AI-altered clip of India defence chief circulates online after Bangladesh-Pakistan meeting
- Published on January 26, 2026 at 07:32
- 3 min read
- By Rasheek MUJIB, AFP Bangladesh
India has said it was "keeping a close watch" after the air force chiefs of Bangladesh and Pakistan met in January 2026 following months of tensions in the region, but social media posts falsely shared an altered video of India's defence chief purportedly discussing the geopolitical implications of the meeting. The clip was altered from genuine footage of General Anil Chauhan speaking at a memorial event and bears inconsistencies characteristic of AI-altered videos.
The 30-second clip appearing to show India's chief of defence staff General Anil Chauhan speaking at a podium was shared on Facebook on January 12, 2026, where it garnered 540,000 views.
"We view with utmost seriousness the emerging defence ties between Pakistan and Bangladesh which pose significant geopolitical implications for India," Chauhan appears to say, before going on to talk about a potential sale of jets to Bangladesh and warning it could boost Dhaka's air capabilities and "disrupt the strategic balance" in the region.
"India must vigilantly monitor and prevent such shifts," the general adds.
Bangladesh air force chief Hasan Mahmood Khan met his Pakistani counterpart Zaheer Ahmed Babar Sidhu in Islamabad on January 6, 2026 to discuss the potential procurement of JF-17 Thunder jets -- which were deployed against India when the rivals engaged in a deadly four-day conflict in May 2025 (archived here and here).
Dhaka's ties with New Delhi have soured since the ouster of India's old ally Sheikh Hasina, with tensions rising further following the killing of a Hindu garment worker in its Muslim-majority neighbourhood in December 2025 (archived link).
Meanwhile, relations between Muslim-majority countries Pakistan and Bangladesh, which were once one nation that split following a bitter war in 1971, have since warmed (archived link).
In response to the jet sale, a spokesman for India's foreign ministry, Randhir Jaiswal, said they were "keeping a close watch on all developments that have a bearing on our national security" (archived link).
The video of Chauhan purportedly talking about the meeting between Bangladesh and Pakistan circulated elsewhere on Facebook.
However, the footage has been altered with AI and Chauhan's original speech does not mention India's neighbours.
There are no official reports the army chief spoke publicly about the meeting between Bangladesh and Pakistan's air force chiefs.
A reverse image search on Google using keyframes from the falsely shared clip led to a similar video posted on Press Trust of India's X account on January 7, 2026 (archived link).
The post states Chauhan was speaking at a memorial event for a former vice army chief, Lieutenant General Srinivas Kumar Sinha, who died in 2016.
Chauhan's keynote address was centered around the theme, "Lieutenant General Sinha, enduring legacy in India's strategic thought leadership, nation building and his relevance in the 21st Century".
The full speech was also livestreamed by multiple Indian media outlets on YouTube (archived here and here).
At no point does the general mention Bangladesh or Pakistan. Instead, he recalls anecdotes about Sinha and speaks about his impact and lessons that members of the army should learn from him.
AFP ran the clip through the DeepFake-o-meter tool developed by the University at Buffalo which found it 99.9 percent likely to be AI-generated (archived link).
Chauhan's mouth movements in the clip also do not align with the audio, a further indication the footage has been altered with AI.
AFP has previously debunked misinformation about political unrest in Bangladesh.
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