Flagging a dubious claim: Flags hoisted atop houses in Jalandhar have no Pakistan link

Hyderabad: A video of flags on top of houses of Jalandhar is going viral on Facebook and Twitter. This clip is being shared claiming that Sikhs are hoisting these flags in support of Pakistan due to Kartarpur diplomacy.

#Sikhs Fly #Pakistani Flags In Jalandhar #India On Top Of Their Houses.

RARE VIDEO

Pakistan Zindabad.

This is @ImranKhanPTI's KartarPur Diplomacy. pic.twitter.com/ZgIXNr7zZG

— Mir Mohammad Alikhan (@MirMAKOfficial) November 7, 2019

A Twitter user says "Pakistani flags in Jalandhar, Punjab." It does not stop there and goes on to claim that the area is infested with Christian missionaries.

Pakistani flags ... in Jalandhar Punjab , this area Vijay Colony is infested with Christian Missionaries @AmitShah @SureshChavhanke @rohitsardaana @ZeeNews @aajtak @amitmalviya pic.twitter.com/GMqn4owAN5

— No Conversion (@noconversion) November 6, 2019

Here are more instances where this video has been shared by several Facebook accounts.

Fact Check:

Upon keyword search "Pakistani flags in Jalandhar", NewsMeter found an article published in Punjab Kesari, saying that the flags hoisted on the houses in Jalandhar are not Pakistani flags, but are Islamic religious flags. Since the flags looked like Pakistani flags, there was a dispute among the locals, prompting the police to intervene.

According to some reports, these flags were hosted ahead of the Islamic festival of Milad-un-Nabi on November 10 2019. Despite their striking similarities with the Pakistani flag, the ones flying in Jalandhar have a few minor differences.

When we observed closely, we found three types of flags that are popular in this season of Milad-un-Nabi. Here is an article published in Hindustan Times with photographs taken during the procession in December 2016, where we can see a flag with the same pattern as that of the flag published in the Punjab Kesari article.

In a report published by The Hindu of a Milad-un-Nabi procession in Hyderabad in 2017, we can see flags, similar to the ones shown in the latest video, being hoisted.

Hence, we conclude that the flags hoisted atop the houses in Jalandhar are Islamic religious flags that usually surface during Milad-un-Nabi. They are not Pakistani flags.

Claims: Pakistani flags hoisted atop houses of Jalandhar

Claims on: Twitter, Facebook

Fact Check: FALSE. These are religious flags – not Pakistani flags – that are generally used during processions on Milad-un-Nabi