2023 video during ex-Pakistan PM’s arrest falsely linked to Indian army’s action along LoC after Pahalgam attack
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)
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)
The post has approximately 900,000 views.
X user Satyaagrah (@satyaagrahindia) also posted the video with similar claims.
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.
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.
News