By Anmol Alphonso
Several Indian media outlets including Hindustan Times and Times Now misreported an old video of a group of men in Pakistan fighting over a sack of wheat as recent linking it to the flour crisis in Pakistan
Pakistan has reported a shortage and surge in the prices of wheat. In Pakistan's Sindh province in Mirpurkhas district, a man died in a stampede that broke out among a large crowd of people that had gathered to buy subsidised flour.
In the viral video, which is around 40 seconds, a group of men can be seen trying to grab a wheat sack from another man's hands. BJP leader Dr. Shalabh Man Tripathi shared the same video with the caption when translated reads, "After Sri Lanka and China, now look at the condition of Pakistan fighting for flour and rest in peace that you are in Mr. @narendramodiji's India!!"
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Hindustan Times reported the viral video on January 10, 2023, carrying it on its official YouTube channel with the headline, "Viral: Pak residents fight for wheat bags; Russia sends shipment to Karachi"
The caption read, "A new video of Pakistani residents fighting for wheat has emerged online as food crisis escalate in the neighbouring country. The video shows people fighting for wheat bags amid unprecedented crisis in Balochistan and other parts of Pakistan. This as Pakistani authorities announced that Russian wheat has arrived in the country and more is on the way to ease the crisis. Watch the video for more."
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Times Now also included the same video in its report dated January 11, 2023, on the flour crisis in Pakistan, while stating that it could not independently verify it. The headline of the article read, "Watch: Men fight over 'atta' in Pakistan - Decoding Pakistan's economic turmoil in 10 points". The featured image of the article also included a screengrab from the viral video.
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The other news outlets that linked the viral video to the recent flour crisis in Pakistan include Zee News, ABP News, Times of India, and DNA.
Several Pakistani Twitter handles had also shared the video with Urdu captions with the misleading claim that it is recent.
Also Read:Fake News Fuelled Hindu-Muslim Polarisation: BOOM Annual Report 2022
FACT-CHECK
BOOM found that the viral video is not from the recent flour crisis in Pakistan and it dates back at least to September 2022 when the country was reeling under severe floods, especially in Sindh and Balochistan provinces.
Extreme flooding in September 2022left roughly one-third of Pakistan underwater. The flooding occurred after recording breaking monsoon rains and was linked to melting of glaciers due to climate change.
We broke the viral video into key-frames and ran a reverse image search using Google Images which results showed that the video dates back to last year. Taking a hint from this we then searched on Facebook and Twitter with Urdu and Sindhi captions like 'flood relief camp fight, people fighting over atta etc'.
The oldest post we found was uploaded on Twitter by the handle "@LiaqatB10857542" on September 6, 2022, with the caption when translated from Urdu reads, "Flood relief became a headache for the flood victims"
We can see the same visuals in this video from September as in the viral video that is being shared now.
We also found posts on Facebook from September which had Urdu captions saying that the video is from a flood relief camp in Sindh province. The oldest post on Facebook too we found was dating back to September 6, 2022.
There were also other videos that were viral in September 2022 from Sindh, Pakistan where flood relief victims were reported to be fighting over food distribution.
BOOM could not independently verify the incident, however we were able to establish that the viral video is not recent as being reported and dates back to September 2022 from Pakistan.
