Viral Photo of Tricolour Being Burnt Is From Pakistan, Not India
The flag was burnt by Pakistani protesters who were angry about PM Modi’s remarks made in 2015.
advertisement
CLAIM
A picture of two people burning an Indian flag has gone viral. The caption of this picture reads, “राष्ट्रपति से मांग है, तिरंगा जलने वालो को ज़िंदा जलाया जाये, बीच चौराहे पर (इसको धर्म से नहीं जोड़ें)”
(Translation: We demand from the President that the people who burn the tricolour should be burnt alive publicly. This should not be connected to faith.)
This post was shared by a Facebook page called Kattar Hindu. It had over 14,000 shares at the time this article was being written.
The text insinuates that the flag was being burned in India, which is what makes it “anti-national”.
TRUE OR FALSE?
The claim that this picture is from India is false. The original image shared by the Facebook page is from Pakistan, with a misleading caption.
WHAT WE FOUND OUT
On conducting a reverse image search, we were led to a website called Bloggers Speak. Here, the exact same image was shared with the headline, “Pakistani protesters burn a poster of PM Narendra Modi.”
The original image was clicked on 11 June 2015 from a protest in Multan, Pakistan. The caption for the image on the website stated that the Pakistani protesters were burning an Indian flag in response to comments by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
PM Modi had then acknowledged that Indian forces had a role to play in the 1971 Indo-Pak war which created Bangladesh, reported News 18.
The image on the website was attributed to AP Images. We further conducted a search and found the image on the AP Images website.
Thus, it can be clearly seen that the image does not have Indian people burning the Indian flag. Instead, it is Pakistani protesters.
(Not convinced of a post or information you came across online and want it verified? Send us the details on WhatsApp at 9910181818, or e-mail it to us at webqoof@thequint.com and we'll fact-check it for you. You can also read all our fact-checked stories here.)
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)