Fact Check: Indian Army catches terrorist behind Pahalgam attack alive? No, video is from 2022

Hyderabad: At least 26 people were killed in a deadly terror attack in the Baisaran Valley, Pahalgam, over 100 km south of Srinagar, on April 22.

In this context, a media interview of a man, lying on a hospital bed, is going viral on social media. Users sharing the video claim that the man is a terrorist caught alive by the Indian Army after the Pahalgam terror attack. “Terrorist spits out the truth about Pakistan,” is written on the video in Hindi along with an Aaj Tak logo.

Answering a reporter’s question, the man can be heard saying that his name is Tabarak Hussain. He said that he is associated with the ISI and was sent to India to carry out an attack. ISI is the Inter-Services Intelligence of Pakistan.

Sharing the video on Facebook, a user wrote, “Terrorist spits out the truth about Pakistan. #pahalgamkashmir #pahalgam #pahalgamvalley #pqhal #pahalgamdiaries #pahalwan #pahalgamtourism #pahalgamtrip” (Translated from Hindi) (Archive)

Posts making similar claims can be seen here, and here. (Archive 1, and Archive 2)

Fact Check

NewsMeter found that the viral claim is false. The viral video is not connected to the Pahalgam terror incident. It’s an old video from 2022.

Using the text on the video and the Aaj Tak logo, we performed keyword searches on YouTube. We found the viral video published on August 25, 2022, as a short video on the Aaj Tak YouTube channel. The video was captioned, “Terrrorist from Pakistan has revealed secrets about Pakistan Army.”

Using keyword searches, we found the full video in a report published on the Aaj Tak website on August 25, 2022. The report stated, “In the last 48 hours, the Indian Army foiled two infiltration attempts on the LOC in Nowshera sector of Rajouri district of Jammu and Kashmir, in which one Pakistani terrorist was caught alive, while two died in the explosion. The soldiers posted in Nowshera’s Jhangar sector saw the movement of 2-3 terrorists on the LOC in the early hours of August 21. The soldiers admitted the injured terrorist to the hospital. When asked why he was sent from Pakistan to India? The captured terrorist revealed this.”

Using a reverse image search, we found The Print report, dated August 24, 2022. “A terrorist captured by the Indian security forces at the Line of Control near the Jammu region brought in focus the role of a serving Pakistani Army colonel in sponsoring terror attacks within the Indian territory,” stated the report.

The report added that the captured terrorist, Tabarak Hussain, is a resident of Sabzkot village, district Kotli of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. He was undergoing treatment at an Army medical facility. Hussain was in an extremely critical condition before Army doctors saved his life.

“As he recovers, Hussain told ANI on Wednesday that he had been sent along with three to four other terrorists who were paid money by a Pakistani Colonel Yunus Choudhary to carry out a ‘fidayeen’ attack on Indian soldiers after crossing the LoC. Hussain received a bullet wound while his accomplices escaped,” the report added.

The Financial Express, the ANI X account and Jagran have also published reports about this incident using an image of the man from the viral video.

From these reports, it is clear that the viral footage was captured in 2022. It is unrelated to the recent Pahalgam terror attack.

Therefore, NewsMeter concluded that the viral claim is false.