Video shows man captured by Indian army in 2022, not suspect in deadly Kashmir attack

Published on May 1, 2025 at 06:56
3 min read
By Devesh MISHRA, AFP India

After India accused arch-rival Pakistan of backing a deadly attack targeting tourists in Kashmir -- a charge rejected by Islamabad -- a video was shared in posts falsely claiming it showed one of the attackers admitting he was sent by Pakistan’s intelligence agency. The video has in fact circulated in news reports from 2022, and none of the gunmen suspected of carrying out the recent attack have been captured as of April 30.

"Narendra Modi, Amit Shah, you must listen to what the terrorist caught in Pahalgam attack said," reads the Hindi-language caption of a Facebook video shared on April 27, 2025.

The video shows a man in a hospital bed being interviewed. He tells the reporter interviewing him that his name is Tabarak Hussain, and Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) spy agency sent him to carry out attacks in Kashmir.

The video surfaced against the background of rapidly worsening tensions between New Delhi and Islamabad following a deadly attack on tourists in Indian-administered Kashmir on April 22 (archived link).

Gunmen targeting tourists killed 26 men in the tourist destination of Pahalgam, the worst attack on civilians in the disputed Himalayan territory in a quarter of a century.

India regularly blames Pakistan for backing gunmen in Muslim-majority Kashmir, and issued fresh claims after the attack in Pahalgam, saying Islamabad supported "cross-border terrorism". Pakistan has denied any role in the attack, and called New Delhi's claims "frivolous".

Screenshot of the false Facebook post, captured on April 30, 2025

The same clip was also shared in similar posts on Facebook and X.

But the video has circulated since August 2022, and as of April 30, Indian police had not captured the alleged gunmen.

Authorities have issued wanted posters for three men -- two Pakistanis and an Indian -- who they say are members of the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba group, a UN-designated terrorist organisation. They also announced a two million rupee ($23,500) bounty for information leading to each man's arrest.

Old video

The microphone visible in the falsely shared video bears the name of Indian news outlet Aaj Tak, and a subsequent keyword search led to a longer version of the same footage published on the channel's website on August 25, 2022 (archived link).

The footage is embedded in a report titled, "Weapons, ammunition and Pakistani currency; Major terrorist plot foiled in Jammu and Kashmir".

Screenshot comparison of the falsely shared video (left) and Aaj Tak's footage (right)

Similar images and video were used by other Indian media outlets (archived here and here).

The reports said the man was shot and captured by security forces as he attempted to infiltrate the Line of Control, the de facto border in contested Kashmir. They said he stated he had been sent by Pakistan's spy agency to attack Indian army positions.

He later died of a cardiac arrest, the reports said.

But Islamabad rejected this account of events, and registered a strong protest with India's charge d'affaires over what it called the "extra-judicial killing of Tabarak Hussain" (archived link).

Hussain was described as a "mentally challenged Pakistani national who had inadvertently crossed the border", and the suggestion he had been sent by the Pakistan army was characterised as a "mischievous narrative".

AFP has previously debunked other misinformation related to the Pahalgam attack here, here and here.

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