NEW DELHI, 20 September 2021, (TON): Firebrand Indian television anchor Arnab Goswami was left red-faced when his "intelligence" regarding Pakistan Army's alleged presence in Afghanistan's Panjshir valley backfired, becoming the fodder of countless memes on Pakistani as well as Indian Twitter space.

Goswami, who is notorious for his war-mongering and aggressive journalism that supports the interests of India's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, made the faux pas when he claimed that Pakistan Army officers were staying on the fifth floor of the luxury Serena Hotel in Kabul, apparently to support the Taliban in their fight against resistance fighters in Panjshir.

The bellicose anchor's claim was quickly exposed, however, because the Serena Hotel in Kabul only has two floors, not five.

In his programme 'The Debate' on Republic World TV channel last week, Goswami had invited an Indian analyst as well as PTI spokesperson Abdul Samad Yaqoob, to represent Pakistan, in a discussion on what the channel termed a "big split" within the Taliban, who seized control of Afghanistan last month.

When Yaqoob challenged the claims Goswami had attributed to his sources in Afghanistan, the anchor went on the defence and claimed that his information had proven to be true, including that the resistance fighters in Panjshir had not given up and Pakistani forces were "retreating" from the valley.

A day later, Yaqoob was back on Goswami's programme and countered the anchor's claim by saying "what I got to know from my sources [is that] Serena has only two floors. There are no third, fourth or fifth floors."