Man From Yemen Misidentified As ‘Pappu Shukla’ From Gujarat

The image shows one Ismael Hadi from Yemen who used to feed dogs regularly.

An image of a man from Yemen has been falsely used to claim that he is a homeless person from the state of Gujarat.

(Photo: Altered by The Quint)

An image of the body of a man being surrounded by a dog is doing the rounds with the claim that he is one ‘Pappu Shukla,’ a homeless man from Gujarat. However, we found that the image is actually from Yemen and the man in the image has been identified as one Ismael Hadi, who used to feed dogs regularly.

You can view the archived version here.

CLAIM

The claim shared along with the image reads: “This is a dead body of Mr Pappu Shukla ji, a homeless man from Gujarat State (India) who took care of abandoned dogs for many years. He died yesterday and his beloved dogs surrounded and protected his body, refusing to leave his side.. May Pappu Shukla ji Rest In Peace. (sic)”

You can view the archived version here.

Several social media users shared the image on Twitter and Facebook with the same claim.

You can view the archived version here.

You can view the archived version here.

WHAT WE FOUND OUT

We reverse searched the image on Google and found a Reddit link that mentioned that the image is from Yemen and the man in the photo is one Ismael Hadi.

With relevant keyword searches on Twitter, we found several verified accounts sharing the image with the aforementioned details.

Nadwa Dawsari, Yemenite conflict analyst shared the image on 20 October and wrote: “Ismael Hadi, a homeless man from Ibb Yemen, fed stray dogs. This morning, people found him dead with his dogs refusing to leave his side.”

Further, Abdulhadi Habtor, editor of newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat, tweeted the same image with details that corroborated with the above tweet.

Google reverse image search also led us to a report by Al Jazeera Mubasher that mentioned that Ismael used to feed dogs regularly. The news report also carried social media posts of citizens of Yemen expressing sadness over the said incident.

Evidently, an image of a man from Yemen has been falsely used to claim that he is a homeless person from the state of Gujarat.

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