Two photographs, purportedly of the Indian Army's Special Forces team that conducted an operation against militants along the Myanmar border, stoked controversy on the social media on Thursday, with the defence ministry denying having issued any such images.
The photographs, published by some national dailies, had an army helicopter in the background and were apparently taken in clear daylight.
In one of the photographs, the faces of the army personnel in front of the helicopter were masked. The accompanying captions said it was the photo of the team that carried out the strike against militants.
However, defence ministry spokesperson Sitanshu Kar tweeted that no photograph of the army action was released.
"A Clarification: MoD has NOT issued any photo relating to Indian Army action along Indo-Myanmar border in the North East, so far," he posted.
Many people reacted to Kar's tweet.
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"Why media houses showing wrong photo's of Indo-Myanmar army operation??" a tweet asked.
Another said: "MoD has NOT ISSUED any Photos related to Army action along Indo-Myanmar border. So any photo shown are FAKE."
Some online activists claimed the images had appeared on websites earlier too.
IANS had also carried the photographs with its story on Wednesday but these have been withdrawn.