Claim: A video shows an intense exchange of gunfire across the Line of Control in Kashmir as India attacked multiple locations in Pakistan.
Fact: The clip predates India’s 7 May attack.
On 7 May 2025, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Faheem Khan posted (archive) a video showing an intense exchange of gunfire across what he claimed was the Line of Control, a heavily-militarised border that divides Kashmir into two regions administered by Pakistan and India.
A former member of the National Assembly (MNA), Khan captioned his post as follows:
“لائن آف کنٹرول کی صورتحال
[Situation at the Line of Control]”
A de facto border, the LoC was established in 1972 as part of the Simla Agreement — signed by then-Pakistani President Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and former Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi — following the 1971 war between the two countries.
Fact or Fiction?
Soch Fact Check reverse-searched keyframes from the viral video and found that it was unrelated to India’s 7 May attacks on Pakistan.
We traced the video to 27 April 2025 when it was posted on Facebook here, here, and here and other social media platforms, including Instagram and YouTube. The caption of one post reads as follows:
“وادی لیپا پاکستان اور بھارت کے درمیان شدید فائرنگ، حالات کشیدہ،
[Intense firing between Pakistan and India in Leepa Valley, situation tense]”
Using this cue, we looked for news reports and found that firing in the Leepa Valley has been going on for days since 25 April. According to France 24, Syed Ashfaq Gilani — a government official in Pakistani-administered Kashmir — said, “There is post-to-post firing in Leepa Valley overnight. There is no firing on the civilian population. Life is normal. Schools are open.”
On 26 April, several multiple outlets reported that there was an exchange of fire across the LoC using small weapons.
In its report on 28 April, Anadolu Agency said, quoting local officials, that there was “normal post-to-post firing” in Leepa Valley. The Iinformation Mminister of Pakistan-administered Kashmir, Mazhar Saeed Shah, told the publication that “Indian forces fired at our security checkpoint and the Pakistan Army responded in the Leepa area along the LoC” but that “no damage was reported”.
The Print’s National Security Editor Praveen Swami wrote in an opinion piece, published on 30 April, wrote that “seizing territory in Leepa and elsewhere along the Neelam Valley is one option that [was] being seriously considered” by the Indian Army at the time.
On 29 April, the Pakistan Army shot down two Indian drones “amid continued exchange of fire along the LoC in Leepa Valley since Friday night, breaking a period of relative calm in the region”, Dawn reported. It added that military sources shared a video clip showing “two Indian posts being precisely targeted by Pakistani forces in the Leepa sector”.
Soch Fact Check, therefore, concludes that the video does not depict crossfire atacross the LoC after India attacked Pakistan.
India’s midnight attack on Pakistan
In the early hours of 7 May, the Indian military launched Operation Sindoor and targeted various locations inside Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir, killing at least 26 people and wounding 46 others, according to Pakistani authorities. At least three children were killed by the strikes.
The attack marked the most expansive military action between the two nations since 1971.
The Pakistan Army’s media wing, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), has said civilian areas in at least six locations — including Ahmedpur East, Muridke, Sialkot, Shakargarh, Kotli, and Muzaffarabad — were targeted.
India, however, alleged it targeted nine “terrorist camps”, a claim which has not yet been independently verified. Pakistan, on the other hand, has asserted that these sites are densely-populated civilian areas.
Emerging footage and on-ground reporting shows that civilians, including women and children, were injured in the attack, which lends credibility to Pakistan’s assertions that civilian areas were harmed, contrary to claims made by Indian officials.
Soch Fact Check also independently confirmed deaths of several civilians in Bahawalpur, including two children.
Notably, military strikes in Pakistani Punjab are across a recognised international border and constitute a major escalation relative to the surgical strikes carried out along the Line of Control (LoC), the ceasefire line that divides Pakistan-administered Kashmir from Indian-administered Kashmir.
Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif condemned the airstrikes, saying his country “has every right to give a robust response to this act of war imposed by India”.
The Pahalgam attack
India claims its strikes were a response to the terror attack in Pahalgam, a popular tourist destination in Indian-administered Kashmir, on 22 April, which killed 26 people, mostly tourists.
