Sri Lankan army officers were not 'sent to India to learn how to drive trains' following strikes

"The government has taken measures to send a batch of army personnel, including female officers, to India to undergo training in train driving, to be deployed in the event of an emergency," reads the Sinhala-language claim shared here on Facebook on March 23, 2023.

It was posted alongside a photo of a person boarding a train.

A reverse image search on Google found that the photo -- taken by an AFP photographer in 2014 -- shows a Sri Lankan railway guard at Colombo rail station and does not relate to the claim.

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Screenshot of the misleading Facebook post, captured on April 4, 2023.

The post circulated online after anti-government trade union strikes were initiated by multiple Sri Lankan public service sectors, including the railway workers.

Whilst Sri Lankan armed forces personnel have previously been sent to India to receive military training, AFP found no official reports to support the claim in the false posts.

An identical claim was also shared on Facebook here and here.

Comments on the post suggested some social media users were misled by the claim.

"So India is now supporting militarisation of public service sectors?" one user wrote.

"An excellent move. This country should no longer be allowed to be run by trade unionists," another commented.

However, the claim is false, according to the Sri Lankan military and the island nation's railway department.

'No basis to this claim'

Brigadier Ravi Herath, a spokesperson for the Sri Lanka Army, said there was "no truth" to the claim shared online.

"No such decision has been made and neither have any army personnel been sent to India to undergo training as train drivers," he told AFP on April 3.

V.S. Polwattage, a general manager of operations for Sri Lanka’s Department of Railways, also said there were no plans to replace Sri Lankan train drivers with military personnel in the event of an emergency.

"No such decision was made to deploy military personnel to drive trains during any emergency. There is no basis to this claim," he said.

M. M. P. K. Mayadunne, the secretary to the Sri Lankan Ministry of Transportation and Highways, also said the posts were "completely false".

"We have not made any decision to use military personnel as drivers," he told AFP on April 3, 2023.

On April 11, an official at the Indian High Commission in Sri Lanka said Sri Lankan military officers had received no such training in India.

According to local media reports here and here, the Sri Lankan military and the island nation's transport and civil aviation authorities discussed training a group of army officers as engine drivers in 2019 amid railway strikes, but there was no mention of sending them to India.