Fact-Check: Debunking Misinformation on ‘Operation Sindoor’
Fact-Check: Debunking Misinformation on ‘Operation Sindoor’
On May 7, 2025, Indian Army launched 'Operation Sindoor' targeting nine alleged terror outfits in Pakistan, as a retaliatory military action against the April terror attack on tourists in Pahalgam, Jammu and Kashmir. Since the military action, several border regions in India have experienced shelling with casualties reported in Kashmir and Punjab.
India's air strikes, and the ensuing escalation of military tensions with its neighbour generated a frenzy of disinformation, spilling over frequently from social media to mainstream media, and muddying the information ecosystem, leaving people misinformed and confused.
At BOOM, we have documented significant instances of information pollution on 'Operation Sindoor'. This page is a repository of all the fact-checks we published on this topic since May 7, 2025. Stay informed!
Pakistani social media users misrepresented a video showing Pakistani army soldiers waving white flags at the LoC as Indian army soldiers.
Claim: Video shows the Indian Army soldiers waving white flags to retrieve bodies of soldiers killed in an attack at the Line of Control.
Fact: The video shows Pakistani soldiers waving a white flag to retrieve the bodies of their fellow soldiers, killed after a ceasefire violation retaliatory attack by Indian forces in 2019.
Claim: Video shows India conducting air strikes on Pakistan as part of ‘Operation Sindoor’.
Fact: Video shows Iranian missiles targeting Israel's Nevatim airbase in Negev desert in October 2024, and is unrelated to India's recent military operation in Pakistan.
Claim: Video shows Republic Bharat reporting that a PAF J-10C shot down an Indian Jaguar with a long-range PL-15 missile, during Operation Sindoor.
Fact: Video is doctored using several different clippings from an accidental crash of an Indian jet in Jamnagar, Gujarat on April 2, 2025. Republic Bharat ran no such bulletin.
Claim: Images of plane wreckage show two Indian Rafale jets shot down by the Pakistani Air Force (PAF) in a counter-strike to India’s Operation Sindoor.
Fact: The photos date back to two separate incidents involving IAF jets— a MiG-21 and a MiG-29—that crashed in Punjab and Rajasthan in 2021 and 2024, respectively.
Claim: Video shows India's airstrike on Pakistan, as part of 'Operation Sindoor'.
Fact: Footage shows Israeli airstrikes on Gaza from October, 2023, and is unrelated to the current India-Pakistan conflict.