Pahalgam Attack: Media Falsely Reports Video As Final Footage Of Naval Officer

BOOM found that the claim being made with the viral video is of social media influencer Ashish Sehrawat and his wife Yashika Sharma.

On April 22, 2025, terrorists opened fire on tourists and locals in the Baisaran Valley area of Pahalgam, Kashmir, killing 26 people and injuring several others. The families of the victims alleged that the attackers had targeted Hindu male tourists, reportedly asking for names and identities before carrying out the killings.

One of the victims was Navy Lieutenant Vinay Narwal from Karnal, Haryana, who was visiting Pahalgam with his wife, Himanshi. The couple had tied the knot on April 16, 2025. Following the tragic attack, a video of Himanshi describing how the terrorists shot her husband went viral. However, screenshots of a video showing a couple dancing in the valley surfaced on social media, falsely claiming to be of Vinay and Himanshi.

An X user posted the video with a caption saying, “ In 24 hours Lt Vinay Narwal’s journey - just numbingly tragic and devastating. Killed for the “crime” of being a Hindu - nothing else. He was there for love, that’s all.”

Archive link.

Several news outlets, including Times Now, Free Press Journal, News18, and Mint, also falsely reported that the couple seen dancing in the viral valley video were the Narwals.

Although Times Now, Free Press Journal, and Mint stated that they could not verify the authenticity of the viral video, they still published screenshots from the clip showing the dancing couple and falsely linked it to Narwal and his wife.

Some of the news outlets have since updated their stories to remove the misreporting, without any clarification.

Fact-check

A reverse image search on Google helped us identify the couple seen in the viral video as Ashish Sehrawat and his wife, Yashika Sharma. BOOM reached out to Ashish, who confirmed that the video was filmed on April 14, 2025—eight days before the Pahalgam terror attack.

He further shared that some of his close friends later informed him the video was being misused by linking it to Vinay and his wife in media reports.

In response, Ashish and Yashika posted a video on their Instagram account on April 23, urging people to report the accounts spreading false claims.

Ashish also told us that he is considering legal action against those responsible for spreading the misinformation.