Mongolian public works minister did not set himself on fire
Video is being shared on WhatsApp groups in Pakistan
Claim: A video being shared on WhatsApp allegedly depicts the Mongolian Minister of Public Works setting himself on fire after he failed to deliver on a promise of building 100,000 low-cost homes.
Fact: The video does not depict the Mongolian public works minister setting himself on fire. It is, in fact, of Mongolian trade union leader S. Erdene setting himself alight in 2015 while protesting the sale of the country’s coal mining industry.
A video is being shared on WhatsApp groups in Pakistan with the claim that it depicts the Mongolian public works minister setting himself on fire after he failed to deliver on a promise of building 100,000 low-cost homes.
The video is also being shared on other social media platforms. According to a CrowdTangle analysis, the video along with the false caption is being shared on various pages and groups including here, here, here, here, here and here. On Twitter, the same video is being shared with an Urdu caption including here, here and here.
The video is in fact of S. Erdene, a Mongolian trade union leader who, according to reports, set himself alight in 2015 while protesting the proposed sale of the country’s coal mining industry to China. The incident was explained in a 2015 report by the Daily Mail, which was headlined, “The horrifying moment a Mongolian union boss sets himself on FIRE to protest sale of country’s coal mining industry.”
Moreover, this claim has been previously debunked by IFCN verified fact checkers Factly, BoomLive, and AFP.
The proliferation of the video with the false caption could be linked to Prime Minister Imran Khan’s efforts to build low-cost homes under the Naya Pakistan Housing Program.
Conclusion: The caption of the video in question wrongly states that the video depicts the Mongolian public works minister setting himself on fire after failing to deliver on a political promise. The video, in fact, dates back to 2015 and shows a Mongolian trade union leader setting himself alight in protest of the proposed sale of the country’s coal mining industry.
