Viral climate change ministry document confirming radiation leak

Rating Justification

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

To reach this conclusion, the iVerify team analysed the document for discrepancies and searched for news stories to corroborate the alleged development.

Posts from several Indian accounts on social media platform X since May 13, 2025, were sharing an alleged circular by the Ministry of Climate Change and Environmental Coordination informing the public of a “nuclear radiation leak” in the country, detailing the incidents and how it took control of the matter. However, the circular is a fake, riddled with errors and no such leakage took place in the first place.

The intense military exchange between India and Pakistan came to a halt on May 10 after both nations agreed to a ceasefire pushed by United States President Donald Trump.

Tensions between the long-standing rivals escalated following the April 22 attack in Pahalgam, Kashmir, which left 26 dead. India accused Pakistan for the attack, and in response, closed the Wagah border, revoked Pakistani visas, and suspended the Indus Water Treaty in the days leading up to airstrikes in multiple cities of Pakistan. The Pakistani military launched a retaliatory operation following India’s attack on airbases.

HOW IT STARTED

On May 13, an online platform, which is based in India and promotes Hindu culture and teachings according to their website’s “About” section, shared a document on X with the letterhead of the Government of Pakistan.

The caption of the post said, “Nuclear leak confirmed at Northern Administrative Zone in Pakistan. Before Pakistan could even use their nuclear arsenal, India bombed it.”

The post gained over 988,000 views and was shared 4,500 times.

The document’s subject read: “Confirmation of radiation leak at facility located in northern region.”

It read, “The Government of Pakistan, through the National Radiological Safety Division (NRSD), confirms the detection of a radiation leak incident at a licensed industrialogical site, located in the Northern Administrative Zone.”

The letter also mentioned other details such as the location, radiation source, cause, casualties, detected exposure levels, radius of precautionary zone and environmental impact, along with a small section for public advisory as well, which assured that the incident has been neutralised and swiftly managed in accordance with international safety and standards.

The notice was shared by several other Indian accounts as can be seen here, here and here.

METHODOLOGY

A fact check was initiated to determine the veracity of the claim due to its high virality, the alarming nature of the claim and significant public interest in the fallout of the Pakistan-India military escalation.

Examining the document showed multiple typographical and grammatical errors atypical of official government releases. The below are some of those mistakes while the rest have been outlined.

• Confidential spelt as confindental
• Northern spelt as norther
• Industrialirological which is not a word
• Approximately spelt as approximatelly
• Routine spelt as toutine
• Following spelt as pollowing

Checking the email address of nrsd@env.go.v.pk given at the end of the letter through verification tool mailmeteor showed it was deemed “invalid” for having a non-existent domain. This makes sense since email domains for official government institutions and departments end with gov.pk.

A keyword search for National Radiological Safety Division and its alleged director general Malik Asad Rafique yielded no results as the body which overlooks nuclear safety in Pakistan is the Pakistan Nuclear Regulatory Authority which is chaired by Faizan Mansoor.

The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting had also rubbished the claim and called the document a fake.

Lastly, a keyword search to corroborate the alleged incident in the circular did not yield any reports from credible mainstream Pakistani or international news outlets.

FACT-CHECK STATUS: FALSE

The claim that a viral document issued by the climate change ministry confirms a nuclear radiation leak after the recent escalation with India is false.

The document is a fake and there has been no incident reported of a radiation leak in Pakistan amid the situation with India.

Evidence and References

Official website of Pakistan Nuclear Regulatory Authority:
https://www.pnra.org/

May 13, 2025, X post by FactChecker MoIB:
https://x.com/FactCheckerMoIB/status/1922218402640494979