Does This Image Show a Man Crying While Clicking Photos of Lord Ram’s Idol? No!

The original image is from 2019 and shows an Iraqi photographer crying after his national side lost a match.

Fact-Check | The image of a photographer crying while looking at the idol of Lord Ram is altered.

(Photo: Altered by The Quint)

A collage is going viral on the internet with a claim that it shows a photographer crying while clicking images of Lord Ram's idol at the newly inaugurated temple in Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh.

You can view an archive of the post here.

(Source: X (formerly Twitter)/Screenshot)

(More archives of similar posts can be found here and here.)

What is the truth?: The image is altered and is unrelated to the recent inauguration of the temple.

• The original one dates back to 2019 and shows an Iraqi photographer crying after his national football team lost against Qatar in AFC Asian Cup.

How did we find that out?: We performed a reverse image search and came across a picture of the same photographer shared on the official X handle of AFC Asian Cup.

• It was posted on 24 January 2019 and was captioned, "Passionate. Emotional moment for an Iraqi photographer during the Round of 16 clash against Qatar ! #AsianCup2019."

• Team WebQoof further found the same image uploaded on the official X account of Iraq national team.

• It also carried a different image, which showed the photographer wearing a t-shirt with Iraq's national flag on it.

• The post identified the photographer as Mohamed Al Azawiy.

News reports: A report published in Al Jazeera said that the image of the photographer which showed him crying after his national side lost against Qatar went viral on social media platforms.

The report was published on 24 January 2019.

(Source: Al Jazeera/Screenshot)

A popular 'fake news' template: This image has become a popular meme template on the internet. Previously, we had debunked it when it was falsely linked to former Indian cricket team captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni's run out in the 2019 ICC World Cup semi-final match. You can read it here.

Conclusion: It is clear that the image is altered and does not show a photographer crying while clicking pictures of Lord Ram's idol.

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