An old 2017 video of the arrest of suspected terrorist Sandeep Sharma is being shared now, linking it to the Pahalgam terror attack
Amidst the terrorist attack on 22 April 2025, where tourists were targeted in the Baisaran valley of Pahalgam, Jammu & Kashmir, a video report by ABP News is going viral on social media (here, here, and here) claiming that the police have made their first arrest in the Pahalgam case. The video states that the individual arrested is a Hindu Brahmin named Sandeep Sharma. Let’s verify the claim made in the post through this article.
Claim: The police have arrested a Hindu Brahmin named Sandeep Sharma in connection with the 2025 Pahalgam terror attack.
Fact: The viral news report video by ABP News dates back to July 2017, in which Sandeep Sharma, a suspected terrorist, was arrested by the Kashmir Police. The video has no connection with the recent Pahalgam terror attack. Hence, the claim made in the post is MISLEADING.
A reverse image search of the keyframes from the viral video led us to the same video news report published by ABP News on their YouTube channel on 10 July 2017, titled “Jammu Kashmir: Non-Kashmiri Hindu terrorist caught; IG calls it an eye-opener.” This confirmed that the video is old and unrelated to the 2025 Pahalgam terror attack.
According to reports (here, here), Sandeep, a resident of Muzaffarnagar in Uttar Pradesh, was linked to the terrorist organisation Lashkar-e-Taiba. He was also involved in bank and ATM robbery incidents. During this time, six policemen, including an SHO, were killed in an attack in Kashmir, and it was reported that Sandeep was part of the conspiracy behind it. He arrived in Kashmir in 2012 and worked as a welder, where he came into contact with Lashkar terrorists. Police later arrested him from the hideout of a Lashkar terrorist. Sandeep confessed to being involved in the attack on the army convoy in Qazigund. This case gained attention because Sandeep was a Hindu and a non-Kashmiri. Citing sources from the Uttar Pradesh ATS, it was also reported that Sandeep had converted to Islam after falling in love with a Kashmiri girl, whom he later married. However, the Jammu and Kashmir Police denied these claims.
On the other hand, the Anantnag Police have released the names and sketches of the terrorists involved in the 2025 Pahalgam attack: Adil Hussain Thokar, Hashim Musa alias Suleman, and Ali Bhai alias Talha Bhai. Adil Hussain Thokar is identified as a suspect in the attack, and his family home in Guree village was demolished by security forces. Several of his relatives, including his father and brothers, have been detained. (here, here, and here).
To sum up, a 2017 news report video of the arrest of suspected terrorist Sandeep Sharma is being shared with claims that he was detained in connection with the 2025 Pahalgam terror attack.