Fact Check: Indian tricolor was not hoisted in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir, viral picture is edited

Aaj Tak Fact Check: Are the citizens of Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (PoK) so unhappy with the Shahbaz Sharif government that they have hoisted the Indian tricolor in protest? In fact, massive protests are being seen in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir or POK from May 10, 2024. People here are on the streets against the rising inflation and economic policies of the Shahbaz government and reports of violence are coming out from there. Meanwhile, while sharing a picture on social media, it is being claimed that the protesters have hoisted the tricolor in PoK.

What is the claim?

While sharing the viral picture, an ex-user wrote, “Has Pakistan’s hold on POK weakened? Tricolor waved; Demand for merger with India!! In Pakistan occupied Jammu and Kashmir, people’s agitation for their rights has increased…!!* The citizens there have revolted against the cruelty at the hands of Pakistan Police and Pakistan Administration…!! It seems that Amit Shah ji has started the work! Now it seems that PoK will come back to India soon!!”

Some social media users have described it as an incident in Rawalakot of PoK. The viral picture has also been shared on Facebook, Instagram and threads with the same claims.
Using the same picture, media organizations like News Nation Punjab Kesari and Gujarati Mid Day have also published news about hoisting the tricolor in PoK. WON and Siasat Daily have used the viral image while reporting about the PoK protests.

Aaj Tak Fact Check found in its investigation that this viral picture of Rawalakot with tricolor flag is edited. This demonstration definitely took place in PoK but the Indian flag was not waved during this period. We tell you in detail how we reached this conclusion.

Investigation:

While searching for the viral picture of the tricolor, we found that the picture has been reversed, that is, the thing that is seen on the left, in the actual picture is on the right. many on x too users Has shared the real picture. Actually, the photos are ‘flipped’ or upside down so that they cannot be easily found through reverse search.

If you read the letters visible in the picture carefully, it becomes clear that it has been reversed. In the original picture an auto is seen on which BAZGAR is written. Whereas in the viral picture, letters Z and G can be seen upside down. We have compared the pictures of these two, which can be seen below.

This picture is of Bank Road, Rawalakot

Searching using Urdu keywords regarding the ongoing protests in PoK, we found a Facebook reel dated May 12, which had videos of different protests. The video seen on the top left matches the viral picture. It is written on it, “Rawalakot Tourism Hotel”. Rawalakot is the capital of Poonch in PoK. Comparison of the Facebook video and the viral picture shows that both the locations are the same.

When we searched Rawalakot Tourism Hotel on Google Maps, we found “Green Valley Hotel” near this hotel. A video was shared on the Google Maps page of the Green Valley Hotel in 2023. This video is also from the exact place where this demonstration took place.

When did this protest happen?

To know about this protest, we spoke to Waqar Khan, whose shop named ‘Kashmir General Store’ is located on Bank Road in Rawalakot. He told us that this demonstration had taken place in front of his shop on May 10. Waqar clearly denied that the Indian tricolor was waved during the demonstration.

us on 10 may facebook post And on May 11th Youtube video Found some more pictures and videos of the same demonstration. There was no Indian flag anywhere in all these pictures and videos. This also confirms what Waqar Khan said.

There is no report about the tricolor in Pakistani media

If the Indian flag had been waved during any anti-government protest in PoK, it would have been a sensational news there and obviously it would have been published in the Pakistani media. But we found that there has been a lot of reporting of this demonstration in the Pakistani media, but there has been no mention of hoisting the tricolor anywhere. The special thing is that many media reports The same picture has been used but the tricolor is not visible anywhere in it.

We spoke to Jabbar Choudhary, executive editor of Pakistan’s Sama TV. He said, “The picture being shared on social media is completely fake. There have been demonstrations in Rawalakot but the tricolor was not hoisted.”

Tampering with the photo is clearly visible in photo forensics.

We used the InVid tool to check whether the image was tampered with. It is seen in the GIF that light green marks show the place where the image has been tampered with. This is the same place where the tricolor is seen in the viral picture.

conclusion: It becomes clear that the claim of waving the Indian flag during the demonstration in PoK is not true. The tricolor has been edited and added separately to the picture.

(This fact-check was originally Aaj Tak Fact Check News. Here he is being introduced as a member of Shakti Collective.)