CLAIM
A video of Indian and Pakistani soldiers exchanging sweets on a bridge went viral around the festive season. It showed troops of the two countries exchanging "mithai and greetings".
The message with the video is: "Indian & Pakistani army exchanged mithai & greetings. no godi media channels has time to show this to the nation. How many newspapers had it on the front page? Drum-beating, chest-thumping Mr 56 will sacrifice any number of lives for political gain before 2024. BEWARE !!!!"
Sweets and greetings are generally exchanged between the armies of India and Pakistan on occasions such as Republic Day, Independence Day, Eid and Diwali.
The message being shared with the video claims that despite this tradition taking place this year as well, media channels ignored it. The message goes on to criticise "Mr 56", a reference to PM Narendra Modi, saying that he only looks for political gain.
The video was also shared with the same claim on Twitter.
WHAT'S THE TRUTH?
The video is actually from the time the two armies exchanged greetings and sweets on the occasion of Republic Day in 2015.
Hence, while the video is real, it is old and being shared with a misleading claim.
WHAT WE FOUND
On breaking the video down into into key frames and reverse searching them, we came across several pages which suggested that the event was from the 66th Republic Day, when the Pakistani and Indian Army exchanged sweets in Uri.
On searching for news reports about the same, we found a 2015 report by PTI, carried by several news outlets, that confirmed that Indian and Pakistani troops had indeed exchanged sweets on Republic Day 2015. One of the places where this tradition was followed was Kaman Post in Uri.
Further, a news report by ANI, carried by Business Standard, suggested that the exchange happened at Kaman Aman Setu. This description matched the video, since the troops could be seen on a bridge.
On searching some more, we came across photos uploaded by ANI of the exchange which matched the video exactly.
We also found a portion of the same video published by ANI on Twitter.
Moreover, according to a report by PTI, dated 27 October, officials said that there was no customary exchange of sweets with Pakistani soldiers along the International Border (IB) and the Line of Control (LoC) on Diwali in 2019.
According to a PTI report, the customary exchange of sweets also did not take place on the occasion of Eid al-Adha in August either.
Therefore, the video in circulation is being shared with a misleading message.
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