This video show Indian paratroopers jumping from a plane over India’s Ladakh region

This article is more than one year old.
Published on July 31, 2020 at 05:30
2 min read
By AFP Pakistan

A split-screen video that purports to show exemplary Pakistani paratroopers alongside separate footage of clumsy Indian paratroopers has been viewed millions of times on Facebook. Both clips feature superimposed national flags of the alleged countries. However, the claim is false; the clip purporting to show Pakistani paratroopers in fact shows Indian paratroopers jumping out of a plane over India’s Ladakh region in July 2020.

The one-minute and seven-second video was published on Facebook here on July 19, 2020. It has been viewed over 4.5 million times and shared more than 88,000 times.

The post’s Urdu-language caption translates as: “Long live Pakistan Army.”

The bottom clip, which features the superimposed Pakistani flag, also includes superimposed Urdu text that translates as: “Long Live Pakistan.”

A screenshot taken on July 25, 2020, of the misleading Facebook post

The same slip-screen video was also shared alongside a similar claim on Facebook here, here and here; and on Twitter here and here.

The claim, however, is false.

A keyword Google search found that the clip that purports to show impressive Pakistani paratroopers in fact shows a demonstration by Indian paratroopers over the region of Ladakh.

The footage was released by an Indian Defence Ministry public relations officer on Twitter here on July 17, 2020.

A screenshot taken on July 29, 2020, of an Indian defence ministry official tweet

The tweet partly says: “#IndianArmedForces a para drop demo #Ladakh in a true display of synergy”.

Below is a screenshot comparison of the Indian military footage released on Twitter (L) and the video shared in the misleading Facebook post (R):

A screenshot comparison of the Indian military footage released on Twitter (L) and the video shared in the misleading Facebook post (R)

The same paratrooper footage released by the Indian military was also published on July 17 by major Indian media outlets; for example, here by the Hindustan Times, here by Indian Today, and here by NDTV.

The other clip in the misleading Facebook post that purports to show clumsy Indian paratroopers is also being shared out of context, according to media reports.

A reverse image search with video keyframes found that the clip has been published on several military news websites that report the footage shows paratroopers from an unnamed African country jumping from a plane over the Sahel in 2019 during Flintlock, an African multinational training operation.

The footage was published in reports such as this by SOFREP, this by The Aviationist and this by Military.com.

U.S. Africa Command, which participates in Flintlock, was unable to identify the origins of the video.

“This video was not filmed by U.S. troops or U.S. Department of Defense employees. Flintlock is a multi-national exercise with many training activities managed by a number of countries,” Kelly Cahalan, a U.S. Africa Command media operations branch chief, told AFP in an email on July 27, 2020.

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