Republic TV, Times Now, ABP News Run Old Video As Pak Ceasefire Violation

Several mainstream news channels such as Republic TV, Times Now, and ABP News on Thursday passed off an old video - dating at least a year - claiming it showed a recent ceasefire violation by Pakistan along the Line of Control (LOC) in Jammu and Kashmir.

The viral clip was reported by the above mentioned news channels as an 'exclusive' and footage to depict the recent ceasefire violations by Pakistan that were reported along the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir on May 20, 2020.

Pakistan violated the ceasefire along the LoC in Jammu and Kashmir's Poonch district resorting to motar shelling and targeting of Indian posts and border villages in the area on May 20, 2020, Times of India reported.

The 28-seconds long video shows what appears to be a motar fired from the roof of a house, chants of Allah-hu-Akbar and Nara-e-Takbir can be heard in the video.

Old Video In New Packaging

Republic TV ran the viral clip on May 21, 2020, claiming that it had 'accessed' the footage.

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Times Now also reported on the viral video on May 21. 2020, also calling it their 'exclusive' and linking it to the recent ceasefire violations.

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The viral video was reported by ABP News on May 21, 2020, and was also tweeted by Neeraj Rajput, Associate Editor (Defence & Security) of ABPNews on Twitter without any mention that the clip was old.

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Also Read: Video From Pakistan Passed Off As Social Distancing Flouted In Hyderabad

FACT-CHECK

BOOM found that the viral video dates back to February 2019, and is being falsely being linked to the recent ceasefire violations reported along the Line of Control by Pakistan in Jammu and Kashmir.

We broke the video into key-frames and performed a reverse image search using Google Images, which showed that the video was old and dates back to February 2019.

Several Pakistani Facebook users and pages had shared the 28 seconds video in February 2019, with the caption which when translated from Urdu reads, "Share as much as possible. In Azad Kashmir Pakistan Army blew up India's check post. Share If you are with Pakistan Army."

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We searched with the Urdu caption, "زیادہ سے زیادہ شیئر کریں آزاد کشمیر پاکستان آرمی نے انڈیا کی چیک پوسٹ اڑا دی شیئر کریں اگر آپ پاکستان فوج کے ساتھ ہیں تو" and found several other posts uploaded on Facebook on Febuary 27, 2019.

On comparing the viral clip reported by media channels with the video uploaded on February 27, 2019, we found that both were the same which shows that the video is not recent as being reported.

BOOM could not independently verify the location, or the incident in question, however, we could establish that the video is at least a year old.

Also Read: Did Google Maps Remove The LoC Between India And Pakistan? Fact-Check