Earlier today, the spokesperson of the Pakistani Armed Forces claimed on his Twitter account that Pakistan had shot down two Indian airforce planes inside Pakistani airspace and had arrested one Indian air-force pilot. At the time of writing, no confirmation of this claim has come from the Indian airforce or the Indian Government. However, a video now made viral by multiple Pakistani social media accounts is being shared with the claims that it depicts the arrested Indian air-force pilot. A page called Pak Army has circulated this video and it has been shared over 18,000 times.
The same video has also been shared from the Twitter account of one Dr Shahid Masood who claims to be the President of Airwaves Media group in his Twitter bio.
2nd Indian Pilot Arrested Alive... pic.twitter.com/TaYWNCCljY
— Dr Shahid Masood (@Shahidmasooddr) February 27, 2019
What is the truth?
Alt News looked up this video and found that it is being circulated in the Pakistani social media ecosystem with a false context. The video dates back to Feb 19, 2019, a day prior to Aero Show in Bangalore, when two Surya Kiran aircrafts crashed during rehearsal. The crash resulted in the death of one pilot and two other pilots were injured.
After the crash, a heartwarming video emerged on social media which showed a civilian comfortingthe injured pilot Vijay Shelke who had parachuted out of his jet. The video that is being circulated is that of the injured pilot Vijay Shelke, and the civilian trying to comfort him.
Yesterday, Alt News covered a series of misinformation that was shared on Indian mainstream media and social media post the IAF strikes in the Balakot region of Pakistan. Today, we are observing a similar pattern in the Pakistan mainstream media and social media ecosystem.
(This story was originally published in Alt News, and has been republished here with permission.)