News Reports On Hilaly's Claim Over Balakot Strike Flagged Red By Fact Checkers

The reports of former Pakistani diplomat Zafar Hilaly admitting 300 casualties during the Balakot airstrike has come under the radar of fact checkers. The reports, which stormed the mainstream Indian media on January 9, were denounced by Zafar himself in a tweet calling the video as a doctored one. Reportedly, telecasted on a talk show at Pakistan’s Hum TV, the episode had two different statements by Zafar, which were mixed and presented controversially. In the original video, Zafar can be heard saying that India "aimed" to kill at least 300 people in the airstrike, but failing miserably they "Bombed a football field" instead. Fact check platform Alt News has revealed a note of every clip which was cut and pasted to create sensation. While many leading media houses reported the news exhaustively, some just republished the ANI wire feed.