a correspondent with the newspaper Dainik Dabanol, during their coverage of an assault on independent candidate Ataur Rahman outside a polling station in northern Lalmonirhat district, according to Rahim and Rana.

The men beat several of the journalists with iron rods and bamboo sticks, beat and pushed others, and broke and confiscated multiple pieces of equipment including cameras and microphones—according to those sources and a complaint filed at the Hatibandha Police Station by Rana, which alleged the perpetrators were led by brothers Md. Zahidul Islam and Md. Mostafa, nephews of the incumbent parliamentarian contested by Rahman.

Md. Zahidul Islam told CPJ that he denied involvement in the attack. Islam did not respond to CPJ’s follow-up question about Mostafa’s alleged involvement in the attack.

Saiful Islam, officer-in-charge of the Hatibandha Police Station, did not respond to CPJ’s request for comment.

Separately, at around 2:40 p.m., around 25 men surrounded Sirajul Islam Rubel, a correspondent for The Daily Star newspaper, and Arafat Rahaman, a reporter for The Daily Star, as they tried to leave a polling station in the capital Dhaka after covering an alleged ballot stuffing attempt by Awami League supporters, Rubel told CPJ.

The men grabbed the journalists’ phones, deleted their video footage and photos of the incident, and blocked their exit from the center along with Daily Star reporter Dipan Nandy, who subsequently joined Rubel and Rahaman to report from the station. The trio managed to leave with the assistance of police at around 3:05 p.m., Rubel said.

Separately, at around 2:45 p.m., around 20 to 25 men beat Mosharrof Shah, a correspondent for the daily newspaper Prothom Alo, after he photographed and filmed alleged ballot stuffing by Awami League supporters at a polling station in southeast Chittagong city, the journalist told CPJ.

Shah said that while speaking to an electoral officer about the incident, the men approached the journalist, took his notebook where he wrote what he observed, and deleted footage from his mobile phone in the presence of police. The men repeatedly slapped and punched Shah before he managed to flee the scene after around 30 minutes, the journalist told CPJ, adding that he received his phone back around one hour later with the assistance of his journalist colleagues.

Shah identified one of the perpetrators as Nurul Absar, general secretary of a local unit of the Chhatra League, the student wing of the Awami League. Absar did not respond to CPJ’s request for comment.

Previously, on September 24, alleged members of the Chhatra League attacked Shah on the University of Chittagong campus.

Separately, at around 4 p.m., a group of 20 to 30 men surrounded and assaulted Saif Bin Ayub, a sub-editor for the Daily Kalbela newspaper, and took his laptop, phone, other personal items while he was photographing alleged ballot stuffing by Awami League supporters inside a polling center in Dhaka, the journalist told CPJ.

The men pushed Bin Ayub against a wall and punched him, kicked him in the abdomen, and scratched him while forcibly removing his press identification card from around his neck. The perpetrators then dragged him out of the building as he requested help from police present at the scene, the journalist said. 

Officers did not intervene and the beating continued outside for around 15 minutes, the journalist said, adding that he received his phone and broken laptop back later that day but not his wallet, wristwatch and other items.

Separately, at around 4:30 p.m., around eight to 10 men—including electoral officials and teenagers wearing Awami League badges—pushed Sam Jahan, a Reuters video journalist, out of a vote counting room in a polling station in Dhaka. Two of the teenagers then chased Jahan out of the station, he told CPJ.

Separately, Awami League supporters surrounded and obstructed the work of four journalists with the New Age newspaper—correspondent Muktadir Rashid, photojournalist Sourav Laskar, and reporters Nasir Uz Zaman and Tanzil Rahaman—during their coverage of polling stations in Dhaka, Rashid told CPJ.

Separately, unidentified perpetrators threw bricks from behind at Mohiuddin Modhu, a news presenter and correspondent for the broadcaster Jamuna Television, after the journalist tried to speak to a young teenager who attempted to cast a ballot in the Nawabganj sub-district of Dhaka district.

Biplab Barua, Awami League office secretary and special aide to Prime Minister Hasina, told CPJ that law enforcement took swift action regarding all attacks on journalists on election day. Barua added that the government is committed to launching investigations into all such incidents and bringing the perpetrators to justice.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Arlene Getz/CPJ Editorial Director.

On September 6, police arrested Bagchi, a correspondent for the privately owned newspaper Ananda Bazar Patrika (ABP), after a woman from the local Dalit community—a historically marginalized group in India’s caste system—filed a police complaint alleging that the journalist had assaulted her, according to news reports.

Bagchi was being investigated on four counts under the penal code—wrongful restraint, voluntarily causing hurt, intention to insult the modesty of a woman, and assault, according to the Indian Express newspaper and a colleague, who spoke to CPJ on the condition of anonymity, citing fear of retribution. The penalties for these offences are prison sentences of up to one month, one year, three years, and three to seven years, respectively, with fines.

Bagchi was also under investigation for committing an offense against a scheduled, or disadvantaged, caste, those sources said, for which he could be jailed for six months to five years with a fine.

Bagchi’s colleague told CPJ that the correspondent was likely arrested because of his recent reporting on illegal liquor production in the city of Kharagpur. “[He] is an extremely upright and honest journalist and faced significant pressure from local authorities regarding his work,” the colleague said.

“West Bengal authorities must immediately drop all investigations into Ananda Bazar Patrika journalist Debmalya Bagchi who has faced unjust harassment for fulfilling his journalistic duties,” said Kunāl Majumder, CPJ’s India representative. “We stand firmly with Bagchi and the free press in urging authorities to ensure that journalists are allowed to work without fear of retribution.”

Bagchi was released on bail on Thursday, September 14, his colleague told CPJ.

In a statement, reviewed by CPJ, the Press Club of Kolkata expressed its concern about Bagchi’s arrest and said it had met with the West Bengal’s chief minister, Mamata Banerjee, who “assured that due process will be followed.”

CPJ’s email to Dhritiman Sarkar, police superintendent for Paschim Medinipur District where Bagchi was under investigation, did not receive any reply.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.