Old Clip Viral as Journalist Questioning Army About Hesitation To Fight Pakistan

The video dates back to March 2025 and shows a journalist questioning the Army's approach to Colonel Bath's assault.

An old, unrelated video has gone viral with the false claim that it shows a journalist questioning the Indian Army over its alleged refusal to fight against Pakistan.

(Source: X/Altered by The Quint)

A video of a man criticising security personnel for walking out of a press conference, asking "What is the Army afraid of? Why are they running away like this? What a shame!" has gone viral on social media.

The claim: The video is being linked to the recent terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir's Pahalgam.

• Those sharing the clip have also claimed that Army personnel evaded questions about the terror attack and the Indian Army's alleged refusal to fight Pakistan over it.

An archived version of this post can be seen here.

(Source: X (formerly Twitter)/Altered by The Quint)

(Archived versions of more claims can be seen here, here, and here.)

But...?: The video has no connection to the Pahalgam terror attack and there are no credible reports to support the claim that the Indian Army has expressed hesitation in fighting Pakistan.

• The viral video dates back to March 2025 and shows a journalist criticising the Army's representatives in connection to the Colonel Bath assault case.

How did we find out the truth?: Conducting a simple reverse image search on the initial frames of the video led us to the same video, uploaded by journalist Man Aman Singh Chhina on his X account on 25 March 2025.

• Chhina shared the clip with text which said that Chief of Staff West Command Lieutenant General Mohit Wadhwa spoke at a press conference, where he issued "a statement on the Patiala Colonel without taking any questions."

• The Director General of Police (DGP) also "read out a statement and left but at least he has answered questions of media in recent days," Chhina added.

• Taking a cue from this, we looked for a video of the presser on the Punjab Police's and Government of Punjab's social media accounts.

• On the Government of Punjab's YouTube channel, we came across Punjab DGP Gaurav Yadav's statement during the press conference held "jointly" with the Army.

• At the 03:28-minute mark in this video, which was streamed live on 25 March 2025, one can hear the same questions as heard in the viral claim.

What is the Patiala Colonel case?: It refers to an incident of assault against Colonel Pushpinder Bath and his son Angad, over a parking dispute in Patiala, Punjab.

• Colonel Bath accused 12 Punjab Police personnel of assaulting the two of them on the intervening night between 13 and 14 March, after which all 12 of them were placed under suspension, reported NDTV.

• While the initial investigation was being conducted by the Punjab Police, the colonel sought the transfer of the investigation to the CBI or another independent agency, alleging that "a fair investigation was impossible under the Punjab Police," the report added.

• As on 12 April, the Punjab police constituted a seven member special investigation team (SIT) which is conducting its investigation into the matter, The Indian Express reported.

Conclusion: An old, unrelated video of a journalist asking the Punjab DGP and Army personnel what they were afraid of is being falsely linked to the Pahalgam terror attack and India's diplomatic conflict with Pakistan.

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