ISLAMABAD - India again almost wept in a frenzy of anxiety as it aired news and posted fake pictures of Pakistani Air Force fighter planes flying over the Panjsher valley — the main bastion of resistance to the Taliban in Afghanistan, alleging that the Pakistani fighter planes hit National Resistance Front (NRF) targets.

The Indian media even shared pictures of a downed F-16.

A Twitter account purportedly claiming to belong to Ahmad Massoud, the son of legendary Afghan rebel commander Ahmad Shah Massoud, tweeted a photo of a military aircraft on its belly on the ground, with the caption saying, “The Pakistani Jet Plane that was shot down by the lion cubs.” The photo has since been deleted. Nonetheless, it was shared especially by the accounts opposed to the Taliban. The tweet was rapidly shared by Indian and Afghan Twitter accounts. The majority of anti-Pakistan accounts carrying fake Afghan names, photos and IDs have mushroomed over the past few months and have been noticed to be operating from India.

A Google reverse image search showed the picture of the plane was an old one. A fact check by the independent journalists showed the picture is actually from 2018 in the United States. It was the picture of the aircraft of a United States Air Force F-16 that crash-landed during a training exercise in April 2018 in Arizona, USA.

There has been a marked increase in disinformation and fake news proliferating throughout Indian Media related to the Afghanistan conflict. The Indian media networks remained biased in favour of the National Resistance Front through mostly fake reports and analyses.

The report based on Twitter data from three major Indian news networks: The Republic, Times Now, and India Today included tweets, news reports, and commentary related to Panjshir over the last 15 days.

This picture, and other fake news about Pakistan’s military involvement in Afghanistan, surfaced as the Taliban said on Monday they had taken control of Panjshir province north of Kabul, the last holdout of anti-Taliban forces in the country and the only province the Taliban had not seized during their blitz across the country last month.

With Taliban fighters advancing into Panjshir, Indian media outlets during the past week ran unverified claims of PAF planes hovering over Panjshir valley and dropping bombs on resistance fighters in support of the Taliban. The well-reputed India Today was also not to be left behind and shared the picture of the USAF F-16 in Arizona and ran its Breaking News – Battle for Panjshir with claims that the “Resistance group claims shooting down Pak jet.”

India’s Republic TV and Hindi news channel Zee Hindustan shared footage that showed Pakistani drones attacking anti-Taliban fighters in Panjshir. But fact-check website Boom found that the viral clip was taken from a longer video recording of the video game Arma-3, and is not from the military conflict in Afghanistan.

Additionally, Indian news channel Times Now broadcast a clip that it said showed a Pakistani fighter jet hovering over Panjshir, terming it proof of a “full-fledged Pakistani invasion” of Afghanistan.

However, independent news websites reported that the video in question was actually of an American F-15 jet flying in Wales in the United Kingdom. Soon after showing the video clip of an American F-15 flying in a valley, the channel faced a strong reaction as people pointed out that the Pakistan Air Force has no twin-tailed fighter aircraft in its inventory. George Allison, a journalist from the UK shared the visuals and said, “1st visuals of a fighter jet, allegedly belonging to Pakistan, hovering over Panjshir Valley in Afghanistan,” the trouble? It’s an American jet flying through Welsh valleys. Emotional agitation remained on its height as the world’s largest democracy and its media Monday made a fool of themselves by airing news and posting the fake pictures of Pakistani Air Force fighters.

Zabihullah Mujahid, the spokesman of the Islamic Emirate in a statement Monday evening said “The last stronghold of the mercenary enemy, Panjshir province, was completely conquered. The pathetic Indian mindset could be judged from just one tweet of Maj Gen (Dr)GD Bakshi SM, VSM (Retd), who claims to be a combat veteran, a Phd in Strategic Studies and author of 40 books and who has been a constant source of amusement for the social media buffs. “Afghan update. Heavy fighting in Panjshir some 600- 1000 Taliban killed, 120 captured. Pak 1 offr 3 JCO and 17 killed or wounded. Evacuated to Peshawar by MI-17 helicopter. GOC 11 corps has ordered est of forward treatment centre at Kabul. Peshawar MH cleared to receive more casE,” he bluffed. Some replied in awe and wondered whether such people have been really Generals in the Indian army, while others said it was just another script from a flop Bollywood movie.