Old Image of Injured Woman Breastfeeding Child Falsely Linked To Manipur

This image has been on the internet since 2021 and predates the ongoing violence in Manipur.

Fact-check: This image of an injured woman is not from Manipur.

(Photo: Altered by The Quint)

A picture of an injured woman breastfeeding a child is going viral on the internet, claiming that this image it is from the ongoing violence in Manipur.

Manipur has been witnessing ethnic violence for over two months now, after clashes broke out between the Meitei and Kuki tribes on 3 May that has taken over 100 lives so far.

(Note: We have refrained from adding any archive links due to disturbing nature of the visuals.)

The photo is going viral on Twitter and Facebook.

(Source: Facebook/Screenshot)

What's the truth?: This image has been on the internet since 2021 and is unrelated to Manipur.

How did we find out the truth?: We performed a reverse image search on the image and came across an old Facebook post that carried the same viral image.

• The post was from 30 September 2021 and the caption in Burmese language spoken in Myanmar stated that the army had attacked the woman seen in the photo.

An archive can be seen here.

(Source: Facebook/Screenshot)

• We also found a report published in a fact-checking organisation Fact Crescendo on 11 October 2021 which said that the image was first shared in Myanmar on 30 September 2021.

• It had another post from September 2021 with the same image and the caption dismissed the old claims of this image being from Khayan Township of Yangon, Myanmar.

• It also said that this incident could have happened in Thailand.

• We have reached out to journalists in Myanmar for more information on the image and this copy will be updated as and when we hear back from them.

Unrelated posts from Myanmar used to spread disinformation:

The Quint's WebQoof team has debunked several pieces of mis/disinformation around the Manipur violence where visuals from Myanmar were used to create a false narrative. You can read some of these fact-check reports here, here, here and here.

Conclusion: While we were unable to independently verify the location and the context of the image we know that it predates the ongoing violence in Manipur.

(Not convinced of a post or information you came across online and want it verified? Send us the details on WhatsApp at 9643651818, or e-mail it to us at [e-mail] and we'll fact-check it for you. You can also read all our fact-checked stories here.)