Pakistan’s Independence Day investiture on August 14, 2025 has intensified scrutiny of casualty figures tied to “Operation Bunyan-un-Marsoos,” with President Asif Ali Zardari conferring 146 Imtiazi Asnad alongside other gallantry decorations on tri-service personnel for “conspicuous courage and supreme sacrifice.” Pakistani outlets reported the tally of awards on August 14, while noting broader honors for civil-military leaders; however, the announcements omitted a breakdown of fatalities. The controversy surged after Pakistani broadcaster SAMAA TV briefly published, then removed, a roll of honorees in which numerous names reportedly carried the “shaheed” marker, prompting Indian and independent defense trackers to argue that the list tacitly acknowledged well over 100 deaths—claims that, if accurate, would align with multiple analyses suggesting Pakistan suffered heavy losses during India’s “Operation Sindoor” (May 7–10). Additional coverage on August 16 amplified these questions by highlighting that at least 146 recipients of the Imtiazi Sanad were presented as having fallen in action in versions of the list circulating online, before those posts were retracted or revised. Islamabad has not released casualty specifics, and major Pakistani dailies’ reporting on the ceremony focused on decorations and political messaging rather than numbers, leaving unresolved whether the withdrawn lists reflected an internal accounting of losses or editorial error. The episode underscores a widening gap between official narratives and open-source compilations in the wake of May’s cross-border strikes, with August 14–16 coverage crystallizing two facts—Pakistan formally honored participants in Bunyan-un-Marsoos with 146 Imtiazi Sanad awards, and some media briefly labeled large numbers of the awardees as “shaheed” before deleting that language—while the central question of precise casualties remains unverified pending authoritative disclosure.