A video showing several Indian army soldiers fallen on the ground after an endurance training exercise at Mamun military station near Pathankot is being shared with the false claim that they collapsed after taking the COVID-19 vaccine and died.
BOOM spoke to a source in the Indian Army who dismissed the claim that the soldiers collapsed after vaccination and stated that they were exhausted due to excessive exertion during the training exercise that day.
In the 22 seconds video, we can spot army personnel attending to soldiers who have fallen on the ground.
The viral video is being shared with the caption, "Indian military force vaccinated its troops any many of them dropped dead..."
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The same video is being shared with the caption in Hindi on Facebook, which when translated reads, "The soldiers of the country got the vaccine and when they were running, many people have fainted. And many had a terrible heart attack, Now tell me is the vaccine right?"
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(In Hindi - देश के फौजियों ने वैक्सीन लगवाई ओर जब वो दौड़ रहे थे तो बहुत लोग बेहोश हो गए हैं और कइयों को भयंकर बीमारी दिल का दौरा पड़ा अब बताओ वैक्सीन सही है)
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FACT-CHECK
BOOM found that the viral video is from an incident at Mamun military station near Pathankot, Punjab, where a soldier died and four others had to be hospitalised after nearly three dozen soldiers collapsed during an endurance run at a training activity on August 21, 2021.
On breaking the video into keyframes using InVid, a video verification tool, and then running a reverse image search using Google Images, the search results showed posts that stated a soldier had died many others were hospitalized due to heatstroke during a training exercise in Pathankot.
Taking a hint from that, we then searched with the keywords 'Pathankot soldiers hospitalized training exercise', and found news reports on the incident. We can spot the same visuals in the video below as in the viral video.
The incident took place during a 10-km endurance run while carrying weapons and battle load as part of a recce troop competition being organised by 9 Corps in the morning when the weather was hot and humid reported The Tribune on August 21, 2021.
BOOM spoke to an Indian Army official who not wishing to be named, said the claim was false that the soldiers collapsed after vaccination and stated that they had collapsed due to exertion during the training exercise that day.
"On August 21, 2021, there was a training activity during which they (soldiers in the video) suffered from exertion, it was an excessive exertion issue during the training activity, where one suffers a heatstroke. It was nothing related to vaccination. One soldier died on the spot, and four are recovering in hospital. This had nothing to do with vaccination," he told BOOM.
It was learnt that the endurance competition was already going on for 72 hours and a 10-km leg with full load and weapon was undertaken at a relatively late hour, around 9 am, when the weather was not conducive reported The Indian Express on August 22, 2021.
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