Mainstream media outlets misreported an old photo, claiming it shows the terrorist involved in the Pahalgam terror attack, captured on camera with his assault rifle.
The misreporting was aired on live TV by news channels India Today, AajTak, Times Now and published as web reports by ABP News, Zee News, The Economic Times, News18, CNBC TV18, Mint and FirstPost. All the media reports published the old picture claiming it was an exclusive "first picture" of the terrorist in the attack.
BOOM verified the picture and found that it is a screengrab from a video available on Facebook since October 2021. Additionally, none of the media reports mentioned included any confirmation by a government official that the photo shows an attacker involved in the recent Pahalgam attack.
In one of the deadliest attacks on civilians in India, terrorists opened fire at the Baisaran meadows in Pahalgam, Jammu & Kashmir, killing 26 tourists and a local. Survivors and family members of the deceased have alleged that the terrorists targeted non-Muslims, after asking for identification and names. Initial probe indicates that five terrorists, including three from Pakistan, were involved. Indian government has since taken serious diplomatic actions against Pakistan, including suspending the Indus treaty.
India Today aired the photo in a special show on Pahalgam claiming it was a photo of the terrorist captured on camera in the act, terming it, "First image of terrorist who attacked tourists" with the anchor claiming it showed an exclusive ground report by the channel.
In the photo, a man wearing a purple kurta and pyjama is seen with a rifle, as if captured on camera while running at the scene.
Click here to view the post and here for an archive.
Hindi news channel AajTak also aired the same photo with the same false claiming it was captured by one of the people present during the attack.
Click here to view the post and here for an archive.
Several other outlets, including Times Now, ABP News, Zee News, The Economic Times, News18, CNBC TV18, Mint, Firstpost, Republic and News24, also misreported the same picture.
News18 and Times Now have since updated their story without clarification, changing it to a fact check debunking the picture.
Fact Check
BOOM found the same visuals in a video available on Facebook since October 2021, nearly four years before the April 22, 2025, attack.
We first broke the video into keyframes and ran reverse image searches and a recent post on Instagram showed a different angle of the same viral picture.
The post while recent, showed the same man in a different angle, with his rifle visible in a clearer angle. This indicated that the photo was likely part of a longer video.
Using this as a clue, we ran advanced searches using specific keywords and found both the photos in a video uploaded on Facebook in October 2021.
Click here to view the post and here for an archive.
The video was uploaded by a Pakistani account with no details in the caption about the location or the identity of the man.
In the 40-second footage, the man can be seen doing manoeuvres with his rifle, mimicking moves seen in combat/arms training. The video also shows another person standing at a slight distance from the man, watching his training.
Below is a comparison between the image aired by news channels and the video available on Facebook.
Two handles on X also debunked the image and sourced it to the same video from 2021. See here and here
Additionally, the survivors of the Pahalgam attack in their eye-witness statements have said the attackers were dressed in camouflage outfits unlike the man in the photo used by media reports. The Indian Express also reported that the terrorists rounded up some of the tourists, asked the women and children to step away and then shot them at close range. Other reports quote the survivors as describing the scene as chaotic with the attackers talking to the victims, asking them to prove their identity before firing at them.
In the video, the man is seen only pointing his gun in the air while doing poses, not attacking any person or shooting with his rifle. The video also does not show any victims in the background and does not match the scenes from the attack, as described by the survivors of the Pahalgam incident in interviews.
BOOM was unable to independently verify the location or identity of the man but was able to confirm that the image reported by media outlets as that of the attacker is old and not from the recent Pahalgam attack.