By Anmol Alphonso
An old video from Pakistan of a jeep washed away in the floods is being shared falsely linking it to the recent incident where a TV reporter died after his car was washed away during floods in Jagtial district, Telangana.
On July 12, 2022, Zameer, a reporter working with the Telugu news channel NTV, had gone to Bornapalli village in Jagtial district to report on nine farm labourers who were trapped in the Godavari floods.
Zameer and another person named Syed Riyaz Ali were returning to Jagtial from Bornapalli, when the Swift Dzire car they were in was washed away by the floodwaters near Ramojipet village. Local residents had managed to pull Syed to safety, but Zameer was washed away. The car in which he had been traveling was later retrieved and three days later his body was recovered on July 15, 2022, reported The News Minute.
The viral video shows a jeep being swept away by flood waters when it was trying to cross a heavily flooded road alone against the water flow.
The video is being shared with the caption reading, "#Scribe washed away in flood water in #Jagtial #Telangana. He was on his way to over rescue operation of 9 laborers stranded in an island middle of #godavari river in Raikal Mandal."
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The video is being shared by multiple on Twitter with the false claim.
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FACT-CHECK
BOOM found that the viral video of the jeep being washed away is from Pakistan dating back to at least March 2020.
On observing the viral video, we found that the jeep model is a Suzuki Potohar which is made in Pakistan. The number plate visible in the viral video is 'BE 9119' and on searching for these types of number plates, we found similar number plates used in Sindh Pakistan on a Suzuki Potohar.
The model of the jeep seen in the viral video matches this jeep in this Facebook post with a similar looking number plate.
We then searched in Urdu with the keywords, "jeep, pakistan, suzuki, flood" and found Facebook posts with the same video dating back to March 2020, stating that the video is from Harani district in Balochistan, Pakistan.
The caption of this Facebook post from March 23, 2020, when translated from Urdu reads, "After the heavy rains, a flooded river near Harnai swept away the Suzuki jeep, but the occupants of the jeep..."
We can see the same jeep and same sequence of events in this video as in the viral video.
We found several other Facebook posts from March 2020 stating the incident is from Pakistan.
(In English - In Harnai, a vehicle which is submerged due to flood after Sarvati dam breached. Look at the glory of Allah. There were two people in this car. But Allah saved both of them.)
Additionally, the car washed away that Zameer was driving and that was later recovered is a Swift Dzire, whereas the vehicle in the viral video is a jeep. The car driven by the journalist can be seen in the below tweet.
BOOM was not able to independently verify the incident, however, we were able to establish that the viral video of the jeep being washed away is from Pakistan dating back to 2020.
(Additional reporting by Sujith A)
