India launched Operation Sindoor, striking multiple targets in Pakistan and prompting an immediate response from the neighboring country.
As tensions kept rising following the tragic attack on Apr. 22, 2025, which caused the death of 26 civilians, primarily tourists, in Kashmir’s Baisaran Valley near Pahalgam, India launched an offensive against the neighboring Pakistan. Called “Operation Sindoor,” the Indian escalation included a barrage of air and artillery strikes on targets inside Pakistan.
The Indian attack prompted a swift retaliation by Pakistan, with both sides claiming targets destroyed on the ground and aircraft shot down. In many cases these are just claims, without factual evidence, although even the cases supported by evidence need to be investigated as some of the images and video being published online are not related to the ongoing events.
THREAD: As India launches strikes against Pakistan tonight, misinformation is rapidly spreading online. I’ll fact-check viral falsehoods in this thread.
This video, viewed over 160,000 times, shows Israeli air strikes on Gaza in October 2023. It’s unrelated to tonight’s strikes. pic.twitter.com/oI5siExhHk
— Shayan Sardarizadeh (@Shayan86) May 6, 2025
Background
As already mentioned, on April 22, 26 civilians, primarily tourists, were killed in an attack in Kashmir’s Baisaran Valley near Pahalgam. The Resistance Front, an offshoot of the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba, initially claimed responsibility for the attack but later retracted the claim.
India has accused Pakistan of supporting cross-border terrorism, leading to diplomatic measures such as suspending visas and trade relations. Pakistan has denied involvement and called for a neutral investigation.
Both nations have engaged in military posturing, including Pakistan’s test-firing of a ballistic missile on May 3, signaling operational readiness. On May 2, 2025, the Indian Air Force (IAF) conducted touch-and-go operations on a 3.5-kilometer stretch of the Ganga Expressway in Uttar Pradesh’s Shahjahanpur district with various frontline aircraft.
Shahjahanpur: The Indian Air Force (IAF) is carrying out a flypast on the Ganga Expressway in Uttar Pradesh. The Air Force is conducting take-off and landing exercises here.
IAF SU 30 also took part in this exercise pic.twitter.com/aRyA74GPuO
— War & Gore (@Goreunit) May 2, 2025
International actors, including the United States and China, have urged both sides to exercise restraint and engage in dialogue to prevent further escalation. Pakistan, however, is already planning to take “corresponding actions” after India’s strikes, says Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.
What happened
In the early hours (local time) of May 7, 2025, India launched military strikes on targets in Pakistan. These targeted “terrorist infrastructure” across nine sites in the densely populated Punjab province and Pakistan-administered Kashmir, with at least 26 people said to have been killed and 46 wounded.
India releases pictures of terror camps it has neutralized in PoK & Pakistan under operation Sindoor https://t.co/hnMDownubK pic.twitter.com/6vSbSfYosr
— Sidhant Sibal (@sidhant) May 7, 2025
“These steps come in the wake of the barbaric Pahalgam terrorist attack in which 25 Indians and one Nepali citizen were murdered,” said India’s Ministry of Defense.
“Our actions have been focused, measured and non-escalatory in nature. No Pakistani military facilities have been targeted. India has demonstrated considerable restraint in selection of targets and method of execution.”
India further said that nine sites were targeted by the strikes, while Pakistan said five locations were struck, including Kotli, Muzaffarabad and Bagh in Pakistan-administred Kashmir and Ahmadpur East and Muridke in Punjab. Pakistan further said that India used missiles in the strikes.
“Pakistan will respond to it at a time and place of its own choosing,” Pakistani military spokesperson Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry told Geo TV. “This heinous provocation will not go unanswered.”
Pakistan is also refusing India’s statement about attacking terrorist sites. “India is claiming it attacked terrorist camps; this is not true, international media can visit the places civilians were targeted,” Defense Minister Khawaja Asif said in a statement.
“The Indian Air Force, while remaining within Indian airspace, has violated Pakistan’s sovereignty using standoff weapons, targeting civilian population across international border in Muridke and Bahawalpur, and across Line of Control in Kotli and Muzaffarabad,” a statement from Pakistan’s foreign ministry said.
The two sides have exchanged shelling across their border, with India reportedly hitting an intake structure on the Noseri Dam on the Neelum river in Pakistan-administered Kashmir and Pakistan killing at least eight people on the Indian side of the Line of Control in Kashmir.
Pakistan’s Prime Minister claims that five fighter jets operated by the Indian Air Force were downed during last night’s missile attack and resulting escalation, with all of the aircraft claimed to have been shot down by Pakistani J-10Cs using PL-15 Air-to-Air Missiles.
