By Anmol Alphonso
A video of an Indian flag being trampled upon by vehicles on a road in Karachi, Pakistan is being shared with communal claims that the incident happened in India.
In the viral video, we can see several vehicles driving over an Indian flag kept on a busy road and a group of people can also be seen holding Pakistani flags in their hands.
The video is being shared with various false captions claiming that it is from Tamil Nadu or Kerala.
The video is being shared with the caption when translated from Hindi reads, "watch this video of Kerala and forward it as much as you can....if u keep quiet today we will be at a loss...because after 6 months there will be no use to pursue it... swing your fingers and forward it now"
(In Hindi - केरल के इस विडियो को देखें और इसे जितना हो सके उतना फॉरवर्ड करें .... अगर आप यू आज चुप रहते हैं तो हमें नुकसान होगा ... क्योंकि *6 महीने के बाद इसे आगे बढ़ाने का कोई फायदा नहीं होगा* ... उँगलियाँ घुमाएँ और इसे आगे बढ़ाएँ अभी)
Click here to view
The same video is also being shared with another caption in Hindi which translates to, "Watch this video and forward it as much as possible.... If u remain silent today we will lose... Fingers crossed and forward it now - Tanjore, Tamil Nadu."
(In Hindi - इस विडियो को देखें और इसे जितना हो सके उतना फॉरवर्ड करें .... अगर आप यू आज चुप रहते हैं तो हमें नुकसान होगा ... उँगलियाँ घुमाएँ और इसे आगे बढ़ाएँ अभी- तांजोर, तमिलनाडु)
Click here to view
We received the same video multiple times on our WhatsApp tipline number (77009 06588).
Also Read: Old Video From Pak Falsely Shared As Protest Against Remarks On Prophet
FACT-CHECK
BOOM found that the viral video is from Karachi, Pakistan, and not from Tamil Nadu or Kerala as being claimed.
Taking a hint from Pakistani flags being waved it indicated that the viral video could be from Pakistan. We then looked for other cues like shop signboards that could indicate the location and found that it is from Karachi, Pakistan.
At the 3.43 minutes timestamp in the viral video, we can see the number plate on a Toyota car - 'BFK-625'. on searching we found that the 'BFK' number plate series is from Pakistan.
We can view this Facebook post that has a car with same 'BFK' series plate being resold in Pakistan.
Click here to view
Additionally, the shop board - 'Sanam Boutique' is seen at the beginning of the video. Taking a cue from this, we searched for 'Sanam Boutique' in Pakistan on Google Maps. The search results showed a shop located on Google Maps with the same name in Karachi, Pakistan.
On viewing the same shop on Google Maps, the location matched the viral video. A comparison can be seen below.
Another building that can be seen in the viral video, can be seen in the same lane on Google Maps.
Breaking the video into keyframes and running a reverse image search showed up a tweet from March 2020 with the same video, which shows that it is an old incident.
BOOM was unable to independently verify the incident, however, we were able to locate that the incident is from Karachi, Pakistan.
