Fact-Check: Does This Video Show Kukis Attacking Security Personnel in Manipur?

According to several reports, the video is from Myanmar and unrelated to Manipur violence.

Fact-Check | The video is unrelated to the violence in Manipur.

(Photo: Altered by The Quint)

A video which shows several people firing at each other in an open field is going viral on the internet.

What are users claiming?: Those sharing the video said that it shows member of the Kuki community firing at security personnel using sophisticated weaponry in Manipur.

An archive of the post can be seen here.

(Source: Twitter/Screenshot)

(Archives of similar claims can be found here and here.)

What is the truth?: According to reports, the video is from Myanmar and shows State Administration Council (SAC) soldiers fighting against civilian soldiers in Kalay region.

How did we find that out?: We divided the video into several keyframes using InVID, a video verification tool, and performed a keyword search.

• We came across the same video uploaded on the official Facebook handle of The Hakha Post - a Myanmar based organisation.

• The video was uploaded on 27 May.

• It's caption mentioned that 15 SAC were killed and several injured during a clash in Kalay region.

• The clash happened between SAC soldiers and some civilian soldiers.

• A keyframe of the video was also available on the official Facebook account of British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) Burmese.

• The image was uploaded on 28 May and its caption mentioned that several military council soldiers were killed and injured during a skirmish.

• On comparing the image with a keyframe of the viral video, we found that both of them are from the same incident.

A similar setting can be seen in both images.

(Source: BBC Facebook/Screenshot)

We reached out to The Hakha Post: Speaking to The Quint, the reporter said that the video was originally posted on  Chin National Defence Force (Vakok Battalion) Facebook Page, which was later deleted.

• They said the video was presented as a battle report from the handle and details of the battle were still present on the Facebook page in a separate post.

• It added that 14 people were killed.

Other sources: According to Myanmar Pressphoto Agency (MPA), around 30 soldiers of the military column lost their lives in an attack by the local defense forces. The attack happened near Thar Si village on 27 May.

Recent updates on Manipur: Amid clashes between Meitei and Kuki communities, Union Home Minister Amit Shah visited the state. He asked the communities to remove mistrust and restore peace.

• Indian Police Service (IPS) officer of Tripura cadre, Rajiv Singh, was appointed the new Director General of Police of Manipur on 1 June.

An archive of the post can be found here.

(Source: Twitter/Screenshot)

Another video going viral: A different video (archive here) which shows similar visuals of firing between two groups is being shared as a recent incident from Manipur. However, a Burmese speaker told The Quint that the language used in the video is Burmese. But we were not able to independently verify the video, nor did we find any visual evidence linking it to Myanmar.

We have reached out to more journalists in Myanmar and the copy will be updated as and when we get more information on the second video.

Conclusion: While we could not independently verify the location or the date of the video, according to reports, the video is from a clash in Myanmar and unrelated to Manipur.

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