Old, Unrelated Photos Used to Claim Kashmiris Died of Hunger
One of the photos appears to be a funeral of two men, while others show grieving people, probably family members.
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CLAIM
A post is circulating on Facebook, which claims that while those pelting stones in Kashmir are being noticed, nobody is paying any attention to those Kashmiris who are dying of hunger. This is the caption with the three photos that are in circulation:
“हाथ में पत्थर सबको दिखता था, अफसोस भूख से मर रहे कश्मीरी किसी को नजर नहीं आ रहे | #Savekashmir”
One of the photos appears to be a funeral of two men, who have supposedly died of starvation, while the other two show wailing women and children.
The context of the post is the situation in Jammu and Kashmir, following the Centre's move to revoke J&K's special status under Article 370, followed by curfew, lockdowns and other restrictions on the people of Kashmir.
At the time this story was published, the Facebook post had over 2,000 shares.
WHAT IS THE TRUTH?
The Quint found that although the photos are from Kashmir, they are not recent. Not only are they old, but they also show the aftermath of three different incidents where Kashmiris were killed. It should also be noted that the deceased depicted in these photos did not die of hunger.
WHAT WE FOUND
Photo 1
On conducting a reverse image search, we found that this photo is from August 2016, when five civilians were reportedly killed by government forces in central Kashmir’s Beerwah area.
According to reports, this incident took place during the unrest prevailing in the Valley after the death of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani. The report also identified the dead men as Mohammad Ashraf Wani of Hazarpora, Javaid Ahmad Najar, Manzoor Ahmad Lone and Javaid Ahmad Sheikh, and said that thousands attended the funeral of the slain youths.
One report attributed the photo to Kashmiri photojournalist Bilal Bahadur and also added other photos from the funeral.
Photo 2
The Quint conducted a reverse image search of this photo and found that it was from May 2018. According to reports, 15-year-old Umar Kumar, a Class 9 student in Kashmir's Shopian district, was killed after being hit by a bullet in firing by security forces. The firing had ensued during clashes after security forces launched an operation to track down a group of militants in the area.
The photo in question, attributed to Reuters, shows his grieving sister, holding her slain brother's school uniform shirt, which she placed on his body after he was brought home, reports said.
The report by NDTV also carried another photo of his sister, wailing while she holds his shirt.
Photo 3
On carrying out a reverse image search, we found that this photo is also an old one, from November 2018. According to a report by news agency AFP, this photo, taken by AFP, is from a funeral carried out after a bloody Sunday in the Valley, which left eight people dead in Shopian, including six alleged militants, a soldier and a teenage civilian. All eight were killed in a shootout that broke out between ultras and security forces in the area.
This video by a digital portal from November 2018, also has a photo of the same scene from a different angle, showing the children and the woman in the image.
Therefore, all the photos in the Facebook post are from incidents that took place between 2016 and 2018 and show people who died as a result of encounters and clashes, not hunger.
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