Govt debunks Pakistan's false 'strike at Amritsar military base' claim

NEW DELHI: The Press Information Bureau (PIB) on Thursday fact-checked Pakistan's false claims that it struck a military base in Amritsar. The fake post claimed that numerous casualties, with several critical injuries. The photo used in the post, in fact, is a video of a wildfire from 2024.A Google reverse image search and keyword searches by the news agency AFP traced the video to a TikTok post from February 3, 2024, which claimed it showed fires in Achupallas, a neighborhood in the seaside resort city of Viña del Mar, located in Chile’s Valparaíso region. Multiple fires broke out simultaneously around the city on February 2. Known for its beaches and annual music festival, Viña del Mar was devastated by the infernos, which claimed at least 133 lives and destroyed approximately 7,000 homes.It was the deadliest natural disaster to strike Chile since the 2010 earthquake and tsunami that killed around 500 people.The ministry has asked the citizens to avoid sharing unverified information and rely only on official sources from the government of India for accurate information.The Pakistani government has resorted to a blatant spread of misinformation ever since Indian forces struck nine terror bases in Pakistan and PoK in retaliation for the Pahalgam terrorist attack in which 26 civilians were killed. The claims, largely propagated by accounts affiliated with Pakistan's Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), lacked credible evidence such as satellite imagery or verified video footage. On Wednesday, PIB's fact-check refuted claims that Pakistan shot down Indian Rafale jet and said that the image being shared is old and not related to 'Operation Sindoor.' "Beware of old images shared by pro-Pakistan handles in the present context!" PIB said."An old image showing a crashed aircraft is being circulated with the claim that Pakistan recently shot down an Indian Rafale jet near Bahawalpur during the ongoing Operation Sindoor," it added.PIB's fact-checking unit specifically addressed a viral video purportedly showing an attack on Srinagar Airbase. The bureau clarified that the footage actually depicted sectarian clashes from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan, in 2024. PIB emphasised that most circulating videos were either old, unrelated, or digitally manipulated content.