Fact Check: Viral Images Show Demolished Houses of Terrorists Involved in Pahalgam Attack but Not Civilians in Kashmir

An investigation into the recent attack in Pahalgam has identified 15 local Kashmiri overground workers (OGWs) as suspected facilitators. According to a Times of India report, these individuals are believed to have assisted the Pakistani assailants involved in the incident. Based on electronic surveillance, authorities suspect that the OGWs provided logistical support and may have helped receive arms shipments from Pakistan. A multi-agency investigation has narrowed its focus to five prime suspects, with three already detained and efforts underway to locate the remaining two.

More than 200 OGWs have been detained for questioning to reconstruct the sequence of events leading up to the April 22 attack. Sources revealed that all five prime suspects were present in the vicinity during and prior to the attack, with their mobile phones active in the area. Surveillance also intercepted a conversation among the three detained suspects, discussing the presence of Pakistani terrorists in Pahalgam and ways to "help" them.

"There is sufficient circumstantial evidence indicating their involvement as facilitators and in arranging logistics for the Pahalgam attack team, which included 4–5 terrorists — at least two of them Pakistanis and two local Kashmiris," an officer said. "We are working to extract more information from the 15 detained OGWs to piece together the larger conspiracy before deciding on formal arrests."

Amid this, a few images of collapsed houses, mostly appearing to be from hill stations, are surfacing on social media with claims that Indian forces are demolishing houses in Kashmir and arresting innocent Kashmiris.

The images are widely shared with the text “Since the Pahalgam incident, Indian forces are waging open war on innocent Kashmiris. Mass arrests, demolitions, torture, collective punishment in full force”.

The archive links of the claims are here, and the screenshots are mentioned below.

Fact Check:

The claim is False. The demolished houses belonged to Pakistan-backed terrorists involved in attacks across the region. No civilians were targeted, according to media reports.

While investigating, we did not find any credible news indicating that innocent Kashmiris have been arrested or that houses of the public in Kashmir have been demolished by the Indian military. If such incidents had occurred, they would surely have been covered by major international media outlets.

While doing the reverse image search we found a YouTube video uploaded by NDTV.

NDTV uploaded the video on April 25, 2025 with the title, Kashmir Terror Attack Updates: Homes Of 2 Lashkar Terrorists Involved In Pahalgam Attack Destroyed.

In the description box NDTV mentioned, the house of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terrorist, Adil Hussain Thokar, who was involved in the Pahalgam attack in which 26 were killed, was destroyed in a blast on Thursday night, officials said. A blast also destroyed the house of another terrorist, Asif Sheikh, who is suspected to be involved in Tuesday's Pahalgam attack conspiracy, they said. Sources that explosives were kept inside their houses.

In the video, we found several frames that match the viral images. After comparing them, we determined that both images are from the same incident.

On April 26, 2025, the Times of India published a photo story titled, After Pahalgam terror attack, homes of 5 terrorists demolished across J&K.

In the published article, we also found the same demolished home that appeared in the viral image.

While searching with the relevant keywords, we found that several media outlets published the same image with the claim that these are the properties of the terrorists involved in the Pahalgam terror attack.

The Hindu published: The houses of Asif Sheikh at Tral, Pulwama district, and Adil Thoker in Bijbehara, Anantnag, were razed to the ground apparently using explosives, several media outlets reported in Srinagar. The houses of Asif Sheikh at Tral, Pulwama district, and Adil Thoker in Bijbehara, Anantnag, were razed to the ground apparently using explosives, several media outlets reported in Srinagar. The police have not issued any statement on the demolitions.

DNA India published: The houses of five terrorists across Jammu and Kashmir were destroyed late on Friday (April 25), just days after a brazen terror attack in Pahalgam town of the Union Territory. The demolitions were carried out in Shopian, Kulgam, and Pulwama districts. A day before, houses belonging to two terrorists involved in the Pahalgam massacre were destroyed in separate blasts.

Hence, it proved the claim is false. The viral images of the destroyed houses do not depict the homes of innocent Kashmiris. Rather, they are the properties of the terrorists involved in the Pahalgam attack.