Amid the escalating tensions between India and Pakistan in early May 2025, a video circulated on social media purportedly showing a "Pakistani official" lying wounded on the ground as a direct result of military conflict between the two countries.
The claim appears to have originated from one particular post on X (archived), which was shared nearly 3,000 times.
The video also made its way to other accounts on X (archived, archived, archived) that posted it with variants of the caption "Pakistani official down. Give him Fantastic Tea."
(X user @MrSandeepPhogat)
However, the video does not, in fact, depict a "Pakistani official" found wounded on the ground as a result of military conflict between Pakistan and India. We have rated the clip in these posts as miscaptioned.
The clip was taken from a longer video available for viewing on YouTube (archived), depicting a Pakistan Air Force (PAF) training aircraft that crashed. The pilots ejected to safety, which is partially captured in the YouTube video.
The YouTube video was posted on April 15, 2025. Further, The Pakistani Telegraph posted a video to its X account (archived) on the same date that depicts the wreckage.
The Aviation Safety Network, which "provides up-to-date, complete and reliable authoritative information on airliner accidents and safety issues," has a record of the incident on their website that also dates from April 15. It reads in part, "A two-seat PAF fighter from No. 22 Squadron crashed near Vehari, Ratta Tibba area reportedly after a technical malfunction. Both pilots ejected safely."
The incident was reported by the Pakistani newspaper Dawn, which elaborated that "the PAF aircraft was on a training flight but crashed due to some technical fault. The aircraft had taken off from Thingi airport near Vehari city and it burst into flames after the crash as the fire engulfed."
The newspaper also reported the pilots suffered only minor injuries and there was no damage to any structures.
The dates on the various videos and reports sharing this claim indicate the incident happened well before the escalating tensions between Pakistan and India that began with the April 22, 2025 attack that killed 26 tourists in Indian-controlled Kashmir. The massacre was met with retaliation from India, which targeted Pakistan-controlled territory with missiles that killed 31 on May 7, 2025.