A viral video showing people on the streets protesting against the abrogation of Article 370 is being shared with the claim that it is from Punjab and that it’s a recent protest.
However, we found that the video is from September 2019 when students, farmers, workers had come together to protest against abrogation of Article 370 in Punjab’s Mohali.
CLAIM
The video is being shared with the claim: “Now Punjab demands 370 restoration.”
The video shared by Facebook account ‘Voice of People’ had garnered over nine lakh views and 38,000 shares at the times of publishing the article.
The video was massively shared on Facebook with the same claim.
WHAT WE FOUND OUT
We searched on YouTube using keywords “punjab protest article 370” and found a video uploaded in September 2019 in which similar visuals as compared to the viral video could be seen.
Further, we came across another video on YouTube with caption: “Kashmir : Students and farmer come together in Punjab india against Act 370.” This, too, was uploaded in September last year.
We noticed that this video carried the logo of ‘BBC’ on it. Consequently, a search on the YouTube channel of BBC News Punjabi showed the footage of the protest that took place last year.
While the BBC video does not have the exact visuals as the viral video, however, we could match several frames and the people seen in both the videos.
For instance, the girl seen towards the end of the viral video is the same as the one seen at 0:45 seconds in the BBC video.
At 1:02 minutes in the BBC video, the girl wearing a blue top is the same as the one seen in the viral video.
Further, two boys can be seen in the viral video sloganeering against the Punjab government. Same people can be seen in the BBC video at 0:41 seconds chanting the same slogans.
Not only are the people seen in both the videos same, even the slogans heard in the two are same as well.
Slogans such as “Kashmir sangharsh zindabad...punjab sarkar murdabad..punjab police murdabad” can be heard in both the videos.
The BBC video mentions that several workers, students and farmers had then come together to protest against the abrogation of Article 370. They had said that they will hold a protest in Punjab’s Mohali on 15 September, however, the “administration had refused permission for it”.
Speaking to The Quint, Kuldeep Singh Chahal, SSP Mohali, too, said the video in question is an old one.
Evidently, an old video of people protesting against Article 370 in Punjab has been revived to claim that it’s a recent one.
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