Fact Check: 3 Indian jawans killed in war-like situation in Baramulla? No, video is old
A video claiming to show a ‘war-like situation’ in Jammu and Kashmir, with Indian Army soldiers engaged in a firefight with militants, is going viral.
By - M Ramesh Naik
Claim:War-like situation in Baramulla in 2026, three Indian soldiers have been killed and eight injured in firefight with militants.
Fact:False. The video has been on the internet since 2020. There are no recent reports of an encounter in Jammu and Kashmir that matches the claim.
Hyderabad: A video purportedly showing Indian Army personnel engaged in close-quarters combat with militants is being widely shared on social media with the claim that there is an ongoing war-like situation in Jammu and Kashmir in 2026.
The footage shows armed soldiers inside a room having an intense gunfire exchange through a window to people outside, with one soldier appearing to be shot during the exchange.
A viral post on X shared the video and wrote, “There is a war-like situation in Baramulla #JammuKashmir between our Indian Army and militants. So far, 3 Indian soldiers have lost their lives and 8 have been injured.” (Archive)
Another post alleged that the video shows Indian Army personnel exchanging fire with Pakistani Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) militants in a high-risk encounter. (Archive)
Fact Check
NewsMeter found that the claim is false. The viral video is not recent and has been online since 2020.
No matching recent reports
Counter-terror operations, similar to previous years, have continued in Jammu and Kashmir in 2026, in places, including Kishtwar, Udhampur and Rajouri.
However, there are no official reports of any recent encounter in Baramulla or elsewhere that match the viral claim of three soldiers being killed and eight injured in a single incident. Here are media links (here, here, here and here) to recent security escalations in J&K.
While security operations in the region do occasionally result in casualties, there has been no confirmation of a widespread ‘war-like situation’ as described in the posts.
This hinted that the claim might be false.
Origin of the viral video
A reverse image search of keyframes from the viral clip led to a Facebook post from 2020 carrying the same footage.
The post caption states that the video is of the Indian Army during an encounter with terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir. This establishes that the video predates the current claims by several years.
Although NewsMeter could not independently verify the exact location of the incident in the video, it is clear that the footage is not from any recent operation.
The viral claim that the video shows a current ‘war-like’ situation in Jammu and Kashmir is false. The footage has been online since 2020 and does not correspond to any recent encounter matching the details shared in the posts.
