A video showing people bursting firecrackers and celebrating is going viral on social media with the claim that the scene of jubilation is from Srinagar in Kashmir, after Pakistan won against India in the Asia Cup 2022.
Sudarshan News, a right-wing channel which is notorious for spreading communal hatred and disinformation, also shared the video and suggested that it was from Srinagar. However, the tweet was later deleted.
On 4 September, Pakistan beat India by five wickets in their first Super Four match of Asia Cup 2022.
However, we found that although the video is from Srinagar, it is not recent. We could trace it back to at least 2020. Further, the Srinagar Police also took to Twitter to clarify that the video is old and no such incident has happened.
CLAIM
This video was shared with a claim in Hindi that read, "These people are bursting crackers and celebrating in Srinagar because Pakistan beat India. It is necessary to end these people. Will this country's worn out laws be able to do anything against them or just keep burning our blood?"
This tweet was later deleted by Sudarshan News.
(Source: Twitter/Screenshot)
WHAT WE FOUND OUT
We divided the video into multiple key frames and ran a reverse image search with them. This led us to a tweet from 14 August 2020, which carried the same video.
It said, "Locals in Downtown area of #Srinagar celebrated #Pakistan's #IndependenceDay. Pakistani slogans & Pakistani Flag was also raised. Video location: Nawakadal, Srinagar."
An archive of the tweet can be seen here.
(Source: Twitter/Screenshot)
The same video was also found on Facebook, which was uploaded on 14 August 2020.
We contacted a reporter from Kashmir, Syed Junaid, who told us that the video is from 2017, when Pakistan won against India in the ICC Champions Trophy 2017. He also said that this happened at Nawakadal area of Srinagar City, outside Abu Bakr mosque.
We could find news reports about this celebration back in 2017, but none of them matched the viral video.
WHERE DID THE CELEBRATION TAKE PLACE?
Next, we looked up Abu Bakr Mosque in Srinagar on Google and found that the video was indeed from the area. We found a photo on Google from January 2021 and matched it with one of the key frames from the video.
We noticed the green coloured minaret of the mosque is similar to the Abu Bakr mosque's images. We also noticed a red board reading 'SHAH collections' and another yellow board reading 'Idea' on the right side.
Comparison between the viral video and an image from Google Maps.
(Source: The Quint)
Further, on the condition of anonymity, a shop owner in the vicinity of the Abu Bakr mosque confirmed to The Quint that the video did show celebrations happening outside Abu Bakr's mosque in Nawakadal, Srinagar. They were, however, not able to recall the year or occasion.
A tweet by Srinagar Police, too, stated that the video was at least five years old and it was from Srinagar's Nawakadal chowk.
Clearly, an old video from Srinagar was shared as a recent one.
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