CLAIM
A video is doing the rounds on social media with the claim that it was shot in Kashmir after 5 August. On 5 August, the central government abrogated Article 370 of the Constitution, which provided special status to the state of Jammu and Kashmir. J&K is also being reorganised into two union territories, which will take effect on 31 October.
In the video, a man can be heard at the start saying that the area where the video was shot is Srinagar’s Lal Chowk and the ambulance seen in the video, was carrying a dead body. He further goes on to say that several cars were parked in front of the ambulance that were blocking its way.
A part of the claim along with the video reads: “In the video the claim is made by the person who apparently recording this video that men in uniform took the ambulance keys away and there was a dead body in the vehicle.(sic)”
The video posted by the Facebook page ‘Jammu Kashmir TV’ had over 19,000 views and was shared over 600 times at the time of publishing this article.
The archived version can be seen here.
TRUE OR FALSE?
The claim shared with the video – that this video was shot after the abrogation of Article 370 – is false. While the claim mentions that the video was shot after 5 August, it actually dates back to March 2017. The video is from Srinagar’s Lal Chowk when the policemen stopped an ambulance which was carrying the body of 22-year-old Zahid Rashid Ganai.
WHAT WE FOUND OUT
We conducted a search on YouTube using keywords ‘kashmir stopped ambulance police’ and found a video that was uploaded on 28 March 2017. The video is titled as ‘Chadoora budgam Killings. Police Stopped An Ambulance Carrying Dead Body Of a Martyr.’
Taking a clue from there, we searched on Facebook using keywords ‘chadoora budgam killing ambulance’ and found that a user by the name of Ulfat Zargar had shared the same video on 29 March 2017.
A part of the description along with the video reads: “This oppression by state authorities is brutal & heartbreaking to see, how the relatives of the slain youth Zahid Rashid Ganai that included his brother and uncle were not ready to allow police to take the possession of the body.(sic)”
We then searched for news reports and found a Scroll article that had the same video. The article mentioned that the police had stopped an ambulance near Lal Chowk in Srinagar. The ambulance was carrying the body of 22-year-old Zahid Rashid Ganai who was hit by a bullet in the neck on 28 March 2017 in Central Kashmir’s Chadoora and died while he was being rushed to the hospital.
The ambulance was carrying his body back home when the policemen stopped the vehicle. The article further mentioned that the video went viral on social media after one of the boys who was in the ambulance, recorded a Facebook live of the entire incident.
WHAT HAD HAPPENED IN CHADOORA IN 2017?
Three civilians and one militant were killed on 28 March 2017 in Chadoora area of central Kashmir's Budgam district.
While the militant was killed in an encounter with the forces, the three civilians were killed when the security personnel reportedly opened fire on stone-pelting protesters near the encounter site.
“The operation was really difficult. We had to fight it on two different platforms, against militants and against local people,” Sanjay Kumar, DIG, CRPF had then said.
Security forces had launched a cordon and search operation in the Durbugh area of Chadoora following information about the presence of militants, a police official had said.
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