— OSINTdefender (@sentdefender) May 7, 2025
Pakistan claims it shot down five Indian Air Force jets, including three Rafales. India has not confirmed the losses, although images emerged so far show the remains of an external fuel tank and a MICA air-to-air missile still attached to its launcher. The photos were reportedly captured about 20 km from India’s Bathinda air base.
❗️The wreckage of the Rafale fighter of the 🇮🇳Indian Air Force, shot down in the area of the Indian village of Aklian Kalan, located 20 kilometers from the Bathinda air base.
Unlaunched MICA air-to-air missiles and typical Rafale pylons are visible in the footage. pic.twitter.com/7DJ1PtLcdO
— 🪖MilitaryNewsUA🇺🇦 (@front_ukrainian) May 7, 2025
These can be attributed to either a Mirage 2000 or a Rafale. Other unverified images appear to show the wreck of a Snecma M88 engine, although it is being disputed if the images are recent and related to today’s events.
Usually I don’t wade into this, but this additional angle of the mystery engine does look like it has a distinctive pattern of screws on nozzles (pic 1), consistent with M88 which powers Rafale (pic 2), rather than M53 which powers Mirage 2000 (pic 3)
Hmm https://t.co/ztrqv7usZc pic.twitter.com/zYLnCpNNQz
— Rick Joe (@RickJoe_PLA) May 7, 2025
Some images appear to show debris from Chinese-made PL-15E air-to-air missiles. These weapons have been recently shown carried by Pakistani JF-17 and J-10CE fighters.
CONFIRMED: Pakistan used Chinese long-range air-to-air missile PL-15E against India.
Parts of the missile fell in Hoshiarpur, Punjab, India. Photo (1st and 2nd) provided by Indian media.
The PL-15 has a range of 200-300 km for the domestic version and about 145 km for the… pic.twitter.com/51YXEuFrAv
— Clash Report (@clashreport) May 7, 2025
An image of debris on the side of a mountain is said to show a Russian-made K-36DM ejection seat. This model is used by MiG-29 and Su-30 fighters, both of which are in service in India.
This ejection seat shared by @swiftretort1 appears to be a K-36DM ejection seat which is found on MiG-29 aircraft.
If these photos are from the recent fighting & in Ramban, it would be confirmation that the IAF lost another jet in the fighting last evening. https://t.co/M0mBERupCw pic.twitter.com/Zxa5CCIfAO
— Pernicious Propaganda (@natsecboogie) May 7, 2025
New: A high-ranking French intelligence official told CNN that one Rafale fighter jet operated by the Indian Air Force was downed by Pakistan, in what would mark the first time that one of the sophisticated French-made warplanes has been lost in combat.
Pakistan claimed earlier… https://t.co/ixmULw1HXX
— Jim Sciutto (@jimsciutto) May 7, 2025
Needless to say, the shootdowns also sparked debate online…
It’s true even if India not admitted it publicly by the way same number pic.twitter.com/zwIglHi1rR
— زکریا احمد (@ZakriyAhmed13) May 7, 2025
Information Warfare and the Case for a Zero Trust Mindset
As with recent conflicts, this latest skirmish once again underscores the importance of a Zero Trust mindset not only in cybersecurity, but also in how information is processed and consumed in real-time conflict zones. With both sides pushing conflicting narratives, releasing images of questionable origin, and leveraging social platforms to shape perception, observers must apply the same principles of Zero Trust: never assume, always verify. Each photo, video, or claim should be treated as suspect until validated through independent sources. In an era where propaganda travels faster than missiles, filtering out misinformation is now as critical as missile defense in understanding and responding to modern warfare.
There’s an IT Security model that should be used on social media: “Zero Trust”. In Twitter context: nothing can be trusted by default; everything should be, constantly, challenged. This doesn’t apply to info spread by accounts with no credentials only; it applies to all sources. https://t.co/Uqqa4yjB6w
— David Cenciotti (@cencio4) October 3, 2020
This is not the first time that air combat between India and Pakistan has triggered a wave of unverified or conflicting claims. During the 2019 Balakot skirmish, both sides reported different versions of events, with India claiming that a MiG-21 Bison had shot down a Pakistani F-16 using a Vympel R-73 missile. To support its version, the Indian Air Force presented parts of an AIM-120C5 AMRAAM missile, which is compatible only with Pakistani F-16s, recovered within Indian territory. However, no conclusive evidence of the F-16 shootdown was ever presented, and Pakistan denied the loss. The same engagement also saw the confirmed loss of the MiG-21 and the capture of its pilot, Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman, which Pakistan quickly publicized. As in today’s events, open-source imagery, official statements, and unverifiable social media content muddled the picture, showing how quickly the narrative can diverge depending on the source.
