Old video of soldier’s funeral falsely linked to 2019 Pulwama attack
A video of a girl paying emotional tribute to a soldier's mortal remains is doing the rounds on social media. People claim that the video shows the last rites of the Indian soldier killed in the 2019 Pulwama attack.
By Md Mahfooz Alam Published on 16 Feb 2023 4:48 AM GMT
Hyderabad: A video of a girl paying emotional tribute to a soldier's mortal remains is doing the rounds on social media. People claim that the video shows the last rites of the Indian soldier killed in the 2019 Pulwama attack.
Twitter handle `Megh Updates’, who is a serial fake news peddler, shared the video and claimed that the video shows a heartful tribute to heroes who lost lives in the Pulwama attack in 2019. (Archive)
Click here to see the post.
Several Twitter users have shared the video claiming the same. (Click here, here, here and here to see the posts.)
The video has gone viral on 14 February as netizens took to social media to pay tributes to the 40 CRPF jawans who were killed in the Pulwama attack in 2019.
Fact Check
NewMeter found that the video dates back to 2015.
On performing a reverse image search of the video’s keyframe, we found a longer version of the video in an article published by NDTV in 2015. It said that the video shows 11-year-old Alka Rai shouting the old Gorkha war cry during the last rites of his father Colonel MN Rai. The 39-year-old was killed by terrorists in Tral in Kashmir.
Colonel Rai was an officer of the 2/9 Gurkha Rifles who was commanding the 42 Rashtriya Rifles.
Taking a cue from this, we ran a keyword search and found the still from the video in an article by the Times of India from 30 January 2015. It said Colonel Rai was killed by militants in Kashmir and emotions ran high when he was laid to rest at the Brar Square cemetery in Delhi Cantonment.
It also said, “Rai’s 11-year-old daughter choked up as she shouted her father's regiment's old battle cry, then raised her right hand to salute him for the last time as she burst out in tears.”
The demise of Colonel Rai was also reported by OneIndia and rediff.com. Both reports carry still from the viral video.
It must also be noted that the 2019 Pulwama attack targeted a CRPF convoy, not the Army. The viral video shows the last rites of Colonel MN Rai who was killed by militants in the Tral area of Pulwama in 2015.
Hence, we conclude that the viral video does not show a tribute to heroes who lost lives in the Pulwama attack in 2019, and the claim is misleading.
