On Wednesday, 27 February, Pakistan claimed that the Pakistan Air Force had shot down two Indian aircraft inside Pakistani airspace. According to Pakistan Armed Forces Chairperson Major General Asif Ghafoor, one of the aircraft fell inside Indian territory, while one fell on Pakistani soil. They also claimed that they had arrested two Indian pilots, although the IAF has not issued any statement on this so far.
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This comes a day after the Indian Air Force carried out air strikes across the Line of Control (LoC).
CLAIM
Earlier in the day, reports came in that Pakistan had shot down two Indian aircraft and that they had arrested two pilots of the IAF. While the Pakistani army spokesperson later in the day clarified that only one pilot was in the Pakistani Army’s custody, Twitter users took to the social media platform to share a video that they said was of the pilot who had been arrested from the aircraft that crashed on Pakistani soil.
Among those sharing the video was a Dr Shahid Masoor, whose tweet had over 2,500 likes. Masood also has over 500k followers on Twitter.
Multiple people, among them Pakistanis shared the video to hail the action of the Pakistani army in striking back and congratulated their armed forces, with the hashtag PakistanArmyZindabad.
In the video, an injured pilot can be seen lying on the ground, evidently after a crash, holding out his hand. A person eventually holds his outstretched hand.
The video was also uploaded on YouTube with the headline ‘2nd Indian Pilot arrested alive by Pakistan Army’, further pushing the narrative of the video – Pakistan strikes back.
24 News HD, a Pakistani news channel, also used the video as footage of the pilot and the aircraft shot down by Pakistan on 27 February.
TRUE OR FALSE?
This is a video from another recent incident where an aircraft crashed in Bengaluru. It is being manipulated to present it as a video of the aircraft that was reportedly shot down by PAF within Pakistani territory.
If one listens to the video, a person can be heard speaking to the injured pilot, telling him“Stay calm, stay calm. They are coming. Nothing has happened. Should we remove something? Stay calm.” The man constantly reassures the pilot and even holds his hand to provide him comfort.
This is in reality a video of the pilot of a Suryakiran aircraft which had crashed while practising for the Aero India show in Bangalore last week. The video in question been shared widely on social media back then, as Chethan Kumar, a 22-year-old engineering student comforted Wing Commander Vijay Shelke, one of the two surviving pilots who were involved in the mid-air collision of two Suryakiran aircraft in Bengaluru.
Kumar was one of the first people to rush towards the crash site as the planes fell near the ISRO layout, 20 feet away from Nitte Meenakshi Institute of Technology, where he studies aeronautical engineering.
Defence journalist Sjiv Aroor also called out the fake video on Twitter, pointing out that it was from the Suryakiran crash in Bengaluru.
Journalist Barkha Dutt also called the video out, telling Dr Masood to check before sharing such videos.
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