Following the terrorist attack on tourists in Pahalgam on 22 April 2025, tensions have escalated between India and Pakistan. Amid these rising tensions, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) on 05 May 2025 directed several states to conduct mock drills on 07 May 2025 (here, here). These drills will involve activating air-raid warning sirens and training civilians in civil defence measures to protect against a ‘hostile attack’. The exercises are scheduled to take place in 244 designated ‘civil defence districts’ across the country and will include implementing crash blackout procedures, swiftly camouflaging critical infrastructure, and updating evacuation strategies.
Meanwhile, in the early hours of 07 May, the Indian Armed Forces launched ‘Operation Sindoor’ and destroyed multiple terrorist infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir, from where attacks against India were allegedly being planned and directed. The Government of India clarified that no Pakistani military facilities or civilians were targeted during the operation (here). Pakistan also confirmed that Indian missiles had struck multiple locations inside Pakistani territory, including Kotli, Bahawalpur, Muridke, Bagh, and Muzaffarabad (here, here, and here). The Indian Defence Ministry briefed the media on ‘Operation Sindoor’ at 10 a.m. on 07 May 2025 (here).
Amid this, a purported advisory, allegedly issued by the Government of India, has gone viral on social media (here, here, and here). It claims that the government has instructed citizens to store at least ₹50,000 in cash, medicines for two months, food, water, torches, power banks, and other essential items at home due to the tense situation in border areas. Through this article, let us fact-check the claim made in the viral post.
Claim: The Government of India has issued an advisory urging citizens to stock up on essentials and keep ₹50,000 in cash, follow precautionary measures to ensure their safety and preparedness in light of escalating tensions between India and Pakistan.
Fact: This viral advisory note is fake. The government has not issued any such advisory. On 06 May 2025, the fact-checking unit of the Government of India’s Press Information Bureau stated that the viral claim is false and clarified that no such advisory has been released by the government. It also urged the public to rely solely on official government sources for accurate and credible information. Hence the claim made in the post is FALSE.
To verify the authenticity of the viral claim, we visited the official websites of the Ministry of Home Affairs, the Ministry of Defence, and the Government of India’s Press Information Bureau (PIB). However, we did not find any such advisory note issued by the Government of India.
We then conducted a Google keyword search, which led us to a post on X (formerly Twitter) shared by the fact-checking unit of the Press Information Bureau, the government’s nodal agency, on 06 May 2025. The post labelled the viral advisory note as fake and clarified that the government has not issued any such advisory. It also urged people to rely solely on official government sources for credible information. The post reads: “This claim is fake. The government has not issued any such advisory. Beware! Trust only official government sources for credible information.”
To sum it up, this viral advisory urging citizens to stock up on essentials and keep ₹50,000 in cash due to rising India-Pakistan tensions is fake. The government has not issued any such advisory.
