Fact-check: Fake document claims radiation leak in Pakistan after India conflict
There are many grammatical errors in the document which clearly show that it is not official and has been forged
Updated Wednesday May 14 2025
Multiple users on social media are circulating a purported government of Pakistan document claiming a radiation leak occurred in Pakistan following a recent conflict with India.
The claim is false. The letter is fabricated.
Claim
A document dated May 13, allegedly issued by Pakistan’s Ministry of Climate Change and Environmental Coordination, has gone viral on social media.
Titled “Radiological Safety Bulletin”, it claims that the government, through the National Radiological Safety Division (NRSD), detected a radiation leak at a licensed industrial site located in the “Northern Administrative Zone.”
According to the document, the incident occurred on May 11, 2025, at “approximately 24:55 hours” during maintenance of radiological equipment used for non-destructive testing (NDT). It further details the event and the actions taken by officials to contain the situation.
The document was shared widely on social media here, here and here.
Fact
The document being circulated online is self-generated, confirmed the spokesperson of Pakistan’s Ministry of Climate Change. That fact was also independently verified by Geo Fact Check.
Muhammad Saleem, the spokesperson at the Ministry of Climate Change and Environmental Coordination in Islamabad, told Geo Fact Check over the phone that the document was “fake”.
“It is outrightly fake in all forms and manifestations,” Saleem said, “There is no such letter issued by our ministry.”
Separately, an independent review by Geo Fact Check also found several red flags that confirm the document is not official.
Words such as “industrial radiological” are misspelled as “industrialrological,” “routine” appears as “toutine,” and “team” is written as “leam”, amongst other mistakes.
Moreover, the time of the incident is stated as “24:55,” which is not a valid time format and the email provided in the document “[email protected]” does not conform to official government domains, which end in .gov.pk.
Even attempts to contact this address resulted in a bounced email error: “Address not found.”
Verdict: No such radiation incident has been confirmed by any official authority in Pakistan. The document being circulated is a forgery.
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