Fact Check: Viral list claiming 15 Muslim victims in Pahalgam terror attack is Fake

The terror attack in Pahalgam, Jammu and Kashmir, on April 22, claimed the lives of at least 26 people, including 25 Indian nationals and one Nepalese citizen.

In this context, a list of 26 individuals, including 15 with Muslim names, allegedly published by India TV, has been circulating on social media. The claim suggests that many of the victims were from the Muslim community, implying that the attack did not target a single religion.

A Facebook user, while sharing the names along with their alleged states, wrote, “Here is the list of 26 people killed in the Pahalgam terrorist attack, as published by India TV News: Mohammad Asif (Uttar Pradesh), Aneesh Qureshi (Uttar Pradesh), Faisal Khan (Delhi), Salim Beg (Rajasthan), Anita Roy (Bihar), Ramesh Yadav (Uttar Pradesh), Pradeep Mishra (Madhya Pradesh), Arif Qureshi (Uttar Pradesh), Praveen Thakur (Haryana), Jameel Ahmad (Punjab), Suresh Kumar (Delhi), Mohsin Sheikh (Maharashtra), Afzal Ansari (Bihar), Manju Sharma (Rajasthan), Deepak Verma (Uttar Pradesh), Nazeem Khan (Uttar Pradesh), Sunil Gupta (Bihar), Aslam Mirza (Gujarat), Rakesh Yadav (Madhya Pradesh), Sharif Sheikh (Maharashtra), Shahid Hussain (Delhi), Riyaz Ahmad (Jammu), Meenakshi Tripathi (Uttar Pradesh), Tasleem Khan (Uttar Pradesh), Neeraj Verma (Haryana), Irshad Khan (Delhi).”

The user further commented, “Many of these names appear to be from the Muslim community, suggesting that the attack did not target any one religion.” (Archive)

Find more similar claims here and here.

Fact Check

NewsMeter found the claim to be false, as the names published by government sources and India TV do not match the viral list.

We conducted a relevant keyword search and found the official list released by the authorities, published by India TV on April 23. This list includes only one Muslim name, Syed Adil Hussain Shah, a local Muslim from Pahalgam. None of the other names from the viral list match the official record. The victims listed by India TV are as follows: Sushil Nathyal (Madhya Pradesh); Syed Adil Hussain Shah (Jammu & Kashmir); Hemant Suhas Joshi (Maharashtra); Vinay Narwal (Haryana); Atul Shrikant Moni (Maharashtra); Neeraj Udhawani (Uttarakhand); Bitan Adhikari (West Bengal); Sudeep Neupane (Nepal); Shubham Dwivedi (Uttar Pradesh); Prashant Kumar Satpathi (Odisha); Manish Ranjan (Bihar); N. Ramachandra (Kerala); Sanjay Lakshman Lali (Maharashtra); Dinesh Agarwal (Chandigarh); Sameer Guhar (West Bengal); Dileep Dasali (Maharashtra); J. Sachandra Moli (Andhra Pradesh); Madhusudan Somisetty (Karnataka); Santosh Jaghda (Maharashtra); Manju Nath Rao (Karnataka); Kastuba Ganvotay (Maharashtra); Bharat Bhushan Chana (Karnataka); Sumit Parmar (Gujarat); Yatesh Parmar (Gujarat); Tagehalying (Arunachal Pradesh); and Shaileshbhai H. Kalathia (Gujarat).

Furthermore, the viral list includes female names such as Anita Roy, Manju Sharma, and Meenakshi Tripathi, while the official list confirms that all 26 victims were male.

We also found the names, along with their photos and details of the Pahalgam terror attack, published by The Hindu. These names match the original list published by India TV. The list, as confirmed by the newspaper, also includes only one Muslim name, Syed Adil Hussain Shah (30), a ‘ponywallah’ from Pahalgam, who lost his life while attempting to protect the tourists during the attack. We also corroborated the names of the victims published by the Indian Express and Hindustan Times, and found that they match the original list published by India TV.

Viral list omits real victims and survivors' accounts

Moreover, as mentioned above, it is important to note that the now viral list does not include any of the names present in the official list released by government sources. The official list featured names such as Lieutenant Vinay Narwal, an Indian Navy officer; Manish Ranjan, an Intelligence Bureau employee posted in Hyderabad; and Corporal Tage Hailyang from the Indian Air Force. None of these names appear in the viral list.

Many survivors’ families have also come forward to share the horrifying experiences they endured in Pahalgam. These victims' names are also missing from the viral list.

According to a report in The Hindu published on April 24, Sushil Nathyal, a 58-year-old LIC employee from Indore, was among the 26 killed by terrorists. His son, Austen Nathyal, 27, shared the traumatic details after his father’s burial. Austen recalled that two armed boys, around 15 years old and wearing cameras on their heads, approached his parents as they were heading to the washroom. They demanded that his father recite the Kalma. When Sushil identified himself as Christian, the attackers shouted “Falisteen, Falisteen” before shooting him. Austen said his father had pushed Ms. Jennifer to safety before being shot. He also witnessed at least four attackers targeting non-Muslims by checking for circumcision, shooting those who failed the test.

According to an NDTV report published on the same day, Asavari Jagdale, 26, whose father, Santosh Jagdale and uncle, Kaustubh Ganbot, were killed in the attack, described the terrorists as “demons, not humans.” She recounted that the terrorists forced people to recite the Kalma (Islamic verses). Those who could, did, while others could not. Despite her father’s assurance that they would comply, the terrorists shot him and her uncle dead. Asavari also shared that a man was killed when he went to buy snacks for his wife and son, who were engaged in a photoshoot at the time.

The viral list claiming that 15 of the 26 victims in the Pahalgam terror attack were Muslims is entirely false. The official list published by government sources and multiple credible news outlets confirms that only one Muslim, Syed Adil Hussain Shah, was among the deceased.