Fact Check: Viral Video Claiming Rajnath Singh Said India Makes Afghanistan Fight Pakistan Is False

Recent tensions between Afghanistan and Pakistan have escalated into one of the most serious border conflicts in years, with heavy clashes and airstrikes reported along the Durand Line in October 2025. Pakistan claimed its strikes targeted militant hideouts belonging to the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) operating from Afghanistan, while the Taliban government denounced the attacks as violations of its sovereignty. The conflict has left hundreds dead and displaced civilians on both sides, prompting a brief ceasefire mediated by regional actors.

Amidst this, Afghan Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi undertook a six-day visit to India (9–15 October), his first such trip since the Taliban’s return to power. During his visit, he met with India’s Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar, engaged with Indian business leaders, and visited the historic Darul Uloom Deoband seminary in Uttar Pradesh. As a result of their talks, India announced the upgrade of its diplomatic mission in Kabul to a full-fledged embassy.

Meanwhile, posts are going viral on social media claiming that Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh confessed that India is making Afghanistan fight against Pakistan for dollars. The caption shared along with the post reads: “While addressing RSS 100-year celebrations, Rajnath Singh openly confesses that India is making Afghanistan Taliban fight against Pakistan for dollars. Hindutva's ultimate agenda is to engulf both Pakistan and Afghanistan to create Akhand Bharat.”

Here is the screenshot of the claim.

Fact Check:

The claim that the Union Defence Minister confessed to India’s role in the Afghan–Pakistan conflict is false. The viral video is digitally altered

To verify the claim, we extracted keyframes from the video and ran a reverse image search using Google Lens. This led us to The Tribune report on Rajnath Singh’s statement during the flag-off ceremony of the BrahMos missile unit in Lucknow. The video, captioned Defence Minister Rajnath Singh made a powerful statement asserting that every inch of Pakistan’s land is within the range of India’s BrahMos missile,” highlights his remarks on India’s growing defence capabilities and strategic strength. The BrahMos missile, developed jointly by India and Russia, is one of the world’s fastest supersonic cruise missiles, capable of striking targets with precision and speed. The clip also carried the ANI and The Tribune logos, and the minister was seen in the same attire and background delivering his speech.

On further search, we found the full-length video of the minister’s speech on the official YouTube channel of ANI, shared on 18 October 2025. Speaking at the BrahMos Aerospace Unit in Lucknow, he called BrahMos the “backbone” of India’s armed forces and said its reliability had strengthened Operation Sindoor, calling it “practical proof” of its effectiveness in defending the country.

To verify the presence of AI in the audio of the viral clip, we ran it through Hive Moderation’s AI-generated content detector. The tool detected a 97 percent likelihood of the audio being AI-generated.

PTI has also debunked the claim, stating that the video is digitally altered.

Hence, the claim that Union Minister Rajnath Singh admitted India’s role in the Afghan–Pakistan conflict is false. The audio of the viral clip is digitally manipulated.