No, This Video Doesn’t Show Indian Army Beating up Pahalgam Attackers

This clip has been on the internet since 2018 and has no connection to the Pahalgam attackers.

An old video has gone viral with the false claim that it shows the Indian Army punishing the attackers of the Pahalgam terror attack.

(Source: YouTube/Altered by The Quint)

A video of a man, being held face down on a cot while being thrashed, has gone viral on social media platforms.

The claim: The video is being linked to the recent terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir's Pahalgam and is being shared to claim that it shows the Indian Army meting out punishment to the attackers.

An archive of this post can be seen here.

(Source: X (formerly Twitter)/Screenshot)

• The clip is also being shared alongside a photographer of a zipline operator in Pahalgam, whose video went viral a week after the attack.

• The claim states that the video shows 'Arshad Nadeem' being 'welcomed' by the National Investigation Agency after he was arrested by the agency.

Another version of this claim links the video to a zipline operator in Pahalgam.

(Source: X/Screenshot)

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

Is it true?: No, the video has been on the internet for at least seven years and has no connection to the Pahalgam attacks.

• It reportedly shows training for commandos in Pakistan's Special Service Group (SSG).

How do we know?: We looked for reports regarding the zipline operator, who was taken in for questioning by the NIA.

• The operator was identified as Muzammil, an India Today report said, and cited NIA sources, saying that it was a "natural reaction" for him to chant 'Allahu Akbar', as is heard in the viral video.

The operator was identified as Muzammil and was questioned by the NIA.

(Source: India Today/Screenshot)

What about the video?: In one frame of the video, we noticed a crest resembling Pakistan's flag on the chest of one of the people holding the man down.

The crest resembles Pakistan's national flag.

(Source: YouTube/Altered by The Quint)

• Next, we carried out a reverse image search on the video using Google Lens.

• This led us to the same video, which was uploaded to YouTube by a channel called 'Present Kashmir' on 6 July 2018, nearly seven years before the Pahalgam attack.

The video is at least seven years old.

(Source: YouTube/Altered by The Quint)

• Under this video, one user left a comment saying that "they are SSG commandos and not Indian Army," referring to Pakistan's Special Service Group commandos.

• We also came across another X post which had shared this video in 2020, under which a user had commented saying that it showed 'commando training'.

Users pointed out that it showed commando training.

(Source: X/Screenshot)

• Taking a cue from this, we began looking for training videos of Pakistan's SSG force.

• The search yielded two videos shared by a YouTube channel called Sambha Khokar, which showed similar visuals of beatings. These videos can be be viewed here, here, and here.

Conclusion: While we could not independently verify the origins of the video, we can confirm that the video is old and has no connection to the Pahalgam terror attack.

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