Video of new Indian army chief commenting on Pakistan conflict is manipulated
- Published on July 10, 2026 at 10:36
- 2 min read
- By Yusra JABEEN, AFP Pakistan
General Dhiraj Seth delivered a speech on July 1 after being appointed India's new army chief, but a video circulating on X does not show him denouncing any unreported deaths of soldiers during the country's 2025 conflict with Pakistan. The clip has been digitally manipulated; the original footage of Seth's remarks depicts him speaking in Hindi with no mention of the fighting.
"New Indian COAS upon taking charge," reads part of an X post published on July 2, 2026, referring to Seth's official title chief of the army staff.
The post shares a 49-second video of a man in a decorated military uniform speaking in English from a podium, with an ANI logo visible in the top-right corner.
"I want to start by showing my immense pride for the armed forces who participated in Operation Sindoor," Seth appears to say in the clip.
"It was a sad spectacle to see that our previous military regime decided to hide the dead bodies of our jawans to establish their own PR, and even kept Minister Rajnath Singh and Prime Minister Modi in the dark. I, as a professional soldier, was left aghast at this blatant disrespect of our martyrs".
The same video circulated alongside similar claims in multiple posts on X after Seth's appointment to replace retired General Upendra Dwivedi (archived link).
Tensions between India and Pakistan escalated after militants attacked tourists in Indian-administered Kashmir in April 2025, killing at least 26 people (archived link).
India accused Pakistan of backing the attack and subsequently launched Operation Sindoor in May 2025, targeting what it said were militant sites in the neighbouring country. Pakistan has denied the charges.
The offensive triggered a four-day war between the nuclear-armed rivals that killed more than 70 people on both sides (archived link).
The video of Seth commenting on the conflict, however, has been digitally altered.
Deepfake content
A keyword search on the Indian wire service Asian News International's (ANI) official X account found a 44-second video posted on July 1, 2026 (archived link).
Subsequent reverse image searches on Google found a longer version of the general's speech published on YouTube the same day (archived link).
Seth spoke mostly in Hindi for nearly seven minutes about his plans to revamp the Indian army's military strategy (archived link).
He did not discuss Operation Sindoor in the speech, nor did he mention Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi or Defence Minister Rajnath Singh by name.
An analysis of the video using Hive Moderation, an AI detection tool, confirmed it was 97.6 percent likely to contain AI-generated speech (archived link).
AFP has previously debunked other false claims related to the India-Pakistan conflict.
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