Indian officials linked the attack to Pakistan, but Islamabad has denied the claim. The country’s authorities also launched a large-scale manhunt, detaining at least 2,000 people in the region and destroying “several homes linked to alleged militants”.
On 26 April, The Resistance Front (TRF) — a relatively lesser-known militant group that India considers to be an offshoot of the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba — distanced itself from the attack after several news outlets reported that it claimed responsibility. The outfit said a social media post reportedly acknowledging its involvement was the result of a “coordinated cyber intrusion”.
Pakistan expressed concern at the loss of lives and demanded a neutral investigation, asserting that India has not provided any evidence to support its allegations of Pakistan’s involvement in the attack.
India, on the other hand, accused Pakistan of supporting “cross-border terrorism”, while Defense Minister Khawaja Asif shot back, saying New Delhi “staged [the attack] to create some sort of crisis in the region” and warning that any strike from the eastern neighbour could lead to an “all-out war”.
Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar termed India’s allegations as “baseless blame games” and demanded it present evidence for its claims against Pakistan.
After the attack, India closed a key land border with Pakistan, unilaterally suspended the Indus Waters Treaty, and barred Pakistani citizens from entering under a visa exemption scheme. The two nuclear-armed neighbours also expelled “each other’s diplomats, military attaches and hundreds of civilians”.
Among the tit-for-tat moves announced by Pakistan after a meeting of its National Security Committee (NSC) was a “a threat to suspend its participation in all bilateral agreements”, including the Simla Agreement, with the eastern neighbour. It also closed its airspace for Indian flights.
The Indus Waters Treaty
The Indus Waters Treaty, which has been in place since 1960, has survived two wars between the neighbouring nuclear-armed countries. Pakistan stated that attempts to stop or divert its water would be considered an “act of war and responded with full force across the complete spectrum of national power”.
After a UNSC meeting to discuss the matter, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said, “Now, India’s water will flow for India’s benefit, it will be conserved for India’s benefit, and it will be used for India’s progress”.
Pakistan, int’l response
Hours after Indian strikes hit multiple Pakistani locations, the military announced that they had brought down five Indian jets. Defense Minister Khawaja Asif told Bloomberg TV that his country shot down five Indian jets and multiple unmanned aerial vehicles, along with destroying checkposts at the Line of Control (LoC).
According to a press release issued by the Press Information Department (PID), after Pakistan’s National Security Committee (NSC) convened on the morning of 7 May, India also targeted the Neelum-Jhelum Hydropower Project.
“The international media personnel had already visited these ‘imaginary terrorist camps’ on 6 May 2025 and more visits were planned for 7 May 2025,” the press release said.
After the Pahalgam incident, “Pakistan made a sincere offer for a credible, transparent and neutral investigation, which unfortunately was not accepted” by India, it added.
The NSC also authorised the armed forces “to undertake corresponding actions” following the 7 May strikes by India.
The UN Secretary General António Guterres urged both India and Pakistan to exercise military restraint, adding that “the world cannot afford a military confrontation between India and Pakistan.”
The same day, India’s Modi chaired a high-level meeting with senior federal ministers but has so far not made any public comments since the airstrikes, according to CNN.
Following India’s attack on Pakistan, multiple countries issued statements, with Russia saying it was “deeply concerned” about the escalation, China noting that it “regrets” New Delhi’s military action and urging “restraint”, the US stating that it hoped the conflict “ends very quickly”, the UK promising that it will “stand ready” to assist in deescalating tensions, and Qatar emphasising that there was an “urgent need to keep communication channels open” between the two countries.
A surge of unverified claims and disinformation has circulated on social media since the Pahalgam terror attack, and it has spiked sharply after India launched missile strikes into Pakistani territory on 7 May.
Virality
The post by PTI’s Faheem Khan has so far been viewed over 226,600 times.
Two other posts garnered more than 89,200 and 20,100 views, respectively, as of writing time.
Soch Fact Check found the claim here and here on Instagram.
It also spread on YouTube; some instances can be viewed here, here, here, here, and here.
Conclusion: The clip predates India’s 7 May attack.
Background image in cover photo: Tony Sebastian
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