Viral Claim About Karnataka Burqa-Clad Girl Muskan's Death Is Hoax!

Speaking to The Quint, Muskan said that she is absolutely fine and is now in Saudi Arabia.

Fact-Check | The claim states that Muskan Khan has passed away. 

(Photo: Altered by The Quint)

A photo which shows a man carrying an unconscious girl wearing a hijab (face veil) is being shared on social media identifying the girl as Muskan, the burqa-clad girl in Mandya, Karnataka, who stoop up to a group of saffron-clad boys chanting 'Jai Shri Ram' slogans in February 2022.

The claim along with the photo goes on to state that 'she is no more'.

However, neither is the news true nor is the photo of Muskan.

• The photograph is from a protest that happened in Kashmir in April 2017 and the girl in the photo fell unconscious during the clashes near Women's College, MA Road, in Srinagar. This was confirmed by Umar Ganie, the photojournalist who took the picture.

• We also contacted Muskan, who told us that she is doing fine and is in Saudi Arabia with her family.

Ever since the incident, Muskan has been targeted with misinformation at several occasions. You can read some of our fact-checks here.

CLAIM

One of the captions with the viral post in Bengali states that Muskan, who stood up against those boys in Mandya, has been killed.

Archived version of the post can be seen here.

(Source: Facebook/Screenshot) 

Several short videos are also being shared online with the same claim. The videos show a picture of Muskan from February 2022 and this picture which shows a man carrying a girl.

Archives of similar posts can be seen here, here, here, and here.

WHAT WE FOUND OUT

On conducting a reverse image search on the photo, we came across an article published on Mid-Day in April 2017.

The article titled When the girls come out pelting in Kashmir mentioned that students from Women's College, MA Road, staged protests and pelted stones at the security forces.

Injured student from the protest in Kashmir in 2017 being carried to the hospital. 

(Source: Mid-Day/Screenshot)

Another article on Rediff.com from 17 April 2017 carried the same picture with a caption and mentioned the photo credit as 'Umar Ganie'.

We reached out to Ganie, who is a photojournalist with news agency PTI, and he corroborated that the picture was taken by him on 17 April 2017.

"The picture shows an injured college girl, who was being shifted to hospital through a footbridge, after she fell unconscious due to tear gas shelling."

Umar Ganie, Photojournalist

He also shared the original and a few more images from the same incident with us, which further proved that the photo was from 2017.

The metadata shows that the image was taken on 17 April 2017.

(Source: Altered by The Quint)

'CLAIMS ARE FAKE, I AM FINE': MUSKAN

The Quint also got in touch with Muskan, who rubbished these rumours and said that she is absolutely fine.

"I am fine and all these claims are fake. I am currently in Saudi Arabia for a religious trip with my family."

Muskan Khan

She also added that she is pursuing her Bachelors of Commerce (BCom) in Karnataka.

Evidently, an unrelated and an old photo was linked to Muskan to push a false claim.

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