Fact Check: Video of street play in Afghanistan's Jalrez district shared as Taliban shooting Afghans
A video of armed men shooting people on the streets and taking them hostage is being widely shared on social media with the claim that it is from the streets of Afghanistan following the Taliban takeover.
By Tejal Sinha Published on 22 Aug 2021 2:49 PM IST
Hyderabad: A video of armed men shooting people on the streets and taking them hostage is being widely shared on social media with the claim that it is from the streets of Afghanistan following the Taliban takeover.
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Fact Check
The claim is misleading.
NewsMeter performed a keyword search which directed us to a YouTube channel, Afghan International. It had uploaded the video on September 2019. According to the description, the street play represents an allegory of artists being beaten in the Jalrez district in Maidan Wardak province of Afghanistan.
We found that many Twitter users had posted about the event.
A report by Gandhara published on 1 June 2021 titled "Taliban making 'strategic' military gains in Afghanistan as foreign forces pull out", had reported that the Taliban had seized control of at least four districts across Afghanistan, including the central province of Maidan Wardak, in the past few months. "Maidan Wardak is only 40 kilometers from Kabul and considered a gateway to the capital. Several key highways to the country's central and southern provinces also go through Maidan Wardak," it said.
It is evident that the claim that the video is linked to the ongoing Afghanistan crisis is misleading. It is an old video of s street play from 2019.
