Claim: A video shows Pakistan’s war-ready pilot, Ayesha Farooq, who shot down an Indian Rafale jet amid the recent military confrontation between India and Pakistan.
Fact: The woman in the footage is Marium Mukhtiar, a Pakistani fighter pilot who died after a plane crash in November 2015.
A Facebook user posted a video (archive) purportedly showing a Pakistani woman pilot destroying an Indian Rafale jet during the recent armed conflict between the neighbouring countries. The text superimposed on the footage reads [translated from Urdu]: “The princess who shot down the Indian Rafale jet. One of the Indian Rafale jets shot down by the Pakistan Air Force last night was shot down by Pakistani female pilot Ayesha, who belongs to the Garhi Dupatta, Azad Kashmir.”
The post implies that the woman shown in the footage is Ayesha Farooq, who was the only female war-ready pilot in Pakistan as of 2013.
So far, no credible publications have reported on a Pakistani woman pilot taking part in the recent air battle between India and Pakistan, which took place after India attacked two cities in Pakistan-administered Kashmir and four sites in the country’s Punjab province on 7 May 2025. Pakistan Army claimed to have shot down five Indian fighter jets in response. The Washington Post‘s visual investigation on the debris confirmed that Pakistan shot down “two French-made fighter jets flown by the Indian air force — a Rafale and a Mirage 2000.” Moreover, reports by other international publications have also reported on the loss of at least one Indian Rafale jet during the military confrontation.
However, no credible reports show a woman pilot took part in the aerial combat which led to the loss of India’s fighter jets or that Ayesha Farooq was one of them.
Furthermore, Farooq is from Bahawalpur, not from “Garhi Dupatta, Azad Kashmir,” as the post claims, which is a sign that the post is misleading.
However, this article does not aim to confirm whether any Pakistani female fighter pilots participated in the air battle or if Ayesha Farooq was the PAF pilot who shot down an Indian Rafale jet. It only fact-checks the identity of the woman in the video shared by the user.
India-Pakistan conflict
On 10 May, Pakistan and India announced a ceasefire after the most expansive military action between the two nuclear nations in decades.
Two days before, on the morning of 8 May, India had launched a wave of drone attacks, killing at least one person, and wounding several. The Pakistan military initially claimed that 25 Indian drones were shot down in different locations across the country, and on the following day claimed that the number of drones shot down had grown to 77.
Indian authorities claimed that the drone attacks were in response to a Pakistani attack on Amritsar the previous night, whereas Pakistan denied that any attacks had been carried out. Subsequent to the drone attacks on Pakistan, India said that Pakistan carried out missile and drone attacks on Jammu in Indian-administered Kashmir. Pakistan also denied this allegation, adding that it was “entirely unfounded, politically motivated, and part of a reckless propaganda campaign aimed at maligning Pakistan.”
In the early hours of 7 May, the Indian military launched Operation Sindoor and targeted nine sites inside Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir. These missile strikes constituted the most serious escalation of military hostilities between the two nuclear-armed nations since 1971, killed at least 31 people, including at least three children, and wounded at least 57 others according to Pakistani authorities.
On 10 May, in response to Indian attacks, Pakistan launched “Operation Bunyanum Marsoos” [a structure made of lead], targeting “at least six Indian military bases.”
The strikes carried out by India as part of Operation Sindoor were purportedly in response to the terror attack that took place in Pahalgam in Indian-administered Kashmir, on 22 April 2025, which killed 26 people, mostly tourists.
In a statement on 11 May, Pakistan’s foreign office said the nation was “committed to engaging with the United States and the international community in efforts to promote peace, security, and prosperity in the region.”
Fact or Fiction?
At first, reverse-searching keyframes from the video in the claim did not yield any results. However, the woman pilot in the video appeared to be Marium Mukhtiar, a Pakistani fighter pilot who died during a routine training mission after her plane crashed in Mianwali, Punjab, in November 2015.
Then, a keyword search led to videos showcasing Mukhtiar and her journey in the Pakistani Air Force. One such video, from August 2020, was uploaded by a Facebook user named Marium Mukhtiar Shaheed.
Titled “Flying Officer Marium Mukhtiar Shaheed (TB),” the footage captures Mukhtiar inside a jet’s cockpit. From timestamp 0:12 onwards, this video matches the footage from the claim when she blinks her eyes and looks upwards while flying, confirming that the footage showing Mukhtiar is old. Additionally, the video in the claim has been flipped, with text superimposed on it. Therefore, a reverse-search did not directly lead to relevant results or the source of the footage.
Another Facebook post from February 2021 included the same video along with the caption [translated from Urdu], “There is no power on earth that can erase the memories of Pakistan Jinn (Jinnah) # mariummukhtiarshaheed.” This post also suggests that the footage is of Marium Mukhtiar, and not Ayesha Farooq.
Most importantly, both Facebook posts confirm that the video predates the recent India-Pakistan conflict and that the footage of the pilot is entirely unrelated to it.
Therefore, the claim is false.
Virality
The Facebook video was liked 3,800 times.
The video appeared on Facebook here (archive), here (archive).
On YouTube here.
Conclusion: The video does not show Pakistan’s war-ready female pilot Ayesha Farooq. It shows the late fighter pilot Marium Mukhtiar, who died in a plane crash in Mianwali in November 2015.
Background image in cover photo: Business Recorder
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