Days after India and Afghanistan held a series of bilateral talks during Taliban-appointed Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi’s visit to New Delhi, a purported video of Defence Minister Rajnath Singh surfaced on social media, sparking widespread controversy. The clip allegedly showed Singh admitting that India is funding the Afghan Taliban to fight against Pakistan. However, a detailed investigation by the Press Trust of India’s (PTI) Fact Check Desk has confirmed that the video is digitally manipulated.
The viral video, shared on social media platform X by a user named Mansoor Ahmed Dhillon (@MansoorDhillon_) on October 19, claimed that the footage was from the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh’s (RSS) centenary celebrations. The post alleged that Rajnath Singh stated India was “funding the Taliban to fight Pakistan for dollars,” adding that it exposed “Hindutva’s dark ambition to destabilize Pakistan and Afghanistan in pursuit of Akhand Bharat.”
The shared viral video by a Pakistan X handle
PTI’s Fact Check Desk initiated a thorough digital analysis of the viral clip. According to the PTI Fact Check report, using the InVid tool, the desk extracted multiple keyframes from the video and ran them through Google Lens. The search revealed that several other social media handles had circulated the same video with identical claims.
Further investigation traced the visuals in the viral clip to a legitimate video posted on Rajnath Singh’s official YouTube channel on October 18, 2025. The background and setting in the viral video matched footage from an event in Lucknow — specifically, the flagging-off ceremony of the first batch of BrahMos missiles manufactured at the BrahMos Integration and Testing Facility Centre.
Here is the original video
The report mentioned that it reviewed the full-length video of the Lucknow event and found no reference or statement by the Defence Minister about India funding the Afghan Taliban. In the original footage, Singh was heard praising India’s defence preparedness and referring to “Operation Sindoor” as an example of India’s growing military strength, stating that “victory has become a habit for us.”
To further verify the authenticity of the audio and thereby extracted and analysed it using the AI detection platform. The tool indicated that while the voice in the viral clip sounded realistic, it was likely an AI-generated impersonation.
Based on these findings, the report concluded that the viral video was digitally altered. The original visuals were taken from the BrahMos missile event, and a fake audio track was superimposed to mislead viewers.
The claim that Defence Minister Rajnath Singh admitted India is backing the Afghan Taliban to fight Pakistan during an RSS centenary event is false. The video is a doctored clip, originally depicting Singh’s address at the BrahMos missile flagging-off ceremony in Lucknow.
Source: Press Trust of India (PTI) Fact Check Desk
