New Delhi, May 8
In the wake of India's successful counterterrorism strikes under Operation Sindoor, several Pakistani government-linked media outlets and social media accounts have been caught disseminating misleading and fabricated content in an apparent attempt to distort the facts surrounding the operation.
On Wednesday, the Indian armed forces launched a series of precision strikes against nine high-value terror targets in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), in retaliation for the April 22 terror attack in Pahalgam, which left 26 civilians dead.
The operation marked a significant moment in India's continuing fight against cross-border terrorism.
Following the strikes, a wave of disinformation emerged online, with Pakistani media houses and affiliated handles pushing false narratives and unverified claims across social platforms, particularly on X.
Independent analysts and India's official fact-checking bodies swiftly flagged many of these assertions as baseless.
One of the most widely circulated false claims alleged that Pakistan had bombed an Indian military base in Amritsar.
The video used to support the claim, showing massive flames lighting up the night sky, was quickly debunked.
Fact-checkers identified the footage as coming from a wildfire that occurred in Valparaiso, Chile, in 2024. The natural disaster had no connection whatsoever to any military action in India or Pakistan.