On May 24, Pakistan's chief of army staff, Syed Asim Munir, hosted a dinner party "to honour the political leadership, steadfast commitment of the Armed Forces" during Operation Bunyan Marsoos, the offensive launched by Pakistan to counter India's Operation Sindoor. One of the images from that party shows Munir and Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif holding a framed picture of artillery in action. A metal badge attached to the frame says, "OP BUNYAN-UM-MARSOOS; Geljed Maki Launch Rocket Regiment of Pakistan Artillery".
It wasn't clear who was presenting the image to whom but it was certainly linked to the latest India-Pakistan conflict. Pakistan's operation, launched on May 10, targeted at least six Indian military bases. Meanwhile, the Indian armed forces have maintained that their strikes, launched on May 7, targeted only terror bases in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK).
News outlets such as the Times of Karachi, Daily The Spokesman, Khabar Kada, Pakistan Today, and Daily Pakistan carried the image. The public relations wing of the armed forces, the Inter Services Public Relations Pakistan, also used the image in its press release
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Besides PM Sharif, President Asif Ali Zardari was also present along with the Pakistan's deputy PM and foreign minister. Others in attendance included the national assembly speaker, ministers, governors, chief ministers, chiefs of air force and navy, senior political leaders, high-ranking government officials, and senior officers from the armed forces.
Images from the party were also shared by X handle Pakistan Armed Forces News (@PakistanFauj). (Archives 1, 2)
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Fact Check
Several social media users pointed out on X that the framed image of artillery action was old and not related to Pakistan's Operation Bunyan Marsoos. Some even pointed out that the image was of a Chinese military drill.
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To verify this, we ran a reverse image search of the framed picture and found a report by Indian Aerospace Defence News (IADN) that featured an image very similar to the one Pakistan's army chief and PM Sharif were holding. The four-year-old report was titled: "China deploys long-range rocket launcher as deterrent to India". A watermark on the image said "China Military".
The report also mentioned that China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) had deployed an advanced long-range rocket launcher to the Himalayas to strengthen border defences and deter India.
Taking a cue from the above, we ran a relevant keyword search, which led us to a 2019 blog post by China's Ministry of Defence where the same image was used. The post made it clear that the image was from August 18, 2019.
We then compared the framed image that Pakistan's army chief Munir and PM Sharif were holding with the one issued by the Chinese milutart and noticed several similarities, such as the smoke pattern and the angle of the launcher. We highlighted the comparison below:
Our findings indicate that the image on the left was most likely edited with two more launchers added to the original image. The angles of the three launchers on the left image and how they emit fire is identical and seem duplicated.
Hence, the framed image that Pakistan's army chief Asim Munir and PM Sharif were holding was edited and had nothing to do with Operation Bunyan Marsoos. It is five years old and completely unrelated to the recent India-Pakistan conflict.
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Hello, my name is Ankit Sahu. I'm a 25 year old self-employed Pirate from the Chhindwara.