Fact Check: Indian army kills four terrorists responsible for Pahalgam attack? No, video is old, unrelated
A video has been circulating on social media, claiming the Indian Army has eliminated four militants responsible for the Pahalgam terror attack.
By Md Mahfooz Alam
Claim:The video shows Army personnel carrying the bodies of four militants responsible for the deadly terror attack in Pahalgam on April 22.
Fact:The claim is false. The video has been circulating on the internet since at least 2018.
Amid growing anger over the Pahalgam attack, which claimed the lives of 26 civilians, a video has been circulating on social media showing an army convoy stopped on a road, with some personnel allegedly carrying what appears to be deceased individuals wrapped in bedsheets.
Users claim that at least four militants involved in the deadly terror attack in Pahalgam have been eliminated by the Indian Army. (Archive)
Fact Check
NewsMeter found the claim false. The video had been on the Internet before the attack.
Upon conducting a reverse image search of the videoās keyframes, we found it posted by a Facebook user on February 17, 2019, claiming three militants were killed after the Pulwama terror attack.
We also found the video uploaded by a YouTube channel on December 10, 2018. However, the Pulwama terror attack occurred on February 14, 2019, when a suicide bomber rammed an explosive-laden vehicle into a convoy of Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel on the Jammu-Srinagar National Highway at Lethpora in Pulwama district of Jammu and Kashmir. Forty CRPF personnel were killed in the attack. This confirms that the video has been on the Internet since 2018 and is not related to operations after the Pulwama terror attack.
Did the Indian Army eliminate four militants who carried out the Pahalgam terror attack?
As of April 28, 2025, there is no official confirmation that the Indian Army has eliminated the militants responsible for the Pahalgam terror attack. According to a report by DD News dated April 24, authorities have identified five terrorists involved in the massacre, including three Pakistani nationals.
Pakistani militants have been identified as Asif Fauji (code-named Moosa), Suleman Shah (Yunus), and Abu Talha (Asif). The other two attackers are believed to be local militants: Adil Guri from Bijbehara in Anantnag and Ahsan from Pulwama. Both Guri and Ahsan reportedly underwent training in Pakistan in 2018 and had recently returned to the Kashmir Valley. Fauji and Shah have been active in Jammu and Kashmir for some time and are suspected to be involved in different attacks. These include attacks in the Poonch region.
According to an April 27 report from The Hindu, a total of eight houses belonging to alleged active militants were demolished through controlled blasts, while more than 100 residences of alleged militant supporters were searched, and hundreds of local residents were detained in Kashmir. However, these reports do not mention the Indian Army having eliminated the militants responsible for the Pahalgam terror attack.
Therefore, we conclude that the video is old and unrelated, and the claim that four militants responsible for the Pahalgam terror attack have been eliminated by the Indian Army is false.
