Old photo of person injured by shotgun pellets falsely linked online to Indian farmers' protests
- Published on February 29, 2024 at 11:36
- 3 min read
- By Asma HAFIZ, AFP India
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The photo of a man with facial injuries was published in this Facebook post on February 22, 2024 alongside English-language hashtags that linked it to ongoing protests by Indian farmers demanding higher crop prices.
The post -- which has been reshared more than 300 times -- contains a Punjabi-language caption that translates as "It is said you will not harm one of your people, but now they are not one of us?"
"The pellet guns which are banned throughout the world are being used. These pellets don't kill but disable you for life."
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The photo surfaced online as Indian media reported that some protesting farmers were left with facial injuries after police used pellet shotguns to disperse them -- an accusation that officers denied (archived link).
The protests followed the 2021 farmers' demonstrations, which ended after the Indian government agreed to repeal controversial farm laws that sought to deregulate agricultural markets.
The same photo was shared with a similar false claim in Punjabi on Facebook here and here; as well as in English here and here.
However, the picture was taken during a protest in Indian-controlled Kashmir in 2016.
Kashmir protest
The picture was published on the Associated Press (AP) website on July 13, 2016, alongside a caption identifying the person as a protester injured during clashes with police in Indian-controlled Kashmir (archived link).
"Mohammad Imran Parray, who got wounded after being hit by pellets during a protest recovers at a hospital in Srinagar, Indian controlled Kashmir, Wednesday, July 13, 2016," the caption read. "Hospitals in India's portion of Kashmir are overwhelmed, with hundreds of wounded patients pouring in as the region reels from days of clashes between anti-India protesters and government troops."
"This is an old photo from India-administered Kashmir and has nothing to do with the current farmers' protests," the photographer, who asked not to be named, told AFP.
The same week the photo was captured, AFP reported officers used tear gas, pellet shotguns and live bullets to disperse hundreds of demonstrators who defied a curfew in India-administered Kashmir (archived link).
Below is a screenshot comparison of the image in the false post (left) and the AP photo (right):
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The image was published by other media organisations in September 2016 in their coverage of clashes in Indian-controlled Kashmir, including here by Indian outlet The New Indian Express and here by The Independent, a UK online news outlet (archived links here and here).
AFP has also debunked false claims related to the Indian farmers' protest here and here.
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