New Delhi: If Pakistanis are to be believed, especially those running open-source intelligence accounts, commander of Indian Air Force’s Western Air Command Pankaj Mohan Sinha was involved in an air crash near Mathura Wednesday and his condition is “unknown”.
The claim was widely peddled across different OSINT handles on X. One read: “#BREAKIBG:- Air Marshal Pankaj Mohan Sinha, Commander of Western Air Command in the #Indian Air Force, was on board an Mi-17V5 that crashed near Mathura. His condition is unknown, and internet services in the area have been suspended.”
BIG BREAKING⚠️
An Mi-17V5 of the Indian Air Force carrying the Commander of Western Air Command of IAF, Air Marshal Pankaj Mohan Sinha has crashed near Mathura.
His current state is unknown. Internet services have been suspended in the area. pic.twitter.com/OrjUrWj0zf
— The Pakistan Telegraph (@TelegraphPak) January 17, 2024
— Prashant Gulia (@Prashant_Gulia_) January 17, 2024
Meanwhile, Indian media clarified that the claim was fake and the accompanying image that went viral is of a November 2021 incident in which an MI-17 helicopter of the Indian Air Force crashed during landing at Rochham Helipad in Arunachal Pradesh. Two pilots and three crew members were on board, and all of them were rescued safely. That year, Asian News International (ANI) shared a video on X, shot by a local resident, purportedly showing the moment the IAF helicopter crash-landed.
#WATCH video of the Indian Air Force Mi-17 helicopter that crash-landed near a helipad in Eastern Arunachal Pradesh today with two pilots and three crew members. All of them are safe with minor injuries.
(Source: a local person) pic.twitter.com/cTUbzZRT3J
— ANI (@ANI) November 18, 2021
Iran air strikes and surge in claims
The false claims about Air Marshal Sinha surged on Pakistani social media only in the past 24 hours. This was after Iranian foreign minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, while speaking at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland, defended the airstrikes in Pakistan. Tehran claimed that the series of attacks targeted militant outfit Jaish al-Adl, an extremist Sunni militant group considered by Iran as a terrorist organisation.
Accounts on X that claim to be Pakistani have circulated the fake news about Sinha by copy-pasting the posts originally made by the OSINT accounts.
#BREAKIBG:- Air Marshal Pankaj Mohan Sinha, Commander of Western Air Command in the #Indian Air Force, was on board an Mi-17V5 that crashed near Mathura.
His condition remains unknown, and internet services in the area have been suspended. @IAF_MCC @PMOIndia pic.twitter.com/mwZRpfpmau
— Komal Bajwa ( نیوٹرل) (@Kb128LC) January 17, 2024
#BREAKIBG:- Air Marshal Pankaj Mohan Sinha, Commander of Western Air Command in the #Indian Air Force, was on board an Mi-17V5 that crashed near Mathura.
His condition remains unknown, and internet services in the area have been suspended. #IndianArmy pic.twitter.com/n4GsUI1Zcv
— Hamdan News (@HamdanWahe57839) January 17, 2024
The propaganda went further. Some shared ‘news’ that the Indian Navy’s guided-missile destroyer ship – INS Visakhapatnam – was hit by a drone strike in the Red Sea. Some Pakistanis have gone so far as to claim that the Indian naval ship has aided the United States and United Kingdom in bombing Yemen.
A Pakistani journalist with over half a million followers on X posted that the ship had been “damaged” by a Houthi drone strike.
None of this information turned out to be true. In the early hours of 18 January, INS Visakhapatnam responded to a distress call made by a commercial ship, MV Genco Picardy, which had been struck by a drone at 11:11 pm on the night of 17 January. The Indian Navy boarded and inspected the ship and rendered it safe for transit to its next port of call as per the information shared by the Navy on X.