A video showing striking red lights glowing in the night sky is doing the rounds on social media. Many users have shared it in the backdrop of recent reports about drone sightings near the India–Pakistan border in Jammu and Kashmir.
Here’s the link to the above post. (Archive)
NM VERIFIED
NewsMobile checked the above claim and found it to be MISLEADING.
Conducting a Reverse Image Search of the video keyframes, NewsMobile found a News18 report, dated May 12, 2025. It features a still from the same video, and stated that the Indian Army had intercepted suspected drones in Jammu and Kashmir’s Samba district, with additional sightings reported from parts of Punjab. According to the report, these drone movements were observed shortly after Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed the nation following the launch of Operation Sindoor.
We also found that news agency ANI had shared the identical video on Twitter on May 12, 2025, linking it to the same drone-related developments. Several other media reports from May 2025 carried the same visuals in connection with drone sightings along the border, further establishing the video’s timeline.
#WATCH | J&K: Red streaks seen and explosions heard as India’s air defence intercepts Pakistani drones amid blackout in Samba.
(Visuals deferred by unspecified time) pic.twitter.com/EyiBfKg6hs
— ANI (@ANI) May 12, 2025
While there have been fresh reports of Pakistani drones being spotted along the Line of Control in Poonch and near the India–Pakistan border in Samba in January 2026, including an incident in the Digwar sector that prompted a rapid response from security forces, these recent sightings are unrelated to the viral video in question.
Thus, we can conclusively say that the viral video of red lights in the night sky is from May 2025, which has been falsely shared as the recent drone sightings near the India–Pakistan border in Jammu and Kashmir.
