Old Video From J&K Falsely Shared as PoK Residents Pledging to Support India
This video dates back to August 2023 and is being falsely shared as recent.
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A video showing several men taking an oath to support India and its army is going viral on the internet.
What is the claim?: The claim states that it shows the residents of Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (PoK) voicing their support to India.
Who shared this?: Along with social media users, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Pragya Singh Thukar also shared this claim.
An archive can be seen here.
An archive can be seen here.
How did we find out the truth?: We noticed people holding placards in the video which read, "Gujjar Bakarwal Ekta Zindabad".
These screenshots are from the viral video.
(Source: Altered by The Quint)
Taking a cue, we performed a reverse image search on some of the keyframes of the video along with a relevant keyword search.
This led us to a video on Facebook shared on 19 August 2023 by a page named 'The Gujjars of Uri J&K'.
The caption stated that it shows 'ST bachao Andolan' at Uri in Baramulla district of Jammu and Kashmir.
"Gujjar Bakarwal people of Uri take oath to support their Indian Army and save constitution, democracy, and unity of the country," the caption added.
We also found another post with the same video shared on 21 August 2023 and the caption stated that the leader of the demonstration was Rafiq Balote.
Demonstration leader clarifies: Rafiq Balote, Chairperson of Block Development Council, Uri, who can be seen speaking on the microphone in the viral video clarified to us that this video is not recent.
"This video is from 18 August 2023 and is from Uri, Jammu and Kashmir. We are not PoK residents as claimed," he adds.
He added that the video shows people belonging to the Gujjar and Bakarwal communities.
On 28 July 2023, members of the Muslim Gujjar-Bakarwal tribe staged a demonstration against the Central government’s move to include the “Pahari Ethnic Group” in the Scheduled Tribe (ST) list through The Constitution (Jammu and Kashmir) Scheduled Tribes Order (Amendment) Bill, 2023 which was passed in Lok Sabha on 26 July 2023.
Conclusion: An old video from Uri, Jammu and Kashmir is being falsely shared as people of PoK are showing support to Indian army.
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