Pakistan successfully tests Zarar III missile after new US restrictions

Rating Justification

The iVerify Pakistan team investigated this content and determined that it is false.

To reach this conclusion, iVerify Pakistan conducted a reverse image and keyword search to find the original source of the video.

Posts from multiple users on social media platform X since December 19, 2024, shared a video of a missile launch, claiming that Pakistan successfully tested a new ballistic missile, Zarar III, with a 7,000-kilometre range in defiance of US restrictions. However, the clip is of a 2022 test and there is no proof of any recent missile test.

The United States said on Dec 18 it was imposing additional sanctions related to Pakistan’s ballistic missile programme, targeting four entities that it alleged were contributing to the proliferation or delivery of such weapons.

A day later, the Foreign Office responded and said the sanctions were “biased” and “endanger regional and international peace”.

HOW IT STARTED

The iVerify Pakistan team was alerted on Dec 20 about a post on X and requested authentication for its content.

On Dec 19, a 13-second long video was shared on X by a user who according to his past posts was a PML-N supporter. The video showed a missile launch.

The post was captioned, “The biggest news … Pakistan successfully tested the ballistic missile ‘Zarar III’ today, with a range of 7,000 kilometres after the US restrictions on ballistic missiles.”

The post gained over 114,000 views and was reshared 1,100 times.

The same claim and video were widely shared by other X users as can be seen here, here, here, here, here and here with over 50,000 combined views.

The same clip and caption were also posted on Facebook as can be seen here, here and here with more than 32,000 total views.

METHODOLOGY

A fact-check was initiated to determine the veracity of the claim to satisfy the public’s request seeking authentication for the claim, its virality and the public’s keen interest in the state of Pak-US relations.

A keyword search for “Zarrar-3” and “Zarrar-III” for any news reports by credible mainstream outlets on the alleged missile launch did not yield any results or stories covering said incident.

Furthermore, no press release from the military’s media wing announcing the missile test was found on state media websites as is usually the norm for such endeavours.

A reverse image search yielded a YouTube video from the Inter Services Public Relations’ (ISPR) official account uploaded on April 9, 2022.

The title of the video said, “Press Release No 33/2022, Pakistan Conducted Successful Test of Shaheen-III — 9 Apr 2022 | ISPR”.

The military’s media wing also highlighted the missile test in an April 9, 2022, post on X with the following caption, “Pakistan today conducted successful flight test of Shaheen-III surface to surface ballistic missile. The test flight was aimed at revalidating various design and technical parameters of the weapon system.”

The test was also reported by leading news outlets Dawn.com and The Express Tribune on the same date.

FACT-CHECK STATUS: FALSE

The claim that Pakistan has successfully tested a new missile, Zarar III, after new US restrictions is false.

There is no proof or evidence of the alleged launch as evidenced by the lack of any official press materials from the military or reporting by media. Furthermore, an attached video to the viral claim is also from an older missile test in April 2022.

Evidence and References

April 9, 2022, ISPR YouTube video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sByfqvnx3ew

April 9, 2022, ISPR X post:
https://perma.cc/8DEX-U95H