Following the terrorist attack in Pahalgam on 22 April 2025, which resulted in the deaths of 25 Indian citizens and one Nepali national, the Indian Armed Forces launched Operation Sindoor in the early hours of 07 May 2025. Colonel Sofiya Qureshi provided key information about India’s military action against Pakistan under this operation during a joint press conference held on the same day (here, here, and here). She addressed the media in Hindi, while Wing Commander Vyomika Singh shared details in English.
Amidst this, a video of Indian Army Colonel Sofiya Qureshi is going viral on social media (here, here, and here). In the video, Colonel Qureshi is heard saying, “I am a Muslim, but not a Pakistani. I am a Muslim, but not a terrorist, and terrorism has no religion.” Let’s verify the truth behind the video in this article.
Claim: The video shows Indian Army Colonel Sofiya Qureshi stating that she is a Muslim but not a terrorist, adding that terrorism has no religion.
Fact: The viral video is AI-generated. AI detection tools have flagged it as fake. In the original video, Colonel Sofiya Qureshi is seen providing information about Operation Sindoor, but nowhere does she make the statement featured in the viral clip. Hence, the claim made in the post is FALSE.
We conducted a Google keyword search but did not find any visual evidence or credible media reports attributing this statement to Colonel Sofiya Qureshi.
We then performed a reverse image search of the keyframes from the viral video, which led us to a short video dated 07 May 2025 on the official YouTube channel of the News Services Division of All India Radio. In this video, Colonel Sofiya Qureshi is seen providing information about Operation Sindoor. The camera angle and her expressions match the viral clip. However, at no point in the original video does she say, “I am a Muslim, but not a Pakistani. I am a Muslim, but not a terrorist.”
Further, we conducted a Google keyword search and found the full video of the 07 May 2025 press briefing featuring Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri, Colonel Sofiya Qureshi, and Wing Commander Vyomika Singh. After reviewing the entire briefing, we found that Colonel Sofiya Qureshi did not make any such statement.
We suspected that the viral video might have been generated using AI or could be a deepfake. To verify this, we analysed the video and its audio using the Resemble.ai tool, which flagged it as fake.
To sum up, the viral video of Indian Army Colonel Sofiya Qureshi stating that she is a Muslim but not a terrorist and that terrorism has no religion is a deepfake.
