A list containing 26 names, 15 of which are Muslims, has gone viral on social media with a false claim that it is part of a report published by India TV, listing those who lost their lives in the recent Pahalgam terror attack.
BOOM spoke to Jammu Defence PRO Lt Col Suneel Bartwal, who confirmed that the list is fake and does not accurately reflect the names of the victims. We also reached out to India TV, who confirmed that the outlet did not publish any such story as claimed in the viral message.
On April 22, a deadly terror attack struck Pahalgam in Jammu and Kashmir, claiming the lives of 26 people. Survivors and relatives of the victims have claimed that the attackers targeted individuals based on their religious identity, executing those they identified as non-Muslims. As preliminary investigations point to a Pakistan link to the attack, India took serious diplomatic actions against Pakistan, leading to the suspension of the Indus Waters Treaty.
The viral message claims that 15 of the 26 victims in the terror attack were Muslims, citing India TV. It also alleges that pro-government media outlets did not report the names of the Muslims killed in the attack.
Click here to view one such post with the viral message.
Viral List Is Fake: Jammu Defence PRO
BOOM first reached out to Jammu Defence PRO Lt Col Suneel Bartwal and shared the viral claim with him over WhatsApp. Bartwal confirmed that the viral message is fake and provided us with the original list of names of those who lost their lives in the Pahalgam terror attack.
In the list shared with BOOM by the Jammu Defence PRO, 25 names are mentioned of those who lost their lives in the attack; all of them are Hindus.
Speaking to BOOM, Bartwal said, "This viral list is fake. Another local individual who lost his life in the attack is Adil Hussain Shah, whose name is not included in the list as his mortal remains were handed over to his family." Additionally, we checked the list of injured persons but were not able to find any names matching with the viral list.
We also conducted a keyword search to check if India TV had published any report carrying the same names mentioned in the viral message. Instead, we found a report by the outlet listing names confirmed by the Jammu Defence PRO.
For further clarification, we reached out to India TV, who confirmed that the viral claim is false and that the outlet did not carry any such story about the Pahalgam terror attack victims.
Message Includes Names From Different Incidents
We also ran keyword searches related to the names along with their respective states as mentioned in the viral claim but found no credible media report mentioning them as victims of the recent terror attack in Pahalgam. However, some searches regarding the names mentioned in the list led us to news reports about unrelated incidents published by various outlets.
For example, the list mentions Mohsin Shaikh from Maharashtra. A keyword search for the same led us to an old article by The Indian Express, which reported that a 28-year-old tech professional, Mohsin Sadiq Shaikh, was killed in communal clashes in 2014, but the accused were acquitted by a Pune court in 2023.
We also found another example related to Arif Qureshi from Uttar Pradesh, as mentioned in the list. A 2024 article by Live Hindustan reported that a person named Arif Qureshi from Baradari, Uttar Pradesh, was murdered by his wife and brother-in-law in 2022, and both were later sentenced to life imprisonment by the court.