Claim: The Lahore Airport was shut down after a “massive” blaze erupted when a tyre of an incoming Pakistan Army aeroplane caught fire. A slightly different version states that it was caused by a blast from the missile battery of air defence systems.
Fact: No such incident occurred and the Pakistan Airports Authority (PAA) has denied the claim. Moreover, an accompanying video is, in fact, from 2024 when there was a fire at the Lahore Airport due to a short circuit.
On 26 April 2025, Indian media outlet ABP News published reports that a “massive fire” broke out at the Allama Iqbal International Airport in Lahore and that “all flights [were] cancelled” as a result. The first two paragraphs of the article, titled, “Massive Fire Breaks Out At Lahore Airport, All Flights Cancelled: Video,” read as follows:
“A massive fire broke out at the Allama Iqbal International Airport in Lahore, Pakistan on Saturday, following which all flights were cancelled. According to sources, a Pakistan Army plane was landing at the Lahore airport when one of its tyre caught fire. Fire engines were called at the spot to control the fire. Due to the incident, the runway has been temporarily closed.”
ABP News — which ran one of its reports alongside a write-up about the Pahalgam attack was not the only channel to do so; multiple other Indian media outlets regurgitated the claim without any verification.
In fact, PGurus posted a YouTube video — which has been viewed over 538,000 times so far — in which its founder and CEO, Sree Iyer, makes different unfounded claims while talking about India’s response to Pakistan following the Pahalgam attack. Parts of what he said in the clip are transcribed below:
“Last night, [at] Lahore Airport, there was a blast and this was from the missile battery of air defence systems and this resulted in the airport being completely shut down. … This is live shots. … You can see that people are aghast and all flights were cancelled and, I think, still in a state of cancellation and what is really happening? Air defence systems being brought down. Who did that? No one has claimed responsibility. The Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif is in shock and people are saying he doesn’t know what to do at this point of time.”
Iyer then speculates about “sabotage”, a “group in Afghanistan” that used “cyber techniques” to launch attacks, Pakistan’s airports being under the “control of China”, and how “taking out the most important city’s airport” would negatively affect people’s “psyche”.
Some posts, like this one on X (formerly Twitter), also linked the alleged Lahore Airport fire to India’s response to Pakistan for the Pahalgam attack.
The Pahalgam attack
On 22 April 2025, gunmen opened fire on travellers in the Baisaran meadow in Pahalgam, a popular tourist destination in Indian-administered Kashmir, killing 26 men and injuring “at least three dozen people”, according to police officials, who added that there were at least four militants.
In response, Indian authorities launched a large-scale manhunt, detaining at least 1,500 people in the region and destroying “several homes linked to alleged militants”.
Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry expressed concern at the loss of lives and called for a neutral investigation into the attack. The country conveyed its willingness to cooperate and emphasised its commitment to peace and sovereignty.
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, 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.
Moreover, the two countries’ armies exchanged gunfire along the LoC for four nights in a row.
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 (LeT) — distanced itself from the attack after several news outlets had reported that it claimed responsibility. The outfit said a social media post reportedly acknowledging its involvement was the result of a “coordinated cyber intrusion”.
As tensions between the two countries escalate, the UN has urged both to exercise “maximum restraint” and not let the situation deteriorate further. In a similar vein, China — Pakistan’s ally and a key player in the region — also issued a statement, advising “restraint” and dialogue.
On the other hand, the US State Department said it was in touch with both the countries, urging them to work towards a “responsible solution”. However, while President Donald Trump expressed his country’s “full support [to] and deepest sympathies” for India, he also made a gaffe by saying Pakistan and its neighbour “have had that fight for a thousand years in Kashmir” and that “there’s been tensions on that border for 1,500 years”.
Amid heightened tensions between the two neighbouring countries, multiple false and misleading claims have emerged on social media. Soch Fact Check has investigated and debunked them here, here, here, here, here, and here.
Fact or Fiction?
Soch Fact Check first reached out to the Pakistan Airports Authority’s (PAA) media department, where an official confirmed that no fire incident had occurred at the Lahore Airport. He also directed us to the body’s Facebook page, where we found a press release.
The statement said, “The Pakistan Airports Authority (PAA) strongly denies the false news reported by Financial Express regarding a so-called ‘massive fire’ at Lahore’s Allama Iqbal International Airport. We assure the public that no such incident has occurred and that airport operations are fully normal and uninterrupted. We firmly condemn the spread of unverified and sensationalized news, which serves only to create panic and confusion.”
The PAA advised people to “rely only on official and trustworthy news sources for updates and information” and asked them “to boycott those media outlets that irresponsibly spread misinformation”.
We also reverse-searched keyframes from the viral video and found that it is originally from an actual fire incident that occurred at the Allama Iqbal International Airport in May 2024 due to a short circuit.
Flight operations were disrupted and airport systems were destroyed, news reports from the time said. Other outlets also covered the incident and visuals from then match the viral video we are investigating.
Tahir Imran Mian, an investigative journalist reporting on aviation, also flagged the video as “fake news”, saying it was old and highlighting that the account in question “is a notorious fake news peddler”.
Soch Fact Check also came across a report by the state-run Associated Press of Pakistan (APP), which quoted a PAA spokesperson as saying that there “has been no incident of fire or any other unpleasant occurrence at the airport” and that “all flights are operating as per schedule and passenger services remain unaffected”.
“The dissemination of false and unverified news creates unnecessary panic among the public and tarnishes the image of national institutions,” the spokesperson added, according to the APP.
Virality
Soch Fact Check found that ABP News posted the claim on its Facebook account here, where it received more than 333,000 views.
Multiple Indian news outlets, such as NewsX, Organiser, Kalinga TV, Lokmat Times, Jagran, Patrika News, Kannada News Now, Disha Daily, Hindustan Herald, United News of India, TV9 Bharatvarsh, and Prabhat Khabar, also posted the false claim.
We also came across the claim, alongside the video, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here on Facebook. It was posted on Instagram here, here, here, here, and here.
On YouTube, the claim was published here and here, the latter of which has been viewed over 41,000 times to date.
Some of the most viral X posts can be found here, here, here, and here.
Conclusion: The Pakistan Airports Authority (PAA) has denied the claim. Moreover, an accompanying video is, in fact, from 2024 when there was a fire at the Lahore Airport due to a short circuit.
Background image in cover photo: Waqas Usman/Wikimedia Commons
To appeal against our fact-check, please send an email to appeals@sochfactcheck.com