New Delhi suspended a key water treaty before nuclear weapons rivals saw their worst clash in decades, but online rumors say India's kishanganga dam was closed and then collapsed. Images shared in fake posts date back to 2023 reports on structural damage in Ukraine.
“The Kishangana dam in India was closed to stop the collapse of the water flowing to Pakistan,” reads the Thai language X Post shared on May 6, 2025.
It has an aerial lens of water flowing through damaged dams.
Screenshots of fake posts taken on May 8, 2025
India and Pakistan have made similar posts in India and Pakistan in terms of the Kashmir side of India attacking New Delhi’s Indian operations on Islamabad. Pakistan rejected the charges.
Since then, the crisis has worsened, with nearly 50 people on both sides (mainly in Pakistan) launched targeted air strikes.”terrorist camp” and sparked the worst conflict in decades (archived link).
Main Minister Narendra Modi vowed that the water from India that once flowed through India will be stopped after a few days of suspending a key water contract with Pakistan (a link to archive).
But possible 9, There are no official reports that India has closed the Kishanganga Dam, or that it has suffered any recent losses.
Reverse image search combined with keyword search on Google found that images closely matched the photos posted on the website of satellite image company Planet Labs (Archive Link) on June 6, 2023.
The title says: “In early June 2023, the Russian-controlled New Makakovka Dam collapsed across the Ukraine's Dnipro River, flooding several downstream cities.”
Comparison of screenshots of images from fake posts (L) and original images on Planet Labs website
Several media organizations, including Reuters, BBC Russia, CNN and Caixin Global, published images in reports on violations of the Helsen region dam in Ukraine, prompted the evacuation of thousands of residents (here, here, here, here, here and here).
Although the exact timing and cause of the initial damage is unclear, both Russia and Ukraine blame each other for their responsibility, the report said.
AFP has previously debunked other claims related to the India-Pakistan conflict.
