Pictures of photographer in tears after football team lost falsely linked to divisive India temple

"The cameraman could not control himself during the live telecast. An eternal wait has ended. Hail Lord Ram," reads a Hindi-language Facebook post on January 22, 2024.

It features four images, three showing a crying photographer while the fourth shows the idol of the Hindu deity Ram.

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Screenshot of the false post taken on January 24, 2024

The post surfaced on the same day Modi inaugurated the Ram temple in  Ayodhya that embodies the triumph of his muscular Hindu nationalist politics and is seen as an unofficial start to his re-election campaign in 2024.

The temple was built on grounds where a mosque stood for centuries before it was torn down in 1992 by Hindu zealots incited by members of Modi's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

That demolition triggered the worst religious riots since independence -- killing 2,000 people, most of them Muslims -- and shook the foundations of India's officially secular political order.

For the BJP, the opening of the Ram temple is a landmark moment in a decades-long campaign to align the country's governance with its majority faith.

Tens of thousands of chanting and dancing devotees waving flags, honking horns and beating drums, packed the streets of Ayodhya, as military helicopters showered flower petals from the sky.

Similar posts falsely linking the pictures of the crying photographer to the Ram temple were shared elsewhere on Facebook here and here, as well as on social media platform X.

But the pictures predate the opening of the temple and had been repeatedly shared in a false context, AFP reported here, here and here. 

Football match

A reverse image search on Google found the first picture published here on the official Facebook page of the AFC Asian Cup football competition on January 24, 2019 (archived link).

Its caption reads: "Passionate. Emotional moment for an Iraqi photographer during the Round of 16 clash against Qatar."

Qatar knocked out Iraq in a 1-0 win on January 22, 2019, that took them to the quarters (archived link).

Below is a screenshot comparison of the picture in the false posts (left) and the one uploaded on the Facebook page of the AFC Asian Cup (right):

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The other two photos showing the same photographer crying were published in a January 23, 2019 report about Iraq's loss here by the Chinese news website Sina Sports (archived link).

The photos were credited to Osports Photo Agency. The Chinese caption to the photos reads in part: "2019 Asian Cup. The tearful Iraqi photographer made people feel very emotional. Football can make you cry! Well done our photographer Shui Ge!"

Below are screenshot comparisons of the photos shared with the false claim on Facebook (left) and the pictures published by Sina Sports (right):

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A report by Iraqi broadcaster Al-Iraqiya on February 6, 2019 identifies the photographer as Mohammed Al-Azzawi (archived link). 

In an interview with Al-Iraqiya, Al-Azzawi said he became emotional the moment he knew Iraq had lost the game.

AFP has repeatedly debunked misinformation swirling around the Ram temple here, here, here, here and here.

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