Mass resignations in Pakistan army after Pahalgam attack? Fabricated letter goes viral

In the aftermath of the horrific terror attack in Kashmir’s Pahalgam on April 22, in which at least 26 people were killed, social media is rife with several unverified claims, videos and images. Among these is an advisory purportedly issued by the media and public relations wing of the Pakistan Armed Forces, saying that it would sternly deal with unauthorised resignations by Pakistani soldiers from service. The advisory says several army personnel have deserted service or resigned en masse over “fears of war with India” after the Pahalgam incident.

The gun attack in Pahalgam has been dubbed among the deadliest acts of terrorism in the country targeting civilians in recent history. The incident has also worsened fraying ties between India and Pakistan; India has accused the neighbouring country of fostering cross-border terrorism and suspended the Indus Water Treaty as a result. In this context, the viral “advisory” allegedly published on behalf of the Pakistan army assumes greater significance.

On April 28, journalist Aditya Raj Kaul, who has been fact-checked by Alt News several times, shared the letter on X and said, “Huge. Mass resignations are being reported in Pakistan Army as morale is at its lowest under Asim Munir’s leadership.” Asim Munir is the Pakistan army chief. At the time this article was written, his post had garnered 1.2 million views. (Archive)

The advisory shared by Kaul was purportedly issued by the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the public relations wing of the Pakistan Armed Forces. It is addressed to officers of “All Ranks, Pakistan Armed Forces” by one Major General Faisal Mehmood Malik. According to the letter, Malik is the Director General of the Inter-Services Public Relations (DGISPR).

The letter mentions that the Pahalgam incident and fears of war with India resulted in “huge requests for resignation and desertion among army personnel”. The letter addresses all officers of the Pakistan armed forces as ‘Mujahideens’ and directs them to uphold their oath to defend the nation. “Unauthorized resignation or desertion from service will face strict action under the Pakistan Army Act, 1952”, the letter says before ending with the words “Pakistan Jinabad!”

We noticed that the advisory letter posted by Kaul appeared cut off from the top and bottom. We then found a full-page version of the letter, with the same content shared by Instagram user @sarcasmic_troll the same day. Note that the text of the advisory was the same in both, but the below screenshot from the Instagram post had the handle’s watermark ‘Sarcasmic Troll’ written on the top right corner, which was cropped in Kaul’s post.

The letter was also cited by The Economic Times in a report titled ‘Mutiny in Pakistan Army? Viral letter claims mass resignation amid fears of India-Pakistan war after Pahalgam attack’. The outlet mentions it has not independently verified the letter. An X post containing the viral advisory is embedded in the report. (Archive)

Several other social media users, including @MeghUpdates and @RealBababanaras, also shared similar images of the letter, claiming that the Pahalgam terror attack and the subsequent escalation of tensions between the countries led to mass resignations in the Pakistan army due to low morale. (Archives 1, 2, 3, 4, 5)

Click to view slideshow.

The image of the advisory was also viral on Facebook.

 

Click to view slideshow.

Fact Check

Several things in the so-called army directive struck us as odd. First, the news of the mass resignations was not reported by local media outlets in Pakistan.

Two, according to the official website of the ISPR, the current Director General is Lieutenant General Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry, not Major General Faisal Mehmood Malik, who had signed off on the viral letter as the DGISPR or Director General of the Inter-Services Public Relations.

A keyword search of Malik’s full name yielded no results for a military official.

Three, when we tried to call the number mentioned in the ‘advisory’ (+92-51-9271600), a pre-recorded operator message said the number was not listed. We also sent an email to the mail ID ‘ispr@ispr.gov.pk’ mentioned in the viral letter, but it bounced back.

Four, the letter ended with the phrase ‘Pakistan Jinabad’ instead of the correct Urdu term ‘Zindabad’. It seemed unlikely that a classified military document would have such typos, especially considering Urdu is an official language and widely used in the country.

Five, we noticed that the logo at the top of the letter had a greyish square background, contrasting with the rest of the white page. This suggests the logo was likely cropped from another source and pasted onto the letter. A similar square outline is visible around the signature at the bottom of the advisory, indicating that it may have also been copied and pasted. The signature appears partially cropped and the colour in the background of the signature does not match that of the document. For the sake of clarity in the fact check, we have used the full-page letter uploaded by Instagram user @sarcasmic_troll with the handle’s watermark.

A closer examination of the logo shows that it was attributed to the “Chief of Army Staff” and featured two swords—alluding to the army. However, the letter was signed off by the DGISPR, which deals with all armed forces, including the navy and air force. Unlike the green logo in this letter, the official ISPR logo is multicoloured and represents all three branches of the military: the army, navy, and air force. We also compared the logo on the viral advisory with the logo on the official website of the Pakistan Army and found that this too was different. To put it simply, Alt News was able to establish that none of the official websites of the armed forces used the logo in the viral letter.

Lastly, we found glaring grammatical errors in the letter. For instance, the phrase “The incident done by our Mujahideens in Pahalgam” is grammatically incorrect. Also, the term ‘Mujahideens’ is unlikely to be used in official communication.

A senior military official at the Peshawar Corps headquarters also told Pakistan-based media outlet, Dawn, that “The resignation of army personnel is totally baseless. This is the fake news which is circulated by Indian social media accounts.”

Based on these findings, we were able to conclude that the advisory, widely shared by social media users, alleging that the Pahalgam attack on April 22 led to mass resignations in the Pakistani military is fabricated and baseless.

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