A video of former cricketer Irfan Pathan attending a local cricket tournament in Kamarhati, West Bengal is viral with false claims that the cricketer visited the anti-Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) protests at Shaheen Bagh to show his solidarity. The video shows Pathan waving at a crowd from a moving vehicle.
The original audio of the clip has been overlaid with a song titled 'Pakistan Zindabad' by Sahir Ali Bagga.
Pathan is seen being accompanied with Madan Mitra, former sports minister of West Bengal and Trinamool Congress leader. A location tag on the clip shows that it was recorded in Shaheen Bagh, Okhla, New Delhi.
Delhi's Shaheen Bagh has been witnessing a unique sit-in demonstration led by women, against the new Citizenship law. On Saturday, a gunman, who identified himself as Kapil Gujjar, opened fire at the protesters. Gujjar has since been taken into custody.
The viral posts are shared with a Hindi caption, that translates to, "One more lion has arrived at Saheen Bagh, His name is Irfan Pathan."
(Original Text in Hindi: "एक और शेर आ गया शाहीन बाग नाम है Irfan Pathan)
The clip had been viewed more than 3 lakh times at the time of writing this article. It is viral on Facebook with the same caption.
BOOM was able to ascertain that Pathan did not visit the Shaheen Bagh protest premises with Madan Mitra. Below is a screenshot, where Pathan can be seen along with Mitra (circled) in the video.
Upon relevant keyword searches on Facebook, we came across a post on the official page of Mitra, which announced the arrival of Pathan for a local cricket tournament on January 14 this year in Kamarhati, North 24 Parganas. Titled the Cricket Premier Knock Out Tournament, the competition felicitated Pathan, who retired from all forms of cricket, earlier this year.
A Facebook Live was also broadcast from Mitra's official page on the same day.
Pathan can be seen in the same red vehicle, that is visible in the viral clip.
Left: screenshot from the viral video, Right: screenshot from facebook live from Mitra's page
Furthermore, Pathan also clicked a short video documenting his fans cheering him and posted the same on Twitter.
BOOM also found that the Pakistan Zindabad song by Sahir Ali Bagga was overlaid on the viral clip. Below is the link of the full song, that was uploaded to YouTube by Inter-Services Public Relations, the media wing of Pakistan's armed forces.
