Claim: A viral video shows Pakistanis leaving India in large numbers.
Fact: The claim is false. The video is not from the India-Pakistan border. In fact, it shows displaced Palestinians waiting at the Netzarim corridor along Salah al-Din highway in the Gaza strip following a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas in January 2025.
On 23 April, following the attack in Pahalgam, Indian Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri announced that Pakistani nationals would no longer be permitted to travel to India under the SAARC Visa Exemption Scheme (SVES). He also stated that any SVES visas previously issued to Pakistani nationals had been cancelled, and individuals under this category were given 48 hours to leave the country.
In the wake of this announcement, social media users in India began circulating a video (archive) claiming it shows large numbers of Pakistanis leaving India. The video continued to do the rounds on various platforms as tensions between the two countries escalated on 7 May.
Fact or Fiction?
Soch Fact Check found the claim dubious for several reasons. Firstly, the location shown in the video does not match either of the two official border crossings between India and Pakistan, i.e., the Attari-Wagah border or the Munabao–Khokhrapar border. Additionally, the video features billboards in Arabic, which strongly suggests it originates from an Arab-speaking country rather than India.
Importantly, the video included a watermark reading “AF” and ended with the username @anas.fteiha. Soch Fact Check found the exact video shared by Instagram user Anas Fteiha on 26 January captioned: “The displaced are still waiting at the Nitsarim crossing along Salah Al-Din Street, hoping to return to their homes in northern Gaza.” The caption confirmed that the video in the viral claim originated from Salah al-Din highway in the Gaza strip, and is not from India.
We reviewed Fteiha’s Instagram bio, which identified him as a freelance photographer working with Anadolu Agency to document events in Palestine. His recent posts, which can be seen here, here, and here, largely show scenes from camps and locations across the Gaza Strip.
To gain further insight into the video, Soch Fact Check searched for relevant news reports. Following the ceasefire between Hamas and Israel, Salah al-Din Street in eastern Gaza became the main route for displaced Palestinians returning to their homes in the north. As cars lined up bumper to bumper, families waited for hours, some for days, before being allowed through the Netzarim axis after inspection. While thousands marched on foot via al-Rashid Street, the scenes on Salah al-Din captured the emotional core of the return. Despite destroyed homes and limited belongings, the return marked a powerful moment of resilience and hope for Gaza’s people.
Therefore, the viral video originally shared by Palestinian photographer Anas Fteiha does not show Pakistanis leaving India en masse, but rather originates from Salah al-Din highway in the Gaza strip.
Operation Sindoor and Pakistan’s Response
Indian airstrikes in Pakistan
In the early hours of 7 May, the Indian military launched Operation Sindoor and sent missiles at least six targets inside Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir. These missile strikes, which constituted the most serious escalation of military hostilities between the two nations since 1971, killed at least 31 people, including at least three children, and wounded at least 57 others according to Pakistani authorities.
India claimed that their missiles struck nine “terrorist camps” whereas Pakistan asserted that the targets chosen by India were civilian neighborhoods in densely populated areas. While it is difficult to independently ascertain whether “terrorist camps” were the target of India’s strikes, on ground footage and reporting from local hospitals showed that a number of women and children had been killed and injured in the attacks. This lends credibility to Pakistan’s assertions that civilians were harmed, contrary to claims made by Indian officials.
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 had “every right to give a robust response to this act of war imposed by India”.
The Pahalgam Attack
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.
India has blamed the attacks on Pakistan whereas Pakistan has denied any involvement and demanded a neutral investigation.
The Resistance Front – a group that Indian officials maintain is a proxy front for the Pakistan-based militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) – initially claimed responsibility for that attack but later retracted its statement.
The Indus Waters Treaty
Soon after the attack in Pahalgam, the Indian government announced the suspension of the Indus Waters Treaty. The landmark water-sharing treaty, which had been in place since 1960 had previously endured despite many instances of armed conflict between the neighbouring nuclear countries.
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”. On the other hand, Pakistan stated that attempts to stop or divert Pakistan’s water would be considered an “act of war and responded with full force across the complete spectrum of national power”.
Indian Jets in Pakistan
Soon after Indian missile strikes hit multiple locations in Pakistan, the Pakistani military announced that they had shot down five Indian warplanes including several Rafale Fifth Generation fighter jets. India has not yet responded directly to this claim but a growing number of media outlets have confirmed that at least some Indians planes, including at least one Rafale, did in fact go down during the early morning hours of 7 May 2025.
Drone War
On the morning of 8 May, India launched a wave of drone attacks across Pakistan, killing at least one person and wounding several. Pakistan military spokesperson 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.
At this time, Soch Fact Check has not been able to independently verify the exact number of Indian drones that entered Pakistan, or how many were shot down. Debris from drones has been found in a number of locations and Soch Fact Check has visited the two crash sites in Karachi and two in Rawalpindi.
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 Occupied 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”.
Virality
The video (archive) gained significant traction on Facebook, receiving over 70,000 likes and 3,000 shares.
On Instagram, it was shared here (archive).
Conclusion: The claim is false. The viral video is from the Gaza strip, and not India or Pakistan. It shows displaced Palestinians waiting along the Netzarim crossing to return to their homes in Northern Gaza after Israel and Hamas reached a ceasefire agreement in January 2025.
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Background image in cover photo: Reuters
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