Following the terrorist attack on tourists in Pahalgam, Jammu and Kashmir, on April 22, tensions between India and Pakistan are said to be at their peak. Amid this tension, much fake and misleading information is being shared on social media in Pakistan. Pakistani users are sharing old videos and presenting them as recent incidents of cross-border firing between Indian and Pakistan.
Claim
A video from 2020 that shows the stalling of Houthi rebel infiltration in Yemen is being shared by a handle, @Pakistan1_Army, on X (formerly Twitter). The video is presented as cross-border firing at the India-Pakistan border. The caption accompanying the video reads: “Night scenes: Footage from the field shown for the first time. The Pakistani army struck with an iron fist. Allah is greater and praise be to Allah. Your prayers for the Pakistani army”
Fact Check
To investigate the viral claim, the DFRAC performed a reverse image search on some keyframes of the video using Google Lens. We found that this video was uploaded on February 1, 2020, on the Arabic-language YouTube channel named المركز الإعلامي لألوية العمالقة الجنوبية. The video is described as footage from the Al Hudaydah governorate in Yemen, where security forces fired at night to prevent the infiltration of Houthi rebels.
According to the description provided in the video, the joint forces carried out a harsh response against Houthi rebels as a result of a suicide infiltration attempt at the Al-Durayhimi front, located south of the Al Hudaydah governorate. The joint forces released nighttime footage showing clashes between security personnel and the Houthi rebels attempting to infiltrate.
Conclusion
Hence, the fact check by DFRAC clearly shows that the viral video is not of cross-border firing between India and Pakistan. This video is not of recent times, but is from February 1, 2020 which shows the firing done to prevent infiltration by Houthi rebels in Yemen. Therefore, the claim made by the social media user is misleading.
