Claim: A video on social media shows protests in the Muzaffarabad area of Pakistan-administered Kashmir.
Fact: The video was taken in India in April 2024 during an election rally led by the General Secretary of the National Indian Congress, Priyanka Gandhi.
On 12 May 2024, PTI supporter and influencer, Tayyaba Raja, reshared a video (archive) on X with the following caption:
مظفر آباد انقلاب
[Translation: Muzaffarabad Revolution.]
@RodiumInsights originally shared the video with an Urdu caption,
مختلف شہروں سے عوام جمع ہو کر مظفرآباد کی طرف رواں دواں ہے ۔۔یہ ہے عوامی طاقت
[Translation: People from different cities are gathering and moving towards Muzaffarabad. This is the power of the public.]
Unrest in Pakistan-administered Kashmir
The video was shared in the context of the recent unrest in Muzaffarabad and Mirpur divisions of Pakistan-administered Kashmir.
Last month the Jammu Kashmir Joint Awami Action Committee (JAAC) announced that they would march on Muzaffarabad on 11 May, in a bid to demand subsidies for grain and power.
However, on 10 May the regional government called in paramilitary forces, while the police arrested several JAAC leaders and activists in overnight raids to prevent the protest rally. Clashes took place(archive) between the protesters and the police in various cities in the region in which three people were killed.
Fact or Fiction?
To investigate, Soch Fact Check conducted a reverse image search video’s keyframes. The results on Google led to an Instagram reel from 18 April 2024 published on the official Instagram account of Priyanka Gandhi, General Secretary of the Indian National Congress. The geolocation tagged in the video shows Saharanpur, India.
The same video was also shared by the verified Instagram account of the Indian National Congress Goa Chapter on 17 April 2024. On closer inspection, several Indian national flags can be seen in the video, clearly suggesting that the video is not from Pakistan.
Furthermore, a keyword search on Google led us to news reports which included different footage of the same rally in Saharanpur.
Soch Fact Check also reached out to Jyoti Dwivedi, a fact-checker from the Indian publication Aaj Tak, who confirmed that the video shows a pre-election rally held in Saharanpur recently.
Virality
On X, the viral video received 122,000 views, 8,700 likes and 2,800 reposts. It can be seen here, here and here.
It was also linked to the protests in Muzaffarabad here on Facebook. It was also shared here, here and here on YouTube.
Conclusion: A video showing large crowds rallying on the streets is not linked to the recent protests in Muzaffarabad, Pakistan. The video is from April 2024 and shows a pre-election rally held by the Indian National Congress in Saharanpur, India
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