No, That’s Not the Indian Flag at a Protest Rally in Pakistan

An altered image is being shared on the internet to suggest that the Indian flag was waved at a rally in Karachi.

A viral image from Karachi is doing the rounds on social media with a claim that it shows protesters in the crowd waving the Indian tricolour.

(Photo: Altered by The Quint)

A viral image from a protest rally in Pakistan’s Karachi is doing the rounds on social media with a claim that it shows protesters in the crowd waving the Indian tricolour. However, we found that the image was photoshopped to add the Indian flag.

CLAIM

The aforementioned image is being massively shared on Twitter and Facebook with a claim which reads: “70 सालो तक हमे पाकिस्तान का झंडा लहरा कर चिढ़ाया जाता था । कल करांची की रैली में हिंदुस्तान के झंडे लहराये गए”

[Translation: For 70 years we were taunted using the Pakistani flag. Yesterday, the Indian flag was waved at a rally in Pakistan.]

An archived version of the tweet can be accessed here.

An archived version of the tweet can be accessed here.

An archived version of the post can be accessed here.

WHAT WE FOUND

Taking a cue from the claim, we performed a Google search with the following keywords: “Anti-govt Protests in Karachi”. This directed us to reports by several news outlets.

According to Reuters, “Tens of thousands of opposition supporters rallied in Karachi on Sunday, 18 October as part of a campaign to oust Prime Minister Imran Khan, who they accuse of being installed by the military in a rigged election two years ago.”

Next, we performed a Google reverse image search on the photo and came across a tweet by the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) or the PML (N), a key Opposition party in the country and found the same image.

An archived version of the tweet can be accessed here.

We compared the aforementioned image with the image shared by PML(N) on Twitter and found that the viral image was photoshopped to show the Indian flag.

A zoomed in version of the two images suggested that a flag with a flagpole was inserted in the viral image to claim that the Indian tricolour was spotted at the rally.

Viral image (L), original image (R)

Clearly, an altered image is being shared on the internet to falsely suggest that the Indian flag was waved at an anti-government rally in Karachi.

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