Fake News Clipping Says More Terrorists Killed Under BJP Than UPA

The clipping claims that forces eliminated 1,701 terrorists under the Modi government compared to 241 under UPA.

A side-by side of the edited newspaper clipping and the untouched version.

(Photo: Altered by The Quint)

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CLAIM

A newspaper clipping has been doing the rounds on social media to highlight the number of terrorists killed by security forces under Narendra Modi’s regime, juxtaposed with the combined numbers from the UPA-1 and UPA-2 era.

The clipping claims that under Modi’s four-and-a-half-year regime so far, the forces have successfully eliminated 1,701 terrorists as opposed to the significantly smaller number of 241 during 10 years of UPA rule under Dr Manmohan Singh.

The newspaper clipping with the number of terrorists neutralised under Narendra Modi’s rule and UPA-1 plus UPA-2 rule.(Photo: Twitter)

The clipping reads: “The UPA government, that is Manmohan Singh’s tenure as prime minister, lasted from May 2004 to May 2014. As per the numbers from 2004 to 2013, 1,788 civilians, 1,177 jawans and 241 terrorists were killed.”

Whereas, “BJP’s majority government under Narendra Modi has been in effect since May 2014. In this duration, till 17 June 2018, 61 civilians, 303 jawans and 1,701 terrorists were killed.” (translation)

Neither the source of this clipping nor of the information cited, is mentioned.

Similar data was also quoted in a tweet by actor Paresh Rawal recently:

THE TRUTH

A reverse search of the newspaper clipping revealed that the image in question had been photoshopped to portray the figures of the Modi regime favourably compared to the Manmohan Singh regime.

A reverse image search of the newspaper clipping unveiled the unedited version.(Photo: Screenshot of the reverse image search)

The original, unedited image shows that the numbers have been manipulated.

An unedited version of the newspaper clipping.(Photo Courtesy: Twitter)

A side-by-side analysis of the two clippings shows how 701 has been changed to 1,701 by adding another ‘1’, and 4,241 has been changed to 241 by erasing ‘4’.

A side-by-side analysis of the two clippings. The one on the left was edited and the one on the right is the unedited version.(Photo: altered by The Quint)

SOURCE OF DATA?

A deep dive into the source of the clipping led to a Dainik Bhaskar report dated 24 June 2018, which reported the terror-related deaths in the country year-on-year, citing these very numbers.

A screenshot of the Dainik Bhaskar report that citing the numbers in question.(Photo: Screenshot of the Dainik Bhaskar report)

The newspaper clipping is supposedly a screenshot of the e-paper version of this report.

The report, however, did not cite the source behind these figures either.

However, on comparing the numbers in the newspaper clipping to those compiled by the South Asia Terrorism Portal (SATP), a data repository on terrorism in the Indian subcontinent, it is revealed that the number of terrorists killed in the said 2004-2013 period under the UPA regime is 4,239 which is almost as much as the figure quoted by the Dainik Bhaskar report (4,241).

Fatalities in Terrorist Violence in India (2004 - 2013).(Photo: Altered by The Quint/South Asia Terrorism Portal)

The data from 2014 to 2018, as per SATP, shows that 876 terrorists were killed under the Narendra Modi government (data till 31 December 2018).

The Dainik Bhaskar report had quoted 701 terrorists killed till June 2018.

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