Years-old video of Pakistan air force exercise resurfaces as Islamabad-New Delhi relations plunge

A video of Pakistani air force jets practising motorway take-offs and landings was filmed in October 2020, contrary to social media posts claiming it shows an exercise conducted as relations between Pakistan and arch-rival India plunged to a new low in April 2025. The clip was published by the air force and an official with the National Highway and Motorway Police told AFP that no air force drills have been conducted recently on the country's motorways.

"Danger of nuclear war looms. Exercises by Pakistan air force start on the motorway," reads part of the Urdu-language caption to a video posted on X on April 25, 2025.

"Long live Pakistan, long live the Pakistan army."

The video surfaced as long-troubled relations between India and Pakistan rapidly worsened after a deadly attack in Kashmir that New Delhi blames on Islamabad. Pakistan has rejected India's accusations as "frivolous" (archived link).

Gunmen killed 26 men in the April 22 attack on holidaymakers in Pahalgam in India-administered Kashmir -- the deadliest on civilians in the disputed Himalayan territory in a quarter of a century.

Since the attack, the nuclear-armed neighbours have issued tit-for-tat diplomatic measures and traded small arms fire across the Line of Control, the de facto border in contested Kashmir.

The video was also shared elsewhere in posts on X, Facebook and TikTok alongside similar claims.

"Don't post such videos, don't post army secrets..," read a comment on one of the posts.

Another said: "Long live Pakistan.".

The clip, however, first surfaced more than four years earlier.

A reverse image search on Google using keyframes from the falsely shared clip led to the same footage published on YouTube by the Pakistan Air Force on October 7, 2020 (archived link).

The YouTube video is titled, "PAF fighters conduct landings on motorway, PAF Press Release, 07 Oct 2020".

"PAF fighter aircraft landed on the Islamabad Lahore motorway as it carried out Road Runway operations today," reads the video's description.

The description added that the air force "regularly undertakes Road runway operations as part of its operational preparedness plan".

The YouTube video was also embedded in a report by Pakistan news outlet Geo News about the exercise on October 7, 2020 (archived link).

Moreover, an official from the National Highway and Motorway Police (NHMP) told AFP on April 28 that no air force drills were conducted on motorways recently, describing the posts as "misinformation".

AFP has debunked other false claims stemming from the Kashmir attack here and here.