Pahalgam Terror Attack: 2019 Video Of Imran Khan Warning India Against Military Action Shared As Recent

A day after the deadly terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pahalgam, killing at least 26 tourists and escalating India-Pakistan tensions to a boiling point, a 38-second video, showing the former Pakistan PM Imran Khan “vowing retaliation” if India attacks, has gone viral across social media platforms.

“If you [India] think that you will launch any kind of attack, then Pakistan will not just think about retaliation, Pakistan will retaliate. Pakistan would have no other option left to respond, but to retaliate. Then where things will go, we all know. It is easy to start a war, starting a war is in human hands, but ending a war is out of human hands. Only God knows where it ends,” Khan is heard saying in the purported televised address. The archived version of the post can be seen here.

Fact Check

Newschecker first ran a keyword search for “Imran Khan Pahalgam,” which did not lead us to any news reports on such a statement by the jailed former PM of Pakistan. The 72-year-old Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founder has been incarcerated since 2023 and his statements are reportedly shared by the visitors who meet him in Rawalpindi’s Adiala Jail.

We then ran a keyword search for  “Imran Khan retaliation India,” which led us to a longer version (01:11) of the video on Youtube, uploaded by Voice of America on February 19, 2019.

“Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan warned Tuesday his country will swiftly retaliate if India launches a military action against it. Khan issued the warning in a nationally televised address amid dangerously escalating tensions between the two nuclear-armed rival nations following last week’s deadly suicide bombing of Indian military forces in the dispute Kashmir region. ‘If Indians believe that they can launch an attack on Pakistan, they should understand that Pakistan would not think, but retaliate immediately as there will be no other option,’ he warned. New Delhi has blamed a Pakistan-based militant group, Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM), for plotting the attack in Pulwama district [February 19, 2019] that killed more than 40 Indian security personnel,” read the description of the video. A similar Hindustan Times report, dated February 19, 2019, can be seen here.

“Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan warned India on Tuesday that any military action against his country would invite swift retaliation, saying matters would spin out of control should the Modi government carry out its threat to avenge last week’s killing of CRPF jawans in Pulwama by ISI-controlled terrorist organisation Jaish-e-Muhammed,” read a Times of India report, dated February 20, 2019. A similar NDTV report, dated February 19, 201, can be seen here, further confirming that the viral video is not related to the Pahalgam terror attack.

Conclusion

2019 video of former Pakistan PM Imran Khan vowing retaliation if India carried out military action following the suicide bombing in Pulwama that killed over 40 CRPF soldiers shared as his statement after the Pahalgam terror attack.

Also Read: Pahalgam Terror Attack: Video Claiming To Show Indian Army’s Retaliatory Strike On Pakistan Is At Least 5 Years Old

Sources
Voice of America report, Youtube, February 19, 2019
Hindustan Times report, Youtube, February 19, 2019
Times of India report, Youtube, February 20, 2019