A day after Section 144, prohibiting the assembly of groups of four or more people, was lifted in Jammu, Abdullah Gul, shared a video on Saturday, 10 August, claiming that it was from a recent violent activity in Kashmir. Abdullah is the son of General Hamid Gul who was the former chief of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).
The claim when translated in English, reads, “Violence has started in Kashmir, this video has been sent by a Kashmiri sister. Qaaid-e-azam (Jinnah) had ordered the army to march towards Kashmir. We are trying to help in a diplomatic, political, and an ethical way. Imran Khan says that if Pakistan will be attacked, it will retaliate. Isn't Kashmir a part of Pakistan? Is this what Tipu Sultan would have done?”
The archived version of the tweet can be viewed here.
The same video was also shared by ‘Times of Gaza’ and claimed that ‘Indian forces are brutally killing people in Kashmir during the lockdown.’
The archived version of the tweet can be viewed here.
VIDEO DATES BACK TO OCTOBER 2018
We did a frame-to-frame analysis using InVID, a video verification tool, and then reverse-searched each frame on Google, which led us to a link in which the same video was embedded. The text along with the video read, “The civilian death toll has risen to seven with the death of another teenager, the death toll of civilians has risen to seven in Kulgam district of south Kashmir.”
Consequently, we searched on YouTube using keywords ‘death Kulgam October,’ and found a video that was uploaded on 21 October 2018. This video was the same as the video that was shared by Abdullah Gul and Times of Gaza. The video is titled ‘In Video Seven Civilian killed in Kulgam district of south Kashmir.’
Further, a local Kashmiri journalist confirmed to The Quint that the video is old and from October 2018 when civilians were killed in Kulgam.
WHAT HAD HAPPENED IN KULGAM IN OCTOBER?
Three militants were killed on 21 October 2018 in an encounter with security forces in Kulgam district of Jammu and Kashmir, while six civilians lost their lives in a blast following the gunfight there.
The security forces had launched a cordon and search operation in Laroo village after receiving information about the presence of militants in the area. During the operation, the militants fired upon them, following which an encounter broke out in which three terrorists were killed.
Soon after the encounter, a few civilians visited the encounter site, and some explosive substance went off resulting in the death of six civilians and injuring dozen others.
(With inputs from PTI and IANS)
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