Pahalgam: AI-generated images showing bodies strewn on a meadow viral after April 22 attack
At least 26 people were killed in the picturesque Baisaran valley near Pahalgam in Anantnag district on April 22 in the deadliest terror attack targetting tourists in Kashmir in recent history. According to survivors’ accounts, three to four men in army fatigues descended from the dense Pine forests around 2 pm and fired indiscriminately at civilians enjoying their time in the lush meadows of what is popularly known as ‘Mini Switzerland’. The Resistance Front (TRF), a shadow group of the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba, claimed responsibility for the terrorist attack, according to sources in the central agencies.
Following the incident, some pictures went viral on social media in which people are seen lying unconscious on the ground in a valley surrounded by hills.
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Jaipur Dialogues run by Sanjay Dixit shared the viral picture and wrote that this is the price Hindus had to pay for living in this country. ( Archive link )
Readers should note that this user shares misinformation and communal propaganda on a regular basis.
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Right-wing influencer and Earshot founder Abhijit Majumdar tweeted a picture and wrote that the corpse of secularism was lying there. In this picture, many people can be seen lying on the ground in a field in a hilly area and smoke rising. ( Archive link )
This picture has also been used by Free Press Journal in a report.
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Bhim Sena’s national vice-president Bijendra Bhartiya tweeted another picture and linked it to the terrorist attack in Pahalgam. In this, a person is lying unconscious on the ground and some people with guns are seen around him.
Similarly, many other users shared these pictures with the same claim. These include Right-wing lawyer Girish Bharadwaj , BJP Yuva Morcha Assam’s social media co-incharge Shashank Chakraborty , Right-wing handle @BattaKashmiri, Visegrad, an account that often spreads misinformation related to international events , Abhijat Mishra, BJP Yuva Morcha Uttar Pradesh general secretary Varun Kumar Goyal, et al.
Fact Check
We did a reverse image search of the viral photos one by one. We did not find any report that cited the source of any of these photos.
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When we looked closely at the viral image, the face of the person sitting behind the man in uniform appeared distorted and the background did not match the location of the actual incident: The Baisaran Valley medow. Apart from this, we found a watermark of Meta AI in the corner of the image, which clearly indicated that it had been created with the help of artificial intelligence.
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Many pictures and videos of the terrorist attack surfaced after the horrifying incident, but none showed smoke coming out or men wearing masks. When we did a reverse image search of the viral picture, we found that it was a cropped version of another photo. We found the uncropped version which had been shared by many on social media. It has a watermark of Meta AI in the corner. That is, this too has been created with the help of artificial intelligence.
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We did not find this photo shared by any official source. When we looked at it carefully, we found that like other viral photos, this, too, had a Meta AI watermark in the corner, which meant that it had also been created with the help of artificial intelligence.
To sum up, several users shared images created with the help of artificial intelligence claiming them to be actual visuals of the terror attack in Pahalgam, Kashmir, on April 22, 2025.
The post Pahalgam: AI-generated images showing bodies strewn on a meadow viral after April 22 attack appeared first on Alt News.
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