Operation Sindhoor: Pakistan Floods Social Media with Misinformation
India’s armed forces conducted swift precision strikes named Operation Sindhoor targeting nine key terrorist bases located in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), delivering a strong blow to terrorist elements. In response to these strikes, Pakistan, shaken by the attack, launched an aggressive disinformation campaign to mask its losses and protect its international image by disseminating false narratives across social media platforms.
Within hours of the successful completion of Operation Sindhoor, several Pakistani government-affiliated media outlets and social media accounts began spreading fabricated claims against India. Among the prominent falsehoods circulated were that Pakistan had launched missile attacks on fifteen locations within Indian territory, destroyed the Srinagar Air Base through its air force, and completely annihilated a brigade headquarters of the Indian Army.
This wave of misinformation was aggressively pushed by numerous social media accounts linked to Pakistan’s military media wing, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR). However, Pakistan failed to provide any visual, satellite, or verifiable evidence to substantiate these claims.
India’s official fact-checking unit, the Press Information Bureau (PIB) Fact Check, systematically countered these false narratives. Responding to a viral video claiming that the Srinagar Air Base was attacked by Pakistan's Air Force, PIB clarified via the social media platform X (formerly Twitter), “Several social media accounts aligned with Pakistan are falsely claiming an air strike on Srinagar Air Base. The video being circulated is old and unrelated to India. It is from a 2024 religious clash in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan.”
Similarly, addressing another widespread claim, PIB stated, “Social media posts suggesting that a brigade headquarters of the Indian Army was destroyed are false. This claim is fake. Please do not share unverified information.”
Following the operation, Pakistan circulated various photos and video clips that, upon analysis, were found to be either digitally altered, taken from unrelated past events, or repurposed to create a false sense of retaliation. Despite the absence of any credible evidence, many mainstream media outlets in Pakistan extensively broadcasted these narratives, highlighting Pakistan’s collective effort to influence post-operation discourse and project an image of retaliation.
The Government of India has urged citizens and media organizations not to trust such misinformation and to rely solely on official government sources for accurate information. International analysts observed that Pakistan, reeling from the impact of Operation Sindhoor, is further embarrassing itself through such fabricated propaganda.