Editors Note: The claim being fact-checked in this article was spread online before India’s attack on Pakistan early morning on Wednesday 7 May 2025.
Claim: A video shows Indian Army officials walking out of a meeting after saying they are “not capable of fighting a war against Pakistan.”
Fact: The video is entirely unrelated to the recent tensions between India and Pakistan. In fact, it shows a press conference held on 25 March 2025 regarding the assault of an Indian Army officer, Colonel Pushpinder Singh Bath, by Punjab Police in Patiala.
India attacks sites in Pakistan
Indian airstrikes in 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 attacks marked the most expansive military action between the two nations since 1971.
Pakistan military’s media-wing 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 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 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.
Pakistan demanded a neutral investigation, asserting that India has not provided any evidence to support its allegations of Pakistan’s involvement in the attack.
The Indus Waters Treaty
Soon after the attack on tourists in Pahalgam, New Delhi announced the suspension of the Indus Waters Treaty, which has been in place since 1960 and has survived two wars between the neighbouring nuclear countries. 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”.
On Tuesday, 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 and International response to Indian attack
Hours after Indian strikes hit multiple Pakistani locations, the Pakistani military announced that they had brought down five Indian jets. Defense Minister Khawaja Asif informed Bloomberg TV that the 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, Indian Prime Minister Narendra 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”, and the UK promising that it will “stand ready” to assist in deescalating tensions 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 early Wednesday morning.
Against the backdrop of rising geopolitical tensions between the two countries, a post on Threads shared a video, claiming it showed discord in the Indian Army regarding Modi’s preparations to go to war with Pakistan. Allegedly, it shows generals walking out of a meeting after stating they were not “capable of fighting a war against Pakistan.” The caption reads as follows:
“Breaking News
Indian Army generals have walked out of a meeting, saying,
“We are not capable of fighting a war against Pakistan.”
Modi still wants war, but his army isn’t capable of fighting.
This is their true reality. 🇮🇳
Those who are barking against the Pakistani Army should be ashamed. 😔”
Fact or Fiction?
To verify the authenticity of this video, we ran a reverse-image search of its keyframes. This revealed that the video had been shared as early as 25 March 2025 on Instagram, predating the Pahalgam attack on 23 April 2025. This post had the following caption in Hindi which has been translated to English:
[Translation: “👉My respect for independent journalism has increased by the courage with which important questions are being asked.
👉Special salute to journalist Man Aman Singh Chhina who is continuously asking questions to the DGP without fear to get justice for Colonel Pushpinder Singh Bath and his family.
👉The family of Colonel Bath has pushed everywhere for justice but the AAP government is protecting the culprits.
👉We demand CBI or independent investigation❗️
My respect for independent journalism has increased manyfold thanks to the courage shown by asking pertinent questions❗️
👉SPECIAL salute 🫡 to ManAman Singh Chinna for persistently asking questions to ensure justice for Col Pushpinder Singh Baath and his family ❗️
Col’s family ran from pillar to post seeking justice, but the @aamaadmipartypunjab_ government shields the guilty.
THE PEOPLE OF PUNJAB WANT A CBI/INDEPENDENT INQUIRY❗️
@punjabpoliceind”
Seeing that the post named “ManAman Singh Chinna” twice, we ran a Google search for this name. This led us to the X (formerly Twitter) profile of Man Aman Singh Chinna, a journalist for The Indian Express. On his X profile, the video in the claim was shared on 25 March 2025 with the following caption:
“Chief of Staff Western Command Lt Gen Mohit Wadhwa just scooted away with his senior officers after reading out a statement on the Patiala Colonel without taking any questions. The DGP also read out a statement and left but at least he has answered questions of media in recent days.
What is the Army afraid of?”
A photo of the meeting shown in the video was shared the same day by Chinna, which can be seen below:
The photo was accompanied by the following caption:
“A sham press conference held by the Army with Punjab Police on the Patiala Colonel beating issue.
No questions taken from the media.
Chief of Staff Wester (sic) Command and DGP Punjab just read out statements.
Total sham.”
The earliest instance of the video on Instagram and its instances on X all refer to a “Colonel”. The post on Instagram refers to “Colonel Pushpinder Singh Bath” and the posts on X refer to the “Patiala Colonel” and “Patiala Colonel beating issue”. To verify the context of the video, we conducted a Google search for “Colonel Pushpinder Singh Bath Patiala”. This led us to articles by The Hindustan Times, India Today, and The Times of India that all detailed an incident in Patiala, where an Indian Colonel and his son were assaulted by 12 Punjab Police personnel over a parking dispute outside a dhaba (roadside restaurant). According to the articles, the incident took place on the night of 13 March 2025.
The article in The Times of India also shared a photo of a recent press conference in which the Indian Army “called for a transparent and time-bound investigation into the alleged assault of Colonel Pushpinder Singh Bath”. As part of the search results for the Colonel’s name, we also came across videos of this same press conference by The Free Press Journal, ANI News, and the YouTube channel of the Government of Punjab, India dated 25 March 2025. The photo of the press conference published by The Times of India (shown below) matches the keyframes of these videos, Chinna’s posts on X, and the keyframes of the video in the claim. Therefore, the video in the claim is related to a press conference about the alleged assault of an Indian Colonel in March 2025. The footage is unrelated to the Pahalgam attack which took place in April 2025.
We also found two fact-checks debunking the same claim, one by Newschecker and another by Factly, both of which are signatories of the International Fact Checking Network (IFCN). Both fact-checks concluded that the video does not show Indian Army officials saying they can not fight a war against Pakistan. Rather, it “was taken during a press conference organized in connection with the attack on Colonel Pushpinder Singh”, Newschecker wrote.
Virality
On Instagram, the video was shared here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.
On Facebook, the video was shared here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.
On X, the video was shared here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.
On TikTok, the video was shared here.
On Threads, the video was shared here.
Conclusion: The video in the claim shows a press conference that was held on 25 March 2025 regarding the assault of an Indian Army officer, Colonel Pushpinder Singh Bath, by the Punjab Police in India. It predates the Pahalgam attack by almost a month and is entirely unrelated to the rising tensions between India and Pakistan.
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Background image in cover photo: MM News