Old Video Falsely Linked To Recent Drone Sightings Along India-Pakistan Border

The video dates back to May 2025 and shows suspected Pakistani drones being shot during Operation Sindoor.

An old video from May 2025 is being shared with the misleading claim that it shows recent visuals of drone sightings along the LoC in Jammu and Kashmir.

(Source: Instagram/Altered by The Quint)

A video showing bright red lights in the night sky is being widely shared on social media, shortly after reports of multiple drones being spotted along the India-Pakistan border in the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir emerged.

The claim: The video is being shared to claim that it shows recent visuals of the drone sightings.

An archived version of this post can be seen here.

(Source: Instagram/Screenshot)

Archived versions of more posts sharing this claim can be seen here and here.

But...?: The video is old, which makes the claim misleading.

• We were able to trace it back to May 2025, when the Indian Army first undertook Operation Sindoor.

How did we find out the truth?: A reverse image search on one of the frames in the viral video led us to a News18 report dated 12 May 2025, which carried a still from the video in the claim.

• It mentioned that "suspected drones" had been intercepted by the Indian Army in J&K's Samba district, and that some drones had also been spotted in Punjab.

The report was published in May 2025, during Operation Sindoor.

(Source: News18/Altered by The Quint)

• This drone activity took place shortly after Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed the nation for the first time since Operation Sindoor's commencement, the report added.

• We also came across an X (formerly Twitter) post by news agency ANI, which had published the same video on 12 May 2025.

More news reports which show the same visuals in reports published in May 2025 can be seen here and here.

Fresh sightings in January 2026: Pakistani drones were spotted along the Line of Control (LoC) in Poonch district and the along the India-Pakistan border in Samba district on 15 January 2025.

• These sightings prompted a "swift response" from security forces, All India Radio reported, after a drone was reportedly hovering over the Digwar sector for several minutes.

Conclusion: An old video is being falsely linked to the recent drone sightings along the LoC in J&K.

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