FACT CHECK: Old image of man trying to commit suicide falsely linked to ongoing Afghan crisis
An image showing a man trying to commit suicide with his son is viral on social media. Users claim that the incident is linked to Afghanistan crisis
By Newsmeter Network Published on 4 Oct 2021 8:00 AM GMT
HYDERABAD: An image showing a man trying to commit suicide with his son is viral on social media. Users claim that the incident is linked to Afghanistan crisis post-Taliban takeover.
Fox News reporter Lara Logan shared the image on Twitter and wrote, "Daily reminder of what our leaders have done in all of our names. What they want all of us to forget - and Afghans are still enduring. Do not let them legitimize terror as a form of governing," (archive)
Social media users shared the image on Twitter too. One user wrote, "The Taliban executes a man right in front of his son."
FACT CHECK:
The claim that the image is linked to the ongoing Afghanistan crisis is false.
NewsMeter performed a reverse image search and found a similar image carried in a 2018 BBC Persian news report. It states that a rural man in northern Afghanistan tried to hang himself "in front of the Takhar provincial government building in protest of what he calls the negligence of the officials."
The same was also reported by the Persian media outlet `Atlas Press' that carried the same viral image. The man tried to hang himself "due to usurpation of his land and the lack of attention of the judiciary to his legal case, but was rescued."
An official in Takhar confirmed the incident to Atlas Press "saying that the failure of the Takhar judiciary to handle the man's legal case had prompted him to do so."
Afghan Radio Azadi also reported about the incident.
The video showed locals rescuing the man. The wife and child of the man were present at the scene.
Evidently, the viral image is of an old incident is shared as recent. It is not linked to Afghanistan crisis post-Taliban takeover. Thus, the claim is false.
