Old Pakistan fire clip resurfaces as India tensions spiral

Published on May 6, 2025 at 09:18
2 min read
By Rimal FARRUKH, AFP Pakistan

As New Delhi and Islamabad engaged in an escalating stand-off following a deadly attack in contested Kashmir, a years-old video resurfaced in posts that falsely claimed it depicted explosions at an Indian ammunition depot targeted by Pakistani forces. The footage has in fact appeared in news reports about a fire near an army garrison in the Pakistani city of Sialkot in March 2022.

The video, which shows a fire burning in the distance and is punctuated by the sound of explosions, was shared more than 700 times after it was posted on X on April 27, 2025.

"Massive explosions reported at the military ammunition depot in India's Leepa Valley after being targeted by Pakistani forces," reads the video's caption.

Relations between the nuclear-armed arch-rivals plunged to their lowest level in years after New Delhi accused Islamabad of supporting "cross-border terrorism" following a deadly attack on tourists in Indian-administered Kashmir on April 22 (archived link).

Gunmen killed 26 men in the tourist hotspot of Pahalgam, the worst attack on civilians in the contested Muslim-majority region for a quarter of a century.

Islamabad rejects New Delhi's accusations, and the two sides have exchanged nightly gunfire since April 24 along the de facto border in Kashmir, the militarised Line of Control, according to the Indian army (archived link).

Screenshot of the false X post, captured on May 6, 2025

The footage was also shared in similar posts elsewhere on Facebook and X.

But the valley mentioned in the false posts is in fact in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, and there have been no official reports of Pakistan launching a strike on an Indian ammunition depot as of May 6, 2025.

A reverse image search on Google led to the same footage shared on March 20, 2022 by the News 247 Urdu YouTube channel (archived link).

The video is titled, "Breaking News: Latest update from Sialkot Cantonment area | Sialkot fire today".

Screenshot comparison of the falsely shared video (left) and the YouTube video (right)

The Pakistan military's public relations wing said the fire was sparked by a short circuit in an ammunition shed, and it was extinguished after an "effective and timely response" (archived link).

Stills from the footage were also included in articles by the Independent Urdu and Pakistan Today (archived here and here).

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