No, this is not a photo of Indian Air Force officers who carried out an airstrike in Pakistan’s Balakot
- This article is more than one year old.
- Published on March 4, 2019 at 07:45
- 1 min read
- By AFP India
Copyright © AFP 2017-2025. Any commercial use of this content requires a subscription. Click here to find out more.
The misleading posts, for example here and here, contain a photo showing four Indian Air Force pilots in front of a fighter jet.
The posts' caption says: "These are four soldiers who wrote history today. Salute to Indian air force and Indian army Jay Jay hind."
The misleading posts were uploaded February 27, 2019, one day after India said its warplanes had launched air strikes on militant hideouts in Pakistan’s Balakot. Here is an AFP story on the strikes.
Below is a screenshot of one of the misleading posts:
A reverse image search found that the photograph used in the misleading posts has circulated online since at least 2015.
The photograph was published by JoinFauj on July 25, 2015 here, and by Indian website MensXP on October 8, 2017 here.
Neither the Indian government nor the IAF have disclosed the identity of any officers involved in the airstrike on Pakistan, except for captured Indian pilot Abhinandan Varthaman who was released by Pakistan on Friday.
Is there content that you would like AFP to fact-check? Get in touch.
Contact us
