CLAIM
On Friday, 22 February, a Facebook page called ‘ModiNama’ put up a post saying that Pakistan had shot down one of their own fighter planes, mistaking it for an Indian aircraft. The post, which is titled ‘Out of Fear, Pakistan Army Mistakenly Shoots Down Its Own Aircraft’, is accompanied by a photo of the aircraft that was allegedly shot down.
The text of the post says that there is a lot of fear among Pakistanis with regard to India in the wake of the Pulwama attack, adding that there were rumours that an Indian fighter plane had entered Pakistani territory and dropped two bombs in the border areas. It goes on the explain that in reality, the plane was a Pakistani aircraft that had gone to spy on India.
The post had nearly 950 shares within an hour of being uploaded and nearly 1.5k reactions. Many people had commented on the video laughing at the fear that India had struck into the heart of Pakistan.
TRUE OR FALSE?
The Quint ran a search of the title of the post ‘Out of Fear, Pakistan Army Mistakenly Shoots Down Its Own Aircraft’. The very first result that came out of the Google search was a news report carrying the exact same headline, by an outlet called TheFauxy.
One read of the article shows that the Facebook post was inspired by the text of the article by the outlet. The article claims that Imran Khan and the Pakistan Army are both spending sleepless nights and in a state of panic had shot down their own plane. The article also mentioned that a Pakistani aircraft had been hovering over India to keep track of the movements of the Indian Army.
Even the photo used in the Facebook post was picked up from the image carried in the article.
A short scroll down to the bottom of the web page cleared up the reality of this portal. In a very clear message under the About Us section, it says that TheFauxy is a satire web portal and that the content of the website is completely fictional. It also carries an advisory: “Readers are advised not to confuse the articles of TheFauxy as genuine and true.”
The Quint was also able to track down the source of the image used in the article. Using a reverse image search, it became clear that the photo was that of an F-16 jet that had been destroyed in Belgium in October 2018. The image is actually from an incident when a maintenance worker accidentally fired a 20mm Vulcan cannon from an F-16 jet he was working on at Belgium's Florennes Air Force Base, destroying another F-16.
The Business Insider had reported on this incident and one of the photos from their article is what has been picked up by TheFauxy.
WHAT HAD ACTUALLY HAPPENED ON THURSDAY?
On Thursday, 21 February, Pakistanis were thrown into a state of panic after a loud boom was heard near the Sialkot border.
While several Pakistanis started sharing panic-stricken posts on their social media handles fearing a declaration of war by India in retaliation to the Pulwama attack, it was later made clear that actually two Pakistan Air Force (PAF) jet fighter planes had carried out supersonic flights along the Sialkot border, reported The Nation. Some people on social media even claimed that one IAF jet was shot down by Pakistanis. But none of it was true.
Journalists, both in India and Pakistan, clarified that the loud sound was heard because the Pakistani fighter jets broke the sound barrier while patrolling. The Pakistan-based newspaper,The Nation, reported, quoting officials, that the fighter jets were patrolling to check the level of preparedness to respond lest there is an airspace violation by India.
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