Two videos are being shared through social media supposedly showing the Indian Army attacking the Pakistani Army and their posts in a recent operation.
The videos are being shared in the context of Army Day commemorated on January 15 annually to mark when Lieutenant General Kodandera M Cariappa succeeded General Francis Roy Bucher as the first Commander-in-Chief of the Indian Army in 1949.
The first video (disturbing content: viewer discretion advised) shows a bomb exploding on a terrace with two men, with one of them getting thrown into the air violently.
The video was shared with the caption, “Indian Army destroying Pakistani post in Athmuqam sector of PoK. #ArmyDay #ArmyDay2024 (sic)”
The second video, also shared by the same user, showed a person holding a white flag walking down the slope of a hill with green bushes. He stops behind a bush and waves the flag while men come to him and retrieve something from the bush. Those sharing the video claim that the man with the white flag is a Pakistani soldier requesting the Indian Army not to fire while they pick up the bodies of their comrades.
“#ArmyDay Special: Pakistan Army picking the dead bodies of their soldiers and showing white flag to #IndianArmy in Haji Pir Sector for not opening the fire again, #ArmyDay2024 (sic)” read the caption to the video.
Fact Check
SouthCheck found that the claims behind both videos are misleading.
Video 1
On doing a Google Reverse Image Search, we found the video uploaded by a YouTube channel on December 28, 2019. In the top left corner of the video, one can also see the logo of the National Front for Liberation, a Syrian rebel coalition part of the Syrian National Army (SNA) fighting in the Syrian Civil War.
The same video was also uploaded by a Reddit user on a subreddit called Combat Footage four years ago, with the title ‘Rebel ATGM Erupts Syrian Government Rooftop Fighting Position.’
While we could not independently verify the video, we can confirm that the viral video is old and doesn’t show any recent attacks by the Indian Army.
Video 2
On searching with appropriate keywords, we found the same video uploaded by NDTV on September 14, 2019. The title reads, ‘Video Shows Pak Soldiers With White Flags Retrieve Bodies Near LoC.’
The report said that the video shows a Pakistani soldier waving a flag asking the Indian Army not to fire while their comrades’ bodies are being retrieved. The caption read, “Pakistani soldiers waved a white flag as they emerged against the silhouette of a grassy knoll to retrieve the bodies of their colleagues, who were shot dead by Indian soldiers in retaliation to ceasefire violations along the Line of Control (LoC), sources said.”
