CLAIM
A number of photos have been circulating on social media with the claim that they depict the current situation in Kashmir, after the abrogation of Article 370. While some photos are of a large congregation of women praying and wailing, some are of crying children, and some of wounded children and women, with bandages.
The Quint received a query regarding the photos’ veracity.
WHAT IS THE TRUTH?
We found out that most of the photos are old and have been taken out of context, falsely claiming to show the current situation in Kashmir.
What We Found
Photo 1
Upon conducting a reverse image search, The Quint found that the photo dates back to September 2016 and was published in a blog about the situation in Kashmir authored by a Nazma Mustafa. The photo has been attributed to photoblog.nbcnews.com.
Although we couldn’t locate the original photo on the NBC News portal the blog credits, it’s clear that the photo has been available online since 2016 and in no manner reflects the current situation in Kashmir.
Photo 2
On conducting a reverse image search on this photo, we came across a blog called ‘Forum Against War on People’, which carried an article by The New York Times and the same photo. The article in question is dated 14 August 2010, thus proving the photo isn’t depicting Kashmir’s current situation.
The photo has been attributed to AP and has been captioned: “At the funeral procession of Iqbal Ahmed Khan, a youth who succumbed to injuries sustained in police firing last week, in Srinagar...”, suggesting the incident’s location.
While The Quint could not find the same photo, upon searching for images with the caption, we came across a photo of the same scene taken from a different angle, this time from Getty Images. The women in the photo, as well as the window behind which they are standing, are the same.
The caption of this photo also establishes that the incident when the boy was killed took place on 4 August, five days prior to when the photo was captured. This would place the photo being clicked between 9-10 August 2010. The photo was credited to AFP.
Therefore, it is evident that the photo is not of the current situation in Kashmir.
Photo 3
On conducting a reverse image search on the collage, The Quint came across the two photos which constitute the top half of the collage.
According to a Hindustan Times report dated 30 August 2017, the girl in the collage is Zohra, daughter of an Assistant Sub-Inspector of Jammu & Kashmir Police Abdul Rashid Shah, who was gunned down by militants in the south Kashmir town of Anantnag.
The other photo in the collage is of nine-year-old Burhan Fayaz, who was captured by photographers, crying at the funeral of his friend Amir Nazir. Nazir was a student of Class 9 who died after being hit by a stray bullet in the neck during an encounter between security forces and militants in Pulwama in south Kashmir. This photo is dated March 2017.
Photo 4
On conducting a reverse image search for this photo, we came across a report in the Pakistani newspaper Dawn from September 2016, where the photo had been used. The article titled ‘What pellet guns have done to protesters in Kashmir’ details the effects of pellet guns on victims. The photo, though lacking an exact date, was attributed to the author of the article himself, Ahmer Khan. Therefore, this photo does not show the current situation in Kashmir since it was taken, at the very least, in 2016.
Photo 5
Conducting a reverse image search on this photo, we came across the original photo in an article dated 4 May 2017. The article, by Kashmir-based newspaper Greater Kashmir, said that the incident shown in the photo took place in May 2017, when government forces used tear-gas to prevent students from marching in the streets in Sopore town of north Kashmir’s Baramulla district.
According to the report, the students of Government Boys Higher Secondary School, Degree College, Sopore, and Government Girls Higher Secondary School, were staging massive protests against the arrests of several students during two weeks of protests across Kashmir.
Therefore, this photo is old as well, and does not show the current situation in Kashmir.
Photo 6
On conducting a reverse search for this image, The Quint came across a post by a Tunisian Facebook page from 14 August, which had uploaded this picture.
Upon going through the comments, it appeared that the scene in the photo depicted an Islamic animal slaughter ritual of some kind. In the photo below, the animals can be seen clearly.
Therefore, the photo does not show killings in Kashmir but an animal slaughter ritual from a different country.
Photo 7
On conducting a reverse search for this image, we came across an article on a website which spoke in detail about the massacre of Gaza’s children. The article is dated 30 December 2008. We found the photo in question in the article, along with a caption that reads: “Samera Baalusha (34) carries her surving child Mohamad (15 months) while she waits to see the body of her daughter Jawaher Baalusha (aged 4) during the funeral held for her and four of her sisters who were killed in an Israeli missile strike, on 29 December 2008 in the Jebaliya refugee camp, in the northern Gaza Strip.”
However, there was no photo credit with the picture.
Using the caption to search further, we came across a photo on Getty Images, which showed the same woman and her son from a different angle. This photo was attributed to a photographer by the name of Abid Katib.
According to the caption with the photo, Jawaher Baalusha and four of her sisters were killed during an Israeli air raid while they were sleeping together in their bedroom. Medics said that the raid had targeted a mosque near their home, in Jabalia.
Therefore, not only is this photo 11 years old, but it is also not from Kashmir and instead, is from Gaza.
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