Claim: A video shows students in India attacking an airbase.
Fact: The clip is from a student protest in Lovely Professional University in Phagwara, Punjab, India.
On 28 September 2026, a Facebook account named Engr Khalil Hussain shared a clip showing a silhouette of a fighter jet, surrounded by hundreds of people. The video zooms in on a person lying on the top of the jet, with smoke billowing in the background. The caption reads:
پاکستان میں فوج پر حملے کروا کر انڈیا بہت خوش تھا”
آج اس کے اپنے ملک میں مشتعل سٹوڈنٹ نے ائرفورس بیس پر حملہ اورآگ لگا دی
قوم یوتھ آج صدمے میں ہے اور یہ سب شئیر نہیں کر رہے ہیں
“ان کے لئے بھی اسرائیل فادر لینڈ اور انڈیا مدر لینڈ بن چکی ہے
Translation: [“India was overjoyed when attacks were orchestrated against the army in Pakistan. Today, in its own country, enraged students attacked and set fire to an air force base. ‘Qaum-e-Youth’ is in shock today and is not sharing any of this. For them, too, Israel has become the ‘Fatherland’ and India the ‘Motherland’”.]
Fact or Fiction?
Soch Fact Check first searched for credible news outlets reporting on the alleged incident of Indian students attacking an airbase, however it led to no results. A reverse image-search of the video led to an X post by an Indian news outlet named The Tribune.
The publication had shared an article link, titled ‘LPU protest turns dramatic as students climb atop MiG-23, tank at Punjab university’ on 27 September, a day before the claim about an airbase attack went viral. The feature image matched with the description of the clip under investigation.
Left: Screengrab of the video under investigation, Right: Indian news outlet features a similar visual while reporting on a student protest at an institute named Lovely Professional University in Phagwara, Punjab.
Soch Fact Check accessed the article that reported on “an outsider” allegedly raping a student on campus at the Lovely Professional University (LPU) in Punjab, India, prompting protests that turned violent after students clashed with the police, smashed windows, pelted stones and set fire to objects withing university premises.
An excerpt of the article reads:
“Viral social media videos from the university showed large groups of students gathering and raising slogans. In one clip, a student was seen climbing onto an Indian Air Force MiG-23UM aircraft displayed on the campus, while another showed around 10 students standing atop a military tank installed at the university.”
Soch Fact Check accessed another Indian news outlet named The Times of India that reported on the incident and mentioned how “a student was seen climbing atop a decommissioned MiG-23UM installed on the campus.”
Screengrab of a report by The Times of India on 28 September 2026.
The outlet also published an image where the jet, as well as a cropped red-and-black emblem of the university, is visible. Another Indian publication The New Indian Express featured an image, taken before the protests, where the emblem as well as the jet are both completely visible.
The Times of India and The New Indian Express feature an image of the Lovely Professional University (LPU) where a decommissioned MiG-23UM jet installed on campus can be seen beside the institute’s emblem.
Since the jet seen in the video under investigation is a decommissioned aircraft installed within the premises of a university campus, Soch Fact Check concluded that the clip was filmed at the university, not at an airbase.
Virality
Soch Fact Check first came across a viral Facebook post with as many as 983 likes and 199 shares.
The clip received more reach after it garnered 1,900 and 1,500 likes via separate posts on the platform.
Conclusion: The video of a person standing on top of a jet does not show students attacking an airbase. The clip is from a protest at Lovely Professional University (LPU) where reports say students staged a demonstration against an alleged rape incident on campus. The jet seen in the clip is a decommissioned MiG-23UM jet installed on campus.
To appeal against our fact-check, please send an email to appeals@sochfactcheck.com