Fact Check: Video showing Indian soldiers fleeing after misfiring gun not from the recent Galwan Valley stand-off
By Aiswarya Sriram Published on 29 Jun 2020 12:35 PM GMT
Hyderabad: Around 20 soldiers were killed in Ladakh's Galwan Valley in a recent standoff with the Chinese soldiers. A video allegedly showing Indian soldiers fleeing after misfiring a gun during the Galwan incident has been doing the rounds of social media. It was also uploaded on YouTube claiming it showed the "current situation" between India and China.
A Twitter user, Imark Doya, also shared the video along with a tweet that read, "You have seen that the Indian Army is very brave in Bollywood movies. But this is the reality of Indian army. Tell me guys, can this army fight against Nepal Army (sic)."
Fact Check:
NewsMeter did a reverse image search and found that the video was shared by Riffat Wani, an activist from Kashmir. The same video was later posted by Imark Doya.
The video has been on the Internet since 2018. It was shared by a Facebook page, Justice for Lieutenant Colonel Retired Habib Zahir, on 10 November 2018.
We also found a Chinese report about an accident while Indian soldiers were training with the Carl Gustaf recoilless gun. It had used screenshots of the video shared by Imark Doya. According to the report, "In India, only elite troops such as mountain divisions are equipped with this weapon. As a result, during training, it is not known whether the Indian mountain soldiers made a mistake or if the problem was with the recoilless gun. The recoilless gun suddenly exploded in the hands of the Indian soldier. At the same time, the operator also fell to the ground."
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From the video, it is evident that it shows soldiers training and has nothing to do with the recent Galwan Valley clash. The soldiers fled after their artillery exploded to avoid an accident during the training.
However, we were unable to find the origin of the video.
The claim that the video is from Galwan valley and shows Indian soldiers running off after misfiring a gun is FALSE. The video has been on the Internet since 2018 and it shows a mishap during a military training session.
