Modi takes the wind out of Pakistan's claims

Pakistan has made several false claims about destroying Indian military bases and assets which have been debunked by India but none so spectacularly as the claim of having destroyed the Sudarshan S-400 air defence missile system.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday took the wind out of Pakistan's claim of destroying S-400 by posing in front of it during his visit to Adampur air base in Punjab. This comes after Pakistan's air force claimed that its hypersonic missiles destroyed the S-400 system in Adampur. The PAF also shared fake videos and operationalised its disinformation campaign.

Adampur air base, which was one of the active air bases during Operation Sindoor, was the key military location that the Pakistani military attempted to attack last week on Wednesday after India launched Operation Sindoor.

India has bought the S-400 Triumf, a mobile surface-to-air missile system, from Russia and named it Sudarshan after the Sudarshan Chakra of Lord Krishna. India and Russia had signed an over Rs 35,000 crore deal for five squadrons of S-400. The Indian Air Force considers Sudarshan a game changer, especially against Pakistan. The first squadron of Sudarshan was deployed in Punjab in 2021 in a manner in which it can look after the Pakistan border as well as other parts in the northern and western sectors. Amid delays due to the Russia-Ukraine, Russia will supply the remaining two of the five squadrons by August 2026. Sudarshan S-400 air defence system can engage up to 36 targets at a time and simultaneously launch 72 missiles. It is equipped with four different missiles which can engage enemy aircraft, ballistic missiles, and AWACS planes at 400 km, 250 km, the medium-range 120 km and the short-range 40 km.



Also Read | 'Dhol bajane ka Pakistan ka purana ravaiyya hai': Look at who called whom to end hostilities, says MEA

In 2022, a foreign office spokesperson of Pakistan had expressed concerns over India acquiring S-400 in response to a question about the Indian Air Force deploying the first batch of the missile defence system at Adampur and Halwara Air Base in Punjab, some 90-100 Km close to the Pakistani border. India's belligerence and unbridled acquisition of arms over the years threatens regional peace and stability, the spokesperson had said.

Operations Sindoor: Pakistan's false claims debunked by India
The Press Information Bureau (PIB) had on Saturday debunked the fake news claiming that Pakistan destroyed India's air defence system S-400. In a post shared by the Brics news, it was claimed that S-400 was destroyed by Pakistani armed forces, which was absolutely fake.

The Ministry of External Affairs exposed the "misinformation campaign" run by Pakistan with several claims including that it inflicted damage to S-400 & BrahMoS missile. This came after India formally declared that the two nations had decided to put an end to the firing and military action that started after the relations deteriorated post Pahalgam terror attack. In a press briefing on Saturday, Colonel Sofiya Qureshi said, "Pakistan claimed that it damaged our S400 and Brahmos missile base with its JF 17, which is completely wrong. Secondly, it also ran a misinformation campaign that our airfields in Sirsa, Jammu, Pathankot, Bhatinda, Nalia and Bhuj were damaged, and its misinformation is also completely wrong." "Thirdly, according to Pakistan's misinformation campaign, our ammunition depot in Chandigarh and Vyas was damaged, which is also completely wrong. Pakistan made false allegations that Indian Army damaged mosques. I want to make it very clear that India is a secular nation and our army is a very beautiful reflection of the constitutional value of India," she added.

India had also released time-stamped photos and videos of some military bases Pakistan claimed it had destroyed.

Also Read | How PM Modi dismantled Pakistan’s fake news campaign against India with an unannounced visit to Adampur air base

PIB's Fact-Check unit had also dismissed claims circulating on social media that an Indian Air Force pilot named Shivani Singh has been captured by Pakistan. The agency also dismissed a separate claim suggesting that an Indian pilot had ejected from a fighter aircraft over Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), calling it fake.

Earlier, the PIB fact-checked Pakistan's false claims that it struck a military base in Amritsar. The fake post claimed numerous casualties, with several critical injuries. The photo used in the post, in fact, was a video of a wildfire from 2024. A Google reverse image search and keyword searches by the news agency AFP traced the video to a TikTok post from February 3, 2024, which claimed it showed fires in Achupallas in Chile’s Valparaíso region.

During a recent media briefing, Pakistan's Director General of Inter-Services Public Relations (DG ISPR) cited an Indian news channel to claim damage to an Indian airbase. However, this claim was quickly dismantled by the PIB fact-check unit. The PIB revealed that the video had been deliberately edited to mislead viewers. By releasing the complete 41-second footage, they demonstrated that the original report actually documented damage to a Pakistani airbase, not an Indian facility.