Fact check: Video of Lt Gen Girish Kalia saying China controls parts of Arunachal is a deepfake

Claim: A video shows Lt Gen Girish Kalia admitting that China has taken control of Asaphila, Longju and Taksing Circle in Arunachal Pradesh, and that Indian troops there are being denied essential supplies.

Verdict: False. The clip is a 2023 press briefing from Kupwara in Jammu and Kashmir, with an AI-cloned voice and lip-sync laid over it. Kalia was talking about infiltration across the Line of Control. He did not mention China or Arunachal Pradesh.

What the viral video claims

The clip began spreading on X on 25 October 2026. In it, Kalia appears to call it “shameful that aggressor China has taken control of Asaphila, Longju and Taksing Circle in Arunachal Pradesh”. The posts sharing it also claim he said paramilitary forces were being turned on Arunachal’s Gen Z instead of China (The Quint).

BOOM found the video posted by the X account @IndiaGenzzz, which captioned Kalia as “GOC, Spear Corps”. The clip carries a “Baba Thoka” watermark, and BOOM has previously flagged the same handle for spreading deepfakes of Indian Army officers (BOOM). NewsMeter traced another copy to the account InsiderWB (NewsMeter). Kalia is currently the Director General of the Territorial Army, according to The Quint.

What the Indian Army said

The Army’s official fact-check handle, Indian Army Fact Check (@MythbusterXX), flagged the video on 25 October. It said “a digitally altered video is being circulated with fabricated remarks attributed to Lt Gen Girish Kalia”, and that the clip used AI-generated lip-syncing and voice cloning on archival footage (ANI on X; DD News).

Indian Army Fact Check (@MythbusterXX) on the altered video of Lt Gen Girish Kalia, 25 October 2026.

ANI’s post carrying the Indian Army Fact Check clarification.

Where the footage really comes from

The video carries an ANI watermark. A reverse image search by BOOM and The Quint leads to an ANI post on X from 27 October 2023. At the time Kalia was a Major General and General Officer Commanding of the 28 Infantry Division, speaking to reporters in Kupwara.

In that briefing he talked about infiltration from across the Line of Control. “In the last 8 months, we’ve had 10 such attempts in our divisional area of responsibility,” he said, adding that the operations had killed 27 terrorists and recovered a large quantity of warlike stores and narcotics (BOOM). Nothing in the original mentions China, Arunachal Pradesh or troop supplies.

How we know the voice is fake

Three fact-checkers ran the audio through detection tools and got the same answer.

• BOOM tested it on the Hiya Deepfake Voice Detector, which gave it an authenticity score of 18 out of 100.
• The Deepfakes Analysis Unit, cited by The Quint, found only an 8% match with live human voice markers on Hiya, a 75% likelihood of AI generation on Aurigin AI, and digital signatures showing the clip was made with Meta’s AI tools.
• NewsMeter’s voice check also found the audio was likely AI-generated, while noting that detector scores alone do not prove a fake.

That last caveat matters. The strongest proof is not a detector score but the original 2023 video, which anyone can compare against the viral clip.

Part of a wider run of fake Arunachal videos

The Kalia clip is one of several false India-China videos debunked in the same week. A counter-terror mock drill filmed near Devanahalli, outside Bengaluru, in April 2026 was shared as a clash with Chinese soldiers in Arunachal; the videographer and the Army’s fact-check handle both confirmed its origin (Factly). A clip of soldiers pushing each other near barbed wire, online since at least December 2022, was recirculated as a 2026 clash (NewsMeter). The Army also flagged a video of Chinese commercial vehicles at Nathu La in Sikkim that was framed as an intrusion (Republic).

The method repeats: take real military footage, add a cloned voice or a new caption, and attach a claim that China has already taken Indian ground. Such claims echo Beijing’s position that Arunachal Pradesh is “South Tibet”, a claim India rejects.

What is actually happening on the border

The fakes land at a tense moment, which is partly why they spread. ITBP Director General Shatrujeet Kapur has confirmed recent face-offs between Indian and Chinese troops in Arunachal Pradesh, and the Ministry of External Affairs has blamed the tension on Chinese troops deviating from established patrol patterns (as summarised by BOOM). Separately, protests against NHPC’s Siang Upper Multipurpose Project in East Siang turned violent on 23 October. None of this supports the claim that China controls Asaphila, Longju or Taksing Circle, and the Army has rejected it outright.

How to check a viral Army video yourself

1. Look for a watermark (ANI, PTI, DD) and search that outlet’s posts for the original clip.
2. Check the Army’s official handles and Indian Army Fact Check before sharing.
3. Check PIB Fact Check for claims about government or security matters.
4. Watch the lips against the words. Cloned audio often drifts out of sync on longer sentences.
5. Be most careful with clips that confirm a fear you already had. That is what they are built for.

Seen a video you are not sure about? Post it in the Defence forum and our readers will help check it, or follow the Defence News section for more.

Sources and credits

• Indian Army Fact Check (@MythbusterXX): clarification on X, 25 October 2026, as carried by ANI and DD News
• BOOM, Anmol Alphonso: “Deepfake of Girish Kalia shows him admitting Chinese incursion in Arunachal”, 26 October 2026
• The Quint WebQoof, Aishwarya Varma: “Video of DGTA Lt Gen Girish Kalia admitting China took control of parts of Arunachal Pradesh is AI”, 26 October 2026
• NewsMeter: “Lt Gen Girish Kalia said China took control of parts of Arunachal Pradesh? No, video is AI-manipulated”, 26 October 2026, and old clash footage check
• Factly: “Old video of a mock drill in Karnataka falsely shared as an India-China confrontation”
• Republic: Army fact-checks claims of Chinese vehicles’ entry, 26 October 2026

Featured image: The Squadron. This fact-check draws on the published work of the fact-checkers credited above. If you spot an error, see our corrections policy.

• Arunachal Pradesh
• china
• Deepfake
• Fact Check
• Girish Kalia
• indian army

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