Old video of Indian, Pak navy ships colliding goes viral after September 15 incident

Fact Check: Old video of Indian, Pak navy ships colliding goes viral after September 15 incident

India Today Fact Check found that while the viral video does show Indian and Pakistani naval ships colliding, it is from 2011 and does not depict the incident that took place on September 15.

On September 15, a Pakistani navy ship collided with an Indian Navy warship in the Arabian Sea. The Indian ship was on a routine mission when a Pakistani naval vessel approached it at high speed.

Following the incident, India's Ministry of External Affairs summoned the Charg d'affaires of the Pakistani High Commission in New Delhi and lodged a protest, calling the conduct of the Pakistani naval ship "unacceptable and unprofessional."

Sources separately told India Today that this was the second such incident in six months in the Arabian Sea, where Pakistan navy warships have attempted dangerous close manoeuvres near Indian Navy assets deployed for anti-piracy and surveillance missions.

Soon after the Ministry of External Affairs released its statement on the incident, a video went viral on social media with people claiming that it depicted the collision.

India Today Fact Check, however, found that the viral video is 15 years old and unrelated to the recent incident.

A reverse search of the viral video’s frames led us to the same clip uploaded to a YouTube channel on October 16, 2014. This confirmed that the video predates the recent collision by over a decade.

According to the video's caption, it showed PNS Babur of the Pakistan Navy colliding with an Indian naval vessel.

A further search led us to a 2011 NDTV report, which showed the same incident from another angle. According to the report, the Indian vessel involved in this collision was INS Godavari.

A press release issued by India's Ministry of External Affairs on June 18, 2011, confirmed that India had formally protested Pakistan's conduct, stating that "PNS Babur, by its risky manoeuvres, jeopardised the safety of INS Godavari and its crew," in violation of international maritime safety regulations and the 1991 India-Pakistan agreement on advance notice of military exercises.

Therefore, it is clear that a 2011 video of a similar incident was falsely shared as visuals of a recent naval collision.