Claim: A video shows an assistant commissioner of Punjab slapping a street hawker for illegal roadside vending.
Fact: The claim is false. The video likely originates from Indian-administered Kashmir and shows a woman confronting/hitting a man for swindling money.
X user @DrXiaKhan shared a video on X, writing, “
پنجاب حکومت پاکستان
مبینہ طور غيرقانونی روڈ پر ريڈی لگانے پر اسسٹنٹ کمشنر صاحبہ غصہ۔
کیا اسسٹنٹ کمشنر کسی شہری کو اس طرح تھپڑ مارنے کا مجاز ہے کیا کوئی قانون اس کو شہری کی اس قدر تذلیل کی اجازت دیتا ہے ؟”
[Translation: Punjab Government Pakistan
Assistant Commissioner expresses anger over allegedly illegal roadside vending.
Is an Assistant Commissioner authorised to slap a citizen like this? Does any law permit such humiliation of a citizen?]
The clip does not include any visuals, only audio.
Fact or Fiction?
Soch Fact Check reverse-searched keyframes of the viral video and found that it was shared as early as 5 October 2024, on the Facebook page ‘Viral Kashmir Bazar’. The video was captioned: “#moneyscam #viral money scam Zahid mircha from sopore isne bohat sareil logo si paise khayi hain so plz aware from these people #kashmirnews #kashmirupdates #sopore”
[Translation: Zahid Mircha from Sopore has swindled money from a lot of people.]
In the complete video, a woman can be seen hitting a man. While what she says is not entirely intelligible, she mentions that the man was withholding a salary. He demanded more cash from her brother, which they had given him. She added that the man currently has “1 lac, 90 thousand something.” Towards the end of the video, another person can be heard speaking, who says that the man being beaten up has taken money from two to four other people in the area.
A quick Google-search revealed that Sopore is a town located in the Baramulla district of Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir. This suggests that the video likely originated outside of Pakistan.
The description or about sections of the page did not specify its location. However, a review of recent posts on the account confirmed that the page’s creator is based in Indian-administered Kashmir, as the posts included videos of incidents in the region.
A keyword search to check if such an incident from Punjab was reported in the news did not yield any results.
While Soch Fact Check was unable to verify the exact origin of the video, we conclude that it likely does not show any assistant commissioner from Punjab. This is mainly because the video first appeared on an account originating from Indian-administered Kashmir. In addition, the language being spoken for most part in the video differs from Urdu, Punjabi, or Siraiki, which are among some of the commonly spoken languages in the province.
Virality
The claim was shared here, here, here, here, here, and here on Facebook. Archived here, here, here, here, here, and here.
On X, it was shared here, here, here, here, here, and here. Archived here, here, here, here, here, and here.
Conclusion: The claim that a video shows an assistant commissioner in Punjab hitting a man for illegal roadside vending is false. The viral video likely originated in Indian-administered Kashmir, and shows a woman confronting a man who apparently swindled her for money.
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