Video of Indian Flag Being Disrespected in Karachi Falsely Shared as From Kerala

We identified some signboards in the video which indicated that the video is from Karachi in Pakistan, not Kerala.

The video of people driving over the Indian flag is from Karachi, Pakistan.

(Source: Altered by The Quint)

A video showing vehicles driving over the Indian national flag, which was pasted onto a road, is being shared on social media, claiming that the incident happened in Kerala. The text shared alongside the video asks people to raise their voices against the act and share the video as much as possible.

However, we found that the video was from Pakistan, and stills of the same have been on the internet since at least 2020. Shop boards seen in the video confirm that the incident is from Pakistan's Karachi, and not from Kerala, as claimed.

CLAIM

The video is being shared to claim that people in Kerala disrespected the Indian flag.

An archived version of this tweet can be seen here.

The Quint received a query for the video's verification on its WhatsApp tipline as well.

Archives of more posts with similar claims can be seen here, here, and here.

WHAT WE FOUND OUT

Using InVID, we ran a reverse image search on some of the frames and found a tweet containing a still from the video dated 10 March 2020.

The screengrab was posted on 10 March 2020. 

The search also showed us a YouTube video, which mentioned that the video was from Pakistan.

We also saw a board that read 'Sanam Boutique' in the background. Taking a cue from the previous clues, we looked for a 'Sanam Boutique' in Pakistan. The results returned a shop location on Google Maps, which placed 'Sanam Boutique' in Karachi, Pakistan.

Using Street View, we looked at the shop's signage and found that it resembled the board seen in the viral claim.

The design and text on the signage match the visuals from the claim.

We were also able to match a building seen a little down the road from 'Sanam Boutique,' which showed a small building next to a taller one with a glass facade.

The same cluster of buildings can be seen.

Next, we saw that the camera panned to a shop named 'Zareena's' that appeared to be close to 'Sanam Boutique'.

The board read 'Zareena's'.

We checked the distance between the two shops on Google Maps, and found that 'Zareena's Fashion' was across the street from 'Sanam Boutique.'

Both shops are across the street from each other.

Then, we reached out to a reporter in Pakistan, who told us that the brown and beige auto-rickshaws seen in the video were common in the country.

The video shows multiple brown and beige auto-rickshaws.

We also saw that people standing on the road were waving Pakistan's national flag.

People can be see waving Pakistan's flag.

While we were unable to independently verify when the video was taken or the context of the incident, we were able to confirm that the video was shot in Karachi, Pakistan.

Clearly, people in Kerala did not disrespect the Indian flag by pasting it on the road and having people drive over it.

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