After the Indian Air Force carried out air strikes across the LoC on Tuesday, 26 February, claiming that they bombed terrorist camps as retaliation for the Pulwama attack on the CRPF that left 40 jawans dead on 14 February, some photos have been circulating on WhatsApp and other social media mediums as proof of the damage done by these air strikes.
CLAIM
A series of photos in this viral Whatsapp forward shows multiple dead bodies covered by white cloth, surrounded by people. These photos are being used to claim that these were the JeM terrorists killed by the IAF air strikes, although no official death toll was released. Some media reports claimed 200-300 were killed.
Photos received by The Quint as part of a viral Whatsapp forward.
(Photo: The Quint)
Another photo is doing the rounds and it claims to show a scene post the air strikes in Balakot. The Facebook page S. K. News J&K appeared to have deleted the post, but The Quint was sent a screenshot from the photo album.
Yet another image which The Quint could spot was shared by a Twitter handle @sambit _swaraj1.
TRUE OR FALSE?
The Quint conducted reverse image searches to get to the truth of these photos. We came across a Reuters report from 5 November 2014 which said that the photo showed casualties of a suicide bombing attack in November on Pakistanis near the Wagah border.
According to the Reuters report, 57 Pakistanis were killed in the suicide bombing attack during a flag-lowering ceremony when a bomber tried to get near the border to cause casualties on the Indian side as well. The photo caption reads: ‘Relatives gather beside the bodies of victims who were killed in yesterday's suicide bomb attack on the Wagah border, before funeral prayers in Lahore, Pakistan, November 3, 2014.’
The second and third were AFP photos from the aftermath of the same event. According to a Dawn report from 2 November 2014 that carried these photos, the bodies in the photos are casualties of the suicide bombing attack near the border, responsibility for which was claimed separately by the outlawed Jundullah and TTP-affiliated Jamaat-ul-Ahrar groups.
The photo captions said that they were AFP photos.
Following the same process, we found the source of the fourth photo, which was also proved to be from the same event. A CNN report dated 3 November 2014 carried this photo, while a Times of India report from the same day carried it, crediting it to AFP.
The other photo that we came across also claims to be of the victims of the Balakot air strikes. Again, it is false. On conducting a reverse image search, it can be established that the photo was originally part of an article on The Express Tribune which clearly states that the photo is from a gathering where tribespeople from Kurram Agency in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa observed Day of Martyrs by paying tribute to those who had lost their lives due to militancy across the province since 2005.
The article adds that tribespeople from Kurram Agency also paid tributes to a cleric, Allama Muhammad Nawaz Irfani, who had been assassinated in Islamabad in 2014.
The article was published on 8 July 2015 and the photo caption reads: ‘Tribespeople pay homage to MWM cleric Allama Muhammad Nawaz Irfani. Photo: cmcpk.ne’.
Therefore, since the photo has been online since 2015, it is obviously not from the Balakot air strikes. It is being used out of context.
The photo shared by @sambit_swaraj1 was found to be from 2013, upon reverse searching. A New York Post article carried the image reporting the death of 84 people who killed in an explosion in Quetta in Pakistan.
Old Earthquake Photos Shared as Casualties of IAF Air Strikes Across LoC
CLAIM
Similarly, multiple photos are being widely shared on social media platforms such as WhatsApp, Facebook and Twitter, claiming to be the proof of JeM terrorist killed in the IAF air strike conducted on 26 February.
Many of these shared photos depict several wounded people lying outdoors in an unnamed Pakistani territory, purportedly killed after the airstrikes. Theses bodies are covered under white sheets or being attended by other people after the “attack.”
Other photos depict havoc caused by the air strikes.
Here are some photos The Quint assessed on private messenger:
The same photos went viral on Twitter.
TRUE OR FALSE?
After conducting reverse image searches, it was revealed that the photos that The Quint assessed are old. These images have no connection with the IAF’s operation across LoC on 26 February and are being wrongly attributed to the air strikes.
The reverse searches further revealed that these images were first captured in 2005 after an earthquake that hit several parts of Pakistan.
According several media reports, “an estimated 75,000 people were killed, mostly in Pakistan-administered Kashmir.” Similarly, the photos were used by other publication around the time of earthquake.
The reverse image search of the first photo assessed by The Quint led to two publication that has used the image. They appeared in 2015 BBC report and a 2018 Pakistan Point report.
Similarly, the second photo is available on Getty images with the caption claiming it to be a photo from the aftermath of the 2005 earthquake. The same image was tweeted by Radio Pakistan in October 2018.
And lastly, the third assessed photo not only appeared on Getty images but was also published on other publications such as The Epoch Times.
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