Fact check: Former AJK PM did not claim responsibility for Delhi blast; refers to April 2025 remarks

Multiple Indian users on social media platform X shared a video on Wednesday claiming that it showed the former prime minister of Azad Jammu and Kashmir, Anwarul Haq, accepting responsibility for the car blast that killed eight people and injured at least 20 others in Delhi last week. However, his comments were not linked to the blast.

Haq was ousted on Monday after he lost a no-confidence motion, with 36 members in the AJK Legislative Assembly voting in favour of it and two against it. He was replaced by PPP’s Raja Faisal Mumtaz Rathore as the new premier.

On Wednesday, an Indian propaganda account shared a video of Haq from his farewell address in the AJK Legislative Assembly on Monday, wherein he could be heard saying, “I have said it on record … if you don’t stop bleeding Balochistan, we will beat [India] from Lal Qila to Kashmir’s forests.”

The caption of the post read: “Big. Pakistan takes responsibility for Delhi blast … POK Ex PM Anwarul Haq says ‘I earlier said that if you keep bleeding Balochistan, we’ll hit India from Red Fort to the forests of Kashmir and we’ve done it, they’re still unable to count bodies’.”

It racked up 129,000 views.

Indian journalist Aditya Raj Kaul also shared the clip with the caption: “Former Pakistan Occupied Kashmir PM Chaudhary Anwarul Haq admits Pakistan’s role in Delhi Red Fort bombing, says I had warned earlier that we will hit India at Red Fort and our brave men have done it. Haq was PM till two days ago. Says India is unable to count dead bodies.”

His post gathered 641,600 views and 12,000 likes.

Other Indian accounts also picked up and shared the video with a similar claim, as can be seen here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here.

The claim and clip were also carried by Indian media outlet ‘The Logical Indian’ with the headline “We Hit India from Red Fort to Kashmir’s Forests: Pakistani Leader Chaudhry Anwarul Haq’s Explosive Admission”.

Even mainstream news websites ran the video, including NDTV, DNA India and Financial Express.

A fact-check was initiated to determine the veracity of the claim due to its virality and keen public interest in the relations between India and Pakistan.

Reviewing the entire farewell speech delivered by Haq on Nov 17, in which he provided a recap of his time as the AJK premier, showed that at the 17th-minute mark of his 28-minute-long address, he said: “The status quo that was given to me, I didn’t let it falter in any way.

“[…] I challenged Narendra Modi, I challenged his government, and I paid a price for it. I was the first person who said they are Fitna al-Hindustan and not Fitna al-Khawarij, and this is how these sentences changed. I said it in the Kashmir House that if they [India] do not stop bleeding Balochistan, we would beat them from Lal Qila to the forests of Kashmir,” he said.

Haq added that God kept his word when, only a few days later, the Pakistani Army defeated India. “And we defeated them in a way that they have still not been able to complete the counting of their jets,” Haq said. His jet comment referred to the India-Pakistan conflict in May earlier this year, during which Islamabad claimed to have shot down Indian jets in air-to-air combat with the neighbour.

The Nov 17 video shows that Haq was referring to his comments from an earlier speech. Further investigation showed that he had passed the same remarks during a speech on April 24 in response to what he called “Indian orchestrated violence in Balochistan”.

A keyword search yielded a news report by Dunya News dated April 24, 2025, with the headline “Destabilising Pakistan through violence will have repercussion: AJK premier”.

It quoted Haq as accusing India’s intelligence agency of orchestrating destabilising activities across the globe. “If you shed the blood of Pakistanis in Balochistan, be prepared to pay the price in Delhi,” he said, according to the report.

A video of his statement issued on April 24 was also shared on Instagram by Indian digital media account khabarpromax.

Furthermore, in a post on X, Dawn‘s correspondent in AJK also confirmed that Haq’s comments referred to Pakistan’s counterattacks in India in May. “It shouldn’t be mistaken for the recent Delhi car blast,” he added.

The above proves that Haq’s comments were not linked to the recent blast in Delhi; instead, he was recalling his comments from the past when he had said the same lines in response to terrorist acts in Balochistan.

Therefore, the fact-check determined that the claim that former AJK premier Anwarul Haq accepted responsibility for the recent Delhi blast is misleading. In the speech in November, Haq referred to his comments made earlier in April 2025, when he had threatened India with consequences for orchestrating attacks in Balochistan.

This fact check was originally published by iVerify Pakistan — a project of CEJ-IBA and UNDP.