People filmed swearing oath to India were in region of Kashmir controlled by New Delhi, not Islamabad

"People of Pak official Kashmir (POK) (Bakarwals) publicly swearing to support India and our army," reads part of the Hindi-language caption of a video shared on Facebook here on February 29, 2024.

The Bakarwals are a Muslim nomadic community that live in Kashmir, which India and Pakistan both claim in full.

The video shows a man leading a group in swearing an oath of allegiance to India and its army. Towards the end of the clip, they can also be heard chanting patriotic slogans.

"This is the time, the right time. Narendra Modi," the caption continues, referring to India's prime minister.

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Screenshot of the false Facebook post, captured on March 19, 2024

The video was shared with similar claims elsewhere on Facebook here and here, and on social media platform X here.

It circulated days before Prime Minister Narendra Modi's first visit to Indian-administered Kashmir since the disputed region's semi-autonomy was cancelled in 2019 -- a move which split the former state into two territories directly ruled from New Delhi.

The March 7 visit also came ahead of India's national elections that will be held in seven phases starting April 19. The last local elections in Kashmir were held in 2014.

But the clip does not show people pledging allegiance to India from within a Pakistan-administered region of Kashmir.

Indian-administered territory

At the 40-second mark of the falsely shared clip, the person appearing to administer the oath mentions Uri, and Jammu and Kashmir.

Uri is a town in the Baramulla district of Jammu and Kashmir, as the Indian-administered area is known (archived link).

A combination of keyword and reverse image searches on Google found the same footage in a Facebook post here from August 19, 2023 (archived link).

Below is a screenshot comparison between the falsely shared video (left) and the same clip posted in August 2023 (right):

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Screenshot comparison between the falsely shared video (left) and the same clip posted in August 2023 (right)

The caption in this post reads in part: "Gujjar-Bakarwal people of Uri take oath to support their Indian army and save the country's constitution, democracy and unity."

Another Facebook post sharing the same video here identified the man administering the oath as Rafiq Balote, chairman of the Block Development Council of Uri (archived link).

Balote told AFP the video was filmed in Uri on August 18, 2023.

"We had gathered the youth to stoke feelings of patriotism in them and to encourage them to dedicate their support to the Indian army whenever the need arises," he said on March 5, 2024.

People in the video can be seen holding posters with slogans that read "Gujjar Bakarwal Ekta Zindabad (Hail Gujjar-Bakarwal unity)" and "Don't dilute our status".

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Screenshot of the misleadingly shared video showing people holding posters raising reservation issues in the ethnic Tribal communities.

The Gujjar and Bakarwal communities are considered "scheduled tribes", which grants historically marginalised groups a form of affirmative action through guaranteed quotas of government jobs and college admissions (archived link).

At the time the clip was filmed, they were protesting against a government bill granting the scheduled tribe status to an upper-caste community, the Paharis (archived link). Modi's government passed the bill on February 6.

According to an Al Jazeera article, the Gujjar and Bakarwal had feared they would "need to split their benefits with the Paharis who have historically been seen as better off" (archived link).

Balote told AFP: "It was during one of these protest rallies that the youngsters were administered this oath, the video of which is now being shared with false claims."

AFP has repeatedly debunked false claims about Kashmir here, here and here. 

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