A video showing a woman reciting Gayatri Mantra, a Hindu prayer, in the presence of former Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is going viral on the internet.
Users sharing this video are claiming that this happened recently during the oath taking ceremony of the current Prime Minister of Pakistan, Shehbaz Sharif.
An archive can be seen here.
(Source: Facebook/Screenshot)
(Archives of similar claims can be seen here, here and here.)
What's the truth?: This video is not from the recent oath taking ceremony for Pakistan's newly elected Prime Minister.
This video dates back to March 2017 when a singer sang Gayatri Mantra in Pakistan at an event organised for the festival of Holi.
How did we find out the truth?: We performed a reverse image search on some of the keyframes of the video which led us to an old YouTube video from 17 March 2017.
This was shared by a news channel named India News National and the viral video matched this one.
The title read, "Pakistan: Gayatri Mantra sung in presence of Nawaz Sharif in Holi celebration".
Taking a cue, we performed a relevant keyword search and found a similar video on YouTube channel of British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) News Hindi.
The video carried the same viral clip and this was shared on 21 March 2017.
The video also carried the interview of Narodha Malini, the Pakistani singer who recited the prayer on stage.
We also checked the live-streamed telecast of Sharif's oath-taking ceremony held on 4 March and did not find any recitation of the Gayatri Mantra.
Conclusion: An old video of Gayatri Mantra being recited at Holi event in Pakistan is being falsely shared as from Pakistan's Prime Minister oath taking ceremony.
(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.)
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)