Mohammed Zubair: The fact-checker who took on Pakistan over misinformation during Operation Sindoor

In the immediate aftermath of the Indian armed forces' pre-dawn strikes on nine terror sites in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir on Wednesday, a storm of misinformation flooded social media.

Unverified claims and false narratives, particularly from Pakistan, began circulating rapidly.

Amid this chaos, one individual emerged as an unexpected hero: fact-checker Mohammed Zubair. The Alt News founder was quickly dubbed the "Chief of the Information War" by netizens for his tireless efforts in combating disinformation throughout the night.

Zubair—though not typically seen as a figure of national heroism and often at the target of India's right-wing ecosystem—rose to the occasion.

A veteran in the battle against fake news, he took the lead in a relentless all-night campaign to expose and debunk falsehoods related to the India's strikes.

False claims began surfacing almost immediately—ranging from assertions that Pakistan had launched missile strikes in retaliation to allegations that the Srinagar Air Base had been bombed. One by one, Zubair fact-checked and dismantled these stories.

He also exposed a network of Pakistani accounts pretending to be Indian Armed Forces personnel. Notably, one fake account was impersonating Lt Gen Satish Dua, claiming credentials such as “Retd Army General, Former GOC 15 Corps, Kashmir, Retired as Chief of Integrated Defence Staff, Counter-Terrorism expert.”

Even a day after the operation, misleading visuals claiming to show “Indian strikes on Sialkot” continued to surface. Many of these were repurposed images and videos from Israeli airstrikes on Gaza. Zubair quickly identified and debunked them.

Surprisingly, Zubair even received praise and messages of appreciation from some right-wing social media users—many of whom have previously been critical of his work.

His dedication to truth-telling, however, remains unchanged. "My work was appreciated during the Covid-19 pandemic, but that quickly faded after I fact-checked something related to the ruling political party," Zubair told Mathrubhumi. "I never work to please anyone. All I ever do is stand for the truth."