Claim: A video shows the aftermath of a Pakistani strike on India’s Udhampur air base during the early hours of 10 May 2025.
Fact: The video predates Pakistan’s retaliatory strikes in India.
On 10 May 2025, many Pakistani news channels posted a video that they claimed shows a giant fire at the Indian Air Force’s (IAF) Udhampur air base, officially the Udhampur Air Force Station, as a result of Pakistan’s retaliatory strikes in India.
Pakistan’s ‘Operation Bunyan-un-Marsoos’
The Pakistan Army announced a counterattack against India at 4:38 AM — named “Operation Bunyan-um-Marsoos”, which is an Arabic phrase that translates to “steel wall” — after New Delhi launched attacks on Islamabad in the wee hours of 10 May 2025. It added that the action was “part of the military conflict Marka-e-Haq”.
The military’s media wing, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), said Pakistan targeted “26x military targets as well as facilities that were used to target Pakistani citizens and those enterprises that were responsible for fomenting terrorism in Pakistan”.
The targeted airbases include those at “Suratgarh, Sirsa, Bhuj, Naliya, Adampur, Bhatinda, Barnala, Halwara, Awantipura, Srinagar, Jammu, Udhampur, Mamun, Ambala, and Pathankot”, it said. “[The] BrahMos storage facilities at Beas and Nagrota were also destroyed.”
A 10 May news report that quoted security sources mentioned that “Pakistan targeted the Udhampur air base with a barrage of three missiles, which were the indigenously developed Fateh-1, with a range of 120kms”.
The total death toll so far was 51, including “40 civilians and 11 military service members”, and that 78 people were wounded, the Pakistan Army said, according to France 24. Among the deceased were “seven women and 15 children”. On the other hand, India announced that “15 civilians and five soldiers died”.
Pakistan claimed to have hit “multiple targets in India and India-administered Kashmir”, CNN reported. “The Pakistan military said that, in an ‘eye for eye’ retaliation, they targeted the Indian air bases that were used to launch missiles against Pakistan,” it added.
On the other hand, the Indian Defence Ministry said Pakistani drones were “sighted at 26 locations along the International Border and LoC with Pakistan” and that “these include suspected armed drones”.
“The locations include Baramulla, Srinagar, Avantipora, Nagrota, Jammu, Ferozpur, Pathankot, Fazilka, Lalgarh Jatta, Jaisalmer, Barmer, Bhuj, Kuarbet and Lakhi Nala,” it added.
NDTV of India reported that in a joint press conference, senior officials from the Ministry of External Affairs, Indian Army, and IAF “admitted that 26 locations were targeted by Pakistani drones, missiles, loitering munitions, and airstrikes in the early hours of Saturday”.
“Colonel Sofiya Qureshi confirmed that Pakistani forces used high-speed missiles at approximately 1:40 AM to strike the Punjab air base,” the Indian publication added.
During Pakistan’s retaliatory attack on Udhampur air base, an Indian soldier was killed, according to Indian outlets.
Top Indian officials, however, maintained that their air bases were not harmed. Col Qureshi, an officer from the Indian Army’s Corps of Signals, acknowledged that “equipment at air force bases in Udhampur, Bhuj, Pathankot, [and] Bathinda were damaged”.
India attacks Pakistani military bases
Earlier, according to Pakistan Army spokesperson Lt Gen Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry, India attacked different Pakistan Air Force (PAF) airbases, including Nur Khan in Chaklala, Rawalpindi, Murid in Chakwal, and Rafiqui, formerly known as Shorkot, in Jhang.
Chaudhry said the Pakistani military intercepted a “majority” of India’s missiles and “successfully prevent[ed] the desired objectives of India”.
The military spokesperson added that India’s missiles and drones also attacked Afghanistan, as well as “Sikhs and minorities” in its own country. “This is a shocking development and provocation of the highest order, where India has now started firing ballistic missiles at its own population, which doesn’t make any sort of sense. This is an act bereft of sanity,” he added.
India rejected this claim, calling it “absurd”.
The missiles that did make it inside the Pakistani territory have “not been able to cause any damage” to the country’s assets, Chaudhry maintained. The PAF was able to figure out “from where they [Indian missiles] were initiated and what was targeted” through electronic signatures, he added.
Pakistan Army, Chaudhry said, was “vigilant and thwarting all these cowardly acts of aggression by Indians”.
India’s missile attacks and Pakistan’s response mark “the most significant escalation so far in the brewing conflict between the two nuclear-armed neighbours”, according to The Guardian.
Meanwhile, the press department of New Delhi’s military asserted that the 10 May missile attacks were “a response to Pakistan’s misadventures of attempted drone strikes on the night of 08 and 09 May 2025 in multiple cities of Jammu & Kashmir and Punjab”.
Fact or Fiction?
Soch Fact Check reverse-searched keyframes from the viral video and found exact matches on Instagram. Two posts from 8 May and 9 May 2025, respectively, carry the same clip and their captions mention a fire in “Hanumangarh”.
Hanumangarh is a city in India’s Rajasthan state.
We also found the same video on YouTube, where it was posted at 11:40 AM on 9 May 2025, according to YouTube Data Viewer — a tool created by Amnesty International’s Citizen Evidence Lab. The time indicates that the clip predates “Operation Bunyan-um-Marsoos.”
Interestingly, under one of the viral posts in question, we came across a comment wherein the user has highlighted the text — “अग्निशमन सेवा राजस्थान। [Fire Service Rajasthan]” — emblazoned on the fire brigades, questioning if “Udhampur air base is in Rajasthan?”.
Hanumangarh is approximately 500 kilometres from Udhampur, according to Google Maps.
Lastly, we also found corroborating news reports from 8 May 2025 about the incident here, here, and here.
According to one of the reports, “a massive fire suddenly broke out in a chemical factory in F-4 Rico located in [the] Industries Area of Hanumangarh Junction”. Two people died in the accident.
“The fire in the acid factory was so fierce that the smoke clouds were visible far away in the sky. The smoke caused panic in the surrounding area,” reads the other report.
The same fire incident was shot by multiple people from different angles and uploaded online; some of these can be viewed here, here, here, and here. The third one was posted at 5:39pm on 8 May 2025.
Two of these videos show the same poles, including at least two with black and yellow stripes painted on them, an orange and brown wall, and a cemented structure on the right match.
Virality
Soch Fact Check found that the video was run by Express News on its Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube accounts.
SAMAA TV also published the footage on its Facebook and YouTube pages. Dawn News broadcast it too. Geo News posted it on Instagram.
The clip was posted on X here.
The footage was also shared by Pakistani journalist and veteran talk show host, Hamid Mir.
Conclusion: The video predates Pakistan’s retaliatory strikes in India.
Background image in cover photo: Saradasish Pradhan
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