Pakistani Accounts Spread Fake News Of Sikh Soldiers Quitting Indian Army

Several Pakistani Twitter handles falsely claimed that soldiers of the 21 Sikh Regiment of the Indian Army resigned to express solidarity with protesting farmers in Delhi. The tweets have used the hashtag of 'Breaking News' and 'Big News' to mislead readers and state that as many as 300 Sikh soldiers of the Indian Army resigned in support of the farmers' protest against the contentious farm bills.

BOOM reached out to Colonel Aman Anand, spokesperson of the Indian Army, who rubbished the tweets and termed them 'baseless.'

One such handle #TeamPakistanZindabad @TeamPZBofficial tweeted an already debunked video of a civilian posing as an army officer and demanding the creation of a separate Sikh state (Khalistan), to support the narrative. Click here for an archive of the tweet.

Another Pakistani handle falsely claimed that a whopping 13,000 Sikh soldiers have resigned in a bid to join the agitation. According to its bio, the handle is the 'deputy head' of @TeamPZBofficial, which peddled the same piece of misinformation in the above tweet. Here is the archive of the tweet.

The same narrative is viral on Facebook with netizens sharing posts with the text " #BREAKING 300 Sikh Soldiers From 21 Sikh Regiment Of Indian Army Have Resigned #Farmers." Here is an archive of the post.

Fact Check

BOOM reached out to Colonel Aman Anand, Indian Army spokesperson, who denied any such development in the Sigh Regiment of the Indian Army. Anand termed the tweets and Facebook posts as 'fake and baseless.' The Sikh Regiment is an infantry regiment of the Indian Army. Additionally, we looked for recent news reports using relevant keywords but found none corroborating the information about resignation of Sikh soldiers showing solidarity to the protesting farmers.

A part of the same viral text "21 Sikh regiment refused to fight for India" was morphed and superimposed on a Republic TV graphic in March, 2019. Pakistani news channel, Abbtakk used the morphed graphic of Republic TV and to support the 'Sikhs refusing to fight for India' narrative in a news bulletin. Read more here.

Additionally, the viral video tweeted by one Team Pakistan Zindabad has already been fact-checked by BOOM in June, 2019.

BOOM had found that the man impersonated as a soldier of the Indian Army and demanded the creation of a separate state for the Sikhs. In a post, the Additional Directorate General of Public Information (ADGPI) Indian Army's official Facebook page, rubbished the video and mentioned that the impostor, wearing the Indian Army's combat uniform was 'attempting to spread misinformation.'

Also Read:2013 Video Of Rajnath Singh Passed Off As Support To Farmers' Protest