Does This Image Show a Terrorist Who Said That He Received Weapons From RSS? No!

The image shows a Pakistani national named Abdul Qayoom, who was caught by the BSF in 2016.

Abhishek Anand
WebQoof
Published:
<div class="paragraphs"><p>Fact-Check | The image is old and is being shared with a false claim.</p></div>
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Fact-Check | The image is old and is being shared with a false claim.

(Photo: Altered by The Quint)

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An image which shows two army personnel holding a man is going viral to claim that one of the terrorists caught in Kashmir recently said that the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) had supplied weapons to them.

What have users said?: Those sharing the image have uploaded it with a caption in Hindi that loosely translates to, "The Kashmiri terrorist caught alive said during interrogation that RSS provides us arms and money and asks us to kill Hindus so that hatred for Muslims can be filled in the minds of Hindus."

An archive of the post can be found here.

(Source: Facebook/Screenshot)

(More archives of similar claims can be viewed here, here, and here.)

What are the facts?: The image is being shared with false context.

It actually shows a Pakistani national named Abdul Qayoom, who was caught by the Border Security Force (BSF) while he was trying to cross over the international border.

What led us to the truth?: On conducting a simple reverse image search, we found a report published in Daily Excelsior in September 2016 that carried the same visual.

  • It mentioned that a Pakistani militant named Abdul Qayoom was apprehended by the BSF, when he was trying to cross over into the Indian territory.

  • As per an official handout shared by BSF's Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Dharmendra Pareek, Qayoom said that he underwent militant training with the terrorist outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT).

  • The report did not carry any mention of the RSS or that the organisation was supplying weapons.

The report was published on 24 September 2016.

(Source: Daily Excelsior/Screenshot)

Other news reports: An NDTV report said that 32-year-old Qayoom was arrested in the Akhnoor sector of Jammu after he crossed into India.

  • The report, too, mentioned that he had received training from an LeT camp in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.

  • It further mentioned that 17 infiltration bids had been foiled in 2016 (till October) and 31 infiltrators had been killed.

  • InKhabar Official had published a video report on the arrest on its official YouTube channel.

  • It was titled, "BSF troops arrested a Pakistani national while trying to cross LoC, says he is an activist of LeT."

A recurring theme: Team WebQoof had previously debunked a similar claim, when it had gone viral on the internet in July 2018. You can read our older fact-check here.

The report was published on 16 July 2018.

(Source: The Quint/Screenshot)

Conclusion: It is evident that the viral image is old and is being shared on the internet with a false context.

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(Not convinced of a post or information you came across online and want it verified? Send us the details on WhatsApp at 9540511818 , or e-mail it to us at webqoof@thequint.com and we'll fact-check it for you. You can also read all our fact-checked stories here.)

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