Unrelated Clip of Pro-Khalistan Bike Rally Falsely Linked to PM’s Punjab Visit
The video of the pro-Khalistan rally predates the Prime Minister’s Punjab visit by at least ten days.
The video is from an event held on 26 December and is not related to the Prime Minister’s visit.
(Photo: Altered by The Quint)
A video showing a group of people participating in a bike rally, while raising pro-Khalistan slogans, is being shared across social media platforms, to claim that it happened on 5 January, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi's convoy was stranded enroute National Martyrs' Memorial in Punjab's Hussainiwala.
Users sharing the clip are questioning the state’s Congress government why these people have not been arrested for raising separatist slogans, and have used a hashtag to demand President’s Rule in Punjab.
However, we found that the video is from a bike rally that predates the prime minister’s visit. We found multiple social media posts from 27 December that carried the same visuals and we were able to verify that it is indeed from Punjab.
CLAIM
The video is being shared to claim that people raised pro-Khalistan slogans on a bike rally that was taken out on the day of the prime minister’s visit to Punjab on 5 January 2022.
An archive of this post can be seen here.
WHAT WE FOUND OUT
Using InVID, a video verification extension on Google Chrome, we divided the video into multiple keyframes, in order to carry out reverse image searches on them.
On supplementing the search with the keyword ‘Khalistan’, we came across a tweet published on 27 December 2021 which had the same visuals.
The tweet was shared on 27 December.
Next, we looked for the video on Facebook with keywords 'Khalistan Zindabad' and came across another video on Facebook dated 28 December.
Although the video isn't an exact same match, we noticed that both these videos had the same people in them as seen in the viral claim.
The man in the pink turban and white scarf is seen with the same pillion in both clips.
Next, we looked for the video on YouTube and found one uploaded on 27 December, whose translated Gurmukhi caption said that a ‘Saffron march’ was taken out by the youth of Punjab to mark the ‘Shaheedi Jor Mela,’ which is a congregation that pays homage to the youngest sons of Sikh leader Guru Gobind Singh.
As per the video’s description, the march took place on 26 December.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Punjab on 5 January 2022, where he was scheduled to pay his respects at the National Martyrs’ Memorial in Hussainiwala before proceeding to a rally organised in Ferozepur, Punjab.
However, the PM’s convoy was left stranded at a flyover, nearly 25 km before Hussainiwala, allegedly due to protesting farmers blocking the road due to which his visit was cancelled and he went back.
Geolocating the Video
We couldn't find any news reports of this incident, but we were able to verify that this video is from Punjab.
First, on closely looking at the video, we noticed that the motorbike's number plate read ‘PB 04’, indicating that the video could be from Punjab.
The number plate reads 'PB 04'
Next, in the Facebook video that we found, we noticed a few boards in the background which read – ‘Shri Shyam Hospital and Ultrasound Centre’ and ‘SS Steel’.
(Note: Swipe right to view both images)
Two boardswere visible in the clip.
Two boardswere visible in the clip.
When we looked up the hospital’s name, we found it on the National Health Portal website, which noted that it was in Faridkot, Punjab. We looked for the place on Google Maps adding Faridkot as a keyword.
The results led us to a place in Punjab and to confirm that it was the same Centre, we checked its distance from ‘SS Steel’ and found that they were 10 meters apart.
Both places are 10 metersapart.
Evidently, a video of a pro-Khalistan rally held before the prime minister's visit is being falsely linked to it.
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