Army calls claims of 50-km Chinese push into Arunachal false

The Indian Army on Saturday, November 7, dismissed as false social media claims that Chinese troops had defeated Indian forces, advanced nearly 50 km into Arunachal Pradesh and taken control of Indian territory.

In a post on its official fact-check account on X, the Army said several suspected Pakistan-sponsored accounts were spreading the claims in a coordinated way to push "a misleading anti-Indian Army narrative". It described the posts as a mix of a fabricated military defeat, an exaggerated territorial incursion and unsubstantiated claims of People's Liberation Army (PLA) control.

"Coordinated inauthentic behaviour exposed," the Army said.

Six handles named

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) said six handles were found circulating the same content between 3.06 pm on November 6 and 1.46 am on November 7, The Times of India reported. They were named as @SongWeilonzob1, @letmehandleyou1, @_Finding_sarah, @DarkReal09, @War_Updates5 and @sumit_sarkr.

The Army urged people to check border-related claims against credible and official sources before sharing them.

Not the first time

Similar claims went around last month. In October, the Army rejected videos that falsely claimed Chinese troops had taken over parts of Arunachal Pradesh. It flagged a digitally altered video that put fabricated remarks in the mouth of Lt Gen Girish Kalia, claiming China had taken control of Asaphila, Longjou and Taksing circles and that the Army had been cut off from supplies. It also pointed out that a video of an exercise in Kazakhstan was being passed off as an India-China face-off in Arunachal.

Rajnath flags information warfare

The fact-check came as Defence Minister Rajnath Singh was in the region for Diwali. Speaking to air warriors at Air Force Station Bagdogra on Saturday, he said modern warfare now includes "information operations and narrative management", and warned that adversaries may use social media to "sow doubt in the minds of the local population and our soldiers by spreading misleading information", Hindustan Times reported.

Singh said he would visit the Sherathang War Memorial in Sikkim on Sunday, November 8, to pay tribute to soldiers who died in service, and meet troops deployed there.