Altered Image Viral as Crowd Watching Babar Azam's Batting in J&K's Lal Chowk

The original photo shows the crowd watching the live broadcast of ISRO's Chandrayaan-3 landing on 23 August.

The image has been altered to show the match between Pakistan and Nepal.

(Source: Altered by The Quint)

Shortly after the first match in Asia Cup 2023 between Pakistan and Nepal, an image of a crowd gathered in front of a screen at Jammu and Kashmir's Lal Chowk has gone viral.

What is the claim?: Those sharing the image have claimed that it showed people watching the 151-run innings of Pakistani cricketer and captain, Babar Azam.

An archive of the post can be found here. 

(Archives of similar claims can be found here and here.)

What is the truth?: While the image is from J&K, it has been digitally edited to show that the crowd was watching Azam play live on screen.

• The original image shows the crowd watching the landing of the Indian Space Research Organisation's (ISRO) Chandrayaan-3.

• The other image is also from the same occasion at Lal Chowk.

• Both these images existed before the commencement of the Asia Cup tournament.

How did we find out?: We did a Google reverse image search and found a post dated 23 August by Kashmir-based photojournalist, Basit Zargar on X that included similar images as the viral one.

• The post was accompanied by the caption that the crowd had gathered to watch the landing of ISRO's Chandrayaan-3.

IMAGE 1:

We matched the images and found that both the images had the same background.

Here is a comparison between the viral image and Basit Zargar's post. 

IMAGE 2: The same post included another picture that had similarities with the viral image.

Here is a comparison between the viral image and Basit Zargar's post. 

• We also found a post by Srinagar police on X from 24 August that included the same image as one of the viral images highlighting the event at Lal Chowk.

• Further, several news reports noted the live broadcast of the Chandrayaan-3 landing at Lal Chowk.

Here is an example of the reportage of the gathering at Lal Chowk on 24 August. 

• Additionally, we found no news reports to support the claim that the match between Pakistan and Nepal was screened at Lal Chowk.

• The Quint has reached out to Basit Zargar for his inputs and the story will be updated when we get a response.

Conclusion: Clearly, the image has been edited to show the gathering at Lal Chowk in J&K watching Pakistan's match. The original image shows the crowd watching the live broadcast of ISRO's Chandrayaan-3 landing.

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