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Altered Image Viral as Crowd Watching Babar Azam's Batting in J&K's Lal Chowk

The original photo shows the crowd watching the live broadcast of ISRO's Chandrayaan-3 landing on 23 August.

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Shortly after the first match in Asia Cup 2023 between Pakistan and Nepal, an image of a crowd gathered in front of a screen at Jammu and Kashmir's Lal Chowk has gone viral.

What is the claim?: Those sharing the image have claimed that it showed people watching the 151-run innings of Pakistani cricketer and captain, Babar Azam.

(Archives of similar claims can be found here and here.)

What is the truth?: While the image is from J&K, it has been digitally edited to show that the crowd was watching Azam play live on screen.

  • The original image shows the crowd watching the landing of the Indian Space Research Organisation's (ISRO) Chandrayaan-3.

  • The other image is also from the same occasion at Lal Chowk.

  • Both these images existed before the commencement of the Asia Cup tournament.

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How did we find out?: We did a Google reverse image search and found a post dated 23 August by Kashmir-based photojournalist, Basit Zargar on X that included similar images as the viral one.

  • The post was accompanied by the caption that the crowd had gathered to watch the landing of ISRO's Chandrayaan-3.

IMAGE 1:

We matched the images and found that both the images had the same background.

IMAGE 2: The same post included another picture that had similarities with the viral image.

  • We also found a post by Srinagar police on X from 24 August that included the same image as one of the viral images highlighting the event at Lal Chowk.

  • Further, several news reports noted the live broadcast of the Chandrayaan-3 landing at Lal Chowk.

  • Additionally, we found no news reports to support the claim that the match between Pakistan and Nepal was screened at Lal Chowk.

  • The Quint has reached out to Basit Zargar for his inputs and the story will be updated when we get a response.

Conclusion: Clearly, the image has been edited to show the gathering at Lal Chowk in J&K watching Pakistan's match. The original image shows the crowd watching the live broadcast of ISRO's Chandrayaan-3 landing.

(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 webqoof@thequint.com and we'll fact-check it for you. You can also read all our fact-checked stories here.)

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