Claim: Plumes of smoke can be seen in a video depicting India’s airstrikes in Bahawalpur, Pakistan.
Fact: The video has no connection to Pakistan or India. It is originally from Palestine and shows Israel’s bombardment of Gaza.
On 7 May 2025, Sabir Shakir, a YouTuber and TV anchor previously associated with ARY News, and TV9 Network Executive Editor Aditya Raj Kaul posted the same video showing plumes of smoke and fire arising in Bahawalpur allegedly during India’s airstrikes.
The posts came as India on 7 May 2025 struck Pakistan in its own territory, in addition to Pakistan-administered Kashmir, majorly escalating a conflict between the two nuclear powers following an attack in Pahalgam, a tourist spot, last month.
Shakir — who has previously shared false and misleading claims — captioned the video as follows:
“بھارتی حملہ بہالپور میں
[Indian attack in Bahawalpur]”
On the other hand, Kaul, who frequently peddles disinformation, wrote: “#BREAKING: Pakistan Army confirms attack by India. India has launched an attack on Pakistan. Missiles fired at Kotli, Muzaffarabad, and Bahawalpur — confirmed by DG ISPR to Pakistani journalists. India goes after terror state (sic) 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 31 people and wounding 57 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 that 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). Indian officials apparently acknowledged that three of their “fighter jets” had “crashed” within their territory, Reuters and New York Times reported on 7 May 2025.
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.
Fact or Fiction?
Reverse-searching keyframes from the viral video led Soch Fact Check to a 28 October 2023 post on the Facebook page of Kurdistan24 (K24), an Iraqi news station, which caption it as follows:
“ئەمشەو غـ.ەززە لە ژێر مووشەک و ئاگردایە دانیشتووانی ناوچەکە دەڵێن: غـ.ەززە لە مێژووی خۆیدا بۆردومانێکی قورسی لەمشێوەیەی نەبینیوە
[Gaza is under rocket and fire tonight. Residents say Gaza has never seen such heavy bombing in its history.]”
Searching further, we came across the video uploaded online a few days before 28 October 2023; it was posted on Reddit on 23 October with the caption, “The israelis cut electricity & waited until most phones & cameras were dead before beginning their genocide in ernest….. Gaza last night:”
The same day, Egyptian news channel AlQahera News also published the clip on its website with the title, “قصف عنيف.. أول فيديو من قصف طيران جيش الاحتلال لمحيط مستشفى القدس في غزة [Heavy shelling.. First video of Israeli airstrikes on the vicinity of Al-Quds Hospital in Gaza]”.
Lastly, we came across the same video posted on X by Kabul News, an Afghan channel, which wrote:
“اسرائیلو پرون شپه پر غزې باندې خپلو بمباریو ته شدت ورکړی. د فلسطیني رسنۍ د راپور له مخې د پرون شپې په بمباریو کې د ښځو او ماشومانو په گډون ۴۰۰ کسانو خپل ژوند له لاسه ورکړی او سلگونه نور لا د نړیدلو ودانیو لاندې دي.
[Israel intensified its bombardment of Gaza last night. According to Palestinian media reports, 400 people, including women and children, lost their lives in the bombardment last night, and hundreds more are still under collapsed buildings.]”
Therefore, Soch Fact Check concludes that the viral video currently making the rounds on Pakistani social media has no link whatsoever to India’s attack on 7 May.
Virality
The posts by Kaul and Shakir have been viewed over 1.5 million and 286,600 times, respectively, so far.
Soch Fact Check found the video circulating here and here on X (formerly Twitter).
It was uploaded multiple times on YouTube; some instances can be viewed here, here, and here.
Interestingly, the clip was also picked up by international media. For example, we found through a post on the web portal, Daum, that it was broadcast by South Korean cable television network, Channel A.
It was also published by newspapers and media outlets like Bonik Barta from Bangladesh, The Age from Australia, Korrespondent.net from Ukraine, and the London-headquartered Afghanistan International.
Conclusion: The video has no connection to Pakistan or India. It is originally from Palestine and shows Israel’s bombardment of Gaza.
Background image in cover photo: Aliza Riaz
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