As lethal protests towards rising residing prices rocked Pakistan-administered Kashmir, a video surfaced in social media posts that falsely linked it to the unrest. The footage, which exhibits a crowd chanting on the street, has in reality circulated on-line since no less than August 2022 in posts about rallies towards authorities plans to switch extra energy to Islamabad.
“Now we’ve got to see this. Regrettable. Pakistanis shivered after listening to these slogans for the primary time. Azad (free) Kashmir,” learn an Urdu-language Fb put up that shared the video on Could 11, 2024.
The video, which racked up greater than 3,000 views, exhibits a crowd of protesters chanting and waving flags representing Pakistan-administered Kashmir, whereas a bunch of troopers look on.
“What do we would like? We would like freedom! We’ll get freedom from Pakistan! We’ll get freedom from India!” they shout.
The video circulated in comparable posts on Fb right here, right here and right here and on social media web site X right here, right here and right here.
4 individuals had been killed in protests towards rising residing prices in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, which ended on Could 14 after organisers accepted a authorities supply of economic help.
The Himalayan area is split between India and Pakistan, who each declare it in full.
Nevertheless, the video was in reality filmed years earlier than the protests broke out.
Outdated protest
Key phrase searches on Fb and X discovered comparable footage in posts from August 2022 a few protest towards plans to offer Pakistan’s capital Islamabad extra management over the area.
The identical scene is seen from the 14-second mark of a Fb video from August 12, 2022 (archived hyperlink).
“Azad Kashmir,” reads the Urdu-language Fb put up.
“Full wheel-jam strike continued in Azad Kashmir. Individuals of Muzaffarabad are chanting freedom slogans in entrance of the Pakistan military.”
Muzaffarabad is the capital of Pakistan-administered Kashmir.
Under is a screenshot comparability of the video shared in false posts (left) and the video from 2022 (proper). AFP has corrected the rotation of the video, which was flipped vertically.
An AFP photographer in Muzaffarabad confirmed the situation of the protest as Plate Street.
Related footage revealed in an X put up from August 12, 2022 included a scene that seems to choose up from the place the video within the false put up ends (archived hyperlink).
The Urdu-language put up learn: “Strikes and protests are taking place throughout Azad Kashmir. The protest in Muzaffarabad didn’t give approach to the Pakistani military car. Slogans had been raised towards the fifteenth constitutional modification.”
Indian information retailers Instances Now and Information 18 coated the protest on the time (archived hyperlinks right here and right here).
Instances Now reported that demonstrators opposed a constitutional modification that might switch the native authorities’s monetary and administrative powers to Islamabad.
A body from the falsely shared video — exhibiting a Pakistani army car — featured in a report on the protest by Indian information channel TV9 Bharatvarsh from August 16, 2022 (archived hyperlink).
Under is a screenshot comparability between a body from the falsely shared video (left) and the identical body sin TV9 Bharatvarsh’s report (proper):
The Hindi-language report is titled: “Protesters as soon as once more demanded independence from Pakistan in Muzaffarabad”.
Because the picture is proven, the anchor says: “Protests towards Pakistan have now gotten uncontrolled and the Pakistan military has been deployed on the streets of PoK (Pakistan-occupied Kashmir)”.
