Couple falsely identified as victims of Kashmir attack

Published on April 28, 2025 at 11:15
3 min read
By Sachin BAGHEL, AFP India

At least 26 people were killed in Indian-administered Kashmir on April 22, 2025 when gunmen opened fire on tourists in the insurgency-hit region. But a clip that spread on social media and in news reports shortly afterwards does not show a soldier and his wife's final moments before the attack. The man in the video confirmed to AFP he and the woman are alive and denounced the false posts.

"Lt Vinay Narwal's last video from Kashmir. Pak will pay for this," says a Facebook post shared on April 23, 2025.

It includes a video showing a man and woman dancing with a snow-capped mountain visible on the background.

India has accused Pakistan of supporting "cross-border terrorism" after gunmen killed 26 people in the worst attack on civilians in contested Muslim-majority Kashmir for a quarter of a century (archived link).

Indian police have issued wanted posters for three suspects in the Pahalgam attack -- two Pakistani men and an Indian -- who they say are members of the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba group, a UN-designated terrorist organisation.

Islamabad has denied any involvement, calling attempts to link Pakistan to the attack "frivolous" and vowing to respond to any Indian action.

Local media organisation Indian Express reported that Lieutenant Vinay Narwal, who was visiting Pahalgam as a tourist with his wife, was one of those shot dead (archived link).

Screenshot of the false post taken April 28, 2025

The video also ricocheted on Facebook and X and appeared in now-deleted media reports that described it as the final moments of the couple.

A reverse image search on Google using keyframes led to an Instagram post from the account @yashika.sharma.sehrawat on April 24, 2025 (archived link).

In the post, the same couple shown in the video is seen refuting the posts that identified them as navy officer Narwal and his wife.

"Please, my condolence to his and her family, but we are alive," the woman named Yashika Sharma said.

AFP reached out to the couple on April 25 and was able to talk to Ashish Sehrawat, the man seen in the clip.

"We filmed the video on April 14, 2025, in Pahalgam, Kashmir," he said.

"I posted it on Instagram on April 22. But after it went viral across India, it sparked a lot of hatred as people wrongly linked it to the recent attack. That's why we decided to delete it."

According to their social media profiles, Sehrawat is a professional cricketer and Sharma is a video content creator. They live in Delhi.

Sehrawat also sent AFP a screenshot of the video's metadata which indicates it was filmed a week before the Kashmir attack.

Screenshot that Sherawat shared to AFP showing the video's metadata

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