An old video of Sikh youths shouting “Kashmir Banega Pakistan, Punjab Banega Khalistan” along with slogans against Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been revived amid the ongoing farmers protest to claim that pro-Pakistan and pro-Khalistan slogans were raised by the farmers.
The video is from October 2015 when Sikh youths in Kashmir’s Baramulla had raised such slogans, reportedly to protest the desecration of their holy book in Punjab.
CLAIM
The video was shared by several users with the claim, “कहने को किसान आंदोलन और नारे कश्मीर बनेगा पाकिस्तान, पंजाब बनेगा खालिस्तान”
(Translation: “It’s called farmers’ protest but they raise slogans like 'Kashmir will become Pakistan, Punjab will become Khalistan'.)
The video was revived by Twitter user Akash RSS on 8 December, who shared it without any context, garnering over 10,200 views at the time of writing this article.
WHAT WE FOUND OUT
A keyword search of ‘Sikh Kashmir Banega Pakistan’ led us to the original video uploaded by local news channel, The Kashmir Pulse, on 18 October 2015.
According to the description of the video, Sikh protesters had “shouted pro-Pakistan slogans during a protest against the desecration of Guru Granth Sahib, the holy scripture of Sikh religion, at Baramulla in north Kashmir.”
With a relevant keyword search we found a report on Deccan Chronicle, dated 19 October 2015, which stated that the Sikhs were protesting against the “alleged desecration of the Guru Granth Sahib in some parts of Punjab,” by shouting “Punjab banega Khalistan; Kashmir banega Pakistan.”
Local news organisation Greater Kashmir and Hindustan Times had also reported
on the protests in October 2015.
Evidently, an old 2015 video of Sikh youths raising provocative slogans in Kashmir has been revived to make false claims amid the farmers’ protest.
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