2016 Photo of Mehbooba Mufti Offering Prayers at a Temple Passed of as Recent

The photo dates back to June 2016 and shows former J&K CM Mehbooba Mufti at the Kheer Bhawani Temple near Srinagar.

A newspaper clipping showing former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti offering milk to a deity at a temple is being shared on social media as a recent incident. Some of the claims, which hail the prime minister, state that she visited a temple after the abrogation of Article 370.

(Archives of more claims on social media can be seen here, here, and here.)

But...?: The photo dates back to June 2016 and shows Mufti visiting the Kheer Bhawani Temple in Ganderbal, Kashmir when she was the chief minister of the erstwhile state.

How did we find out?: The caption of the photo in the viral claim mentions that it shows Mehbooba Mufti at the Kheer Bhawani Temple in Ganderbal, Kashmir.

• Taking a cue from this, we ran a reverse image search to look for the photo.

• This led us to an NDTV article carrying the viral photo, which was published on 6 June 2016.

• It mentioned that Mufti met Kashmiri Pandits at the Kheer Bhawani temple's fair in Ganderbal district near Srinagar.

• We found the same photo in a 2016 article published by Hindi news organisation Amar Ujala. The photo was credited to PTI.

• The Quint had also reported on Mufti's visit to the temple.

We also found the picture on PTI's website, which was shared on 12 June 2016. The caption stated that Mufti had offered prayers at the Kheer Bhawani Temple during its annual fair, when she was chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir.

Conclusion: An old photo dating back to June 2016, showing former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti offering prayers at a temple is being shared to claim that she did so after the abrogation of Article 370 in 2019.

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