Photo shows Indian cricket team victory parade, not protests in Pakistan port city

Published on August 1, 2024 at 09:57
3 min read
By Masroor GILANI, AFP Pakistan

A photo of the Indian cricket team's victory parade in Mumbai has circulated alongside social media posts that falsely claimed it showed a protest in Pakistan's Gwadar, home to a mega port operated by China. Although workers there have rallied against alleged rights abuses since July 27, 2024, the image was in fact published earlier in the month after India's win at the T20 Cricket World Cup.

"A beautiful photo of a rally along Gwadar port led by Doctor Mahrang Baloch tonight July 27, 2024," read the Urdu-language post on Facebook on July 28, 2024

The post, which has been shared more than 16,000 times, featured a photo of a massive crowd surrounding several vehicles on a coastal road.

Screengrab of the false post

The photo surfaced as protesters in the Pakistan's southwestern city of Gwadar, home to a mega port operated by China, rallied against alleged rights abuses, mass arrests and unfair exploitation of resources since July 27.

They were joined by several thousand more demonstrators elsewhere in Balochistan province.

A government official in Gwadar told AFP on condition of anonymity that attempts by people to bypass roadblocks and join the protest led to clashes, while Pakistani media outlet Dawn reported protest leader Mahrang Baloch said security forces had used violence to "sabotage" the movement (archived link).

Authorities said one soldier and one demonstrator were killed.

The same photo was shared more than 1,000 times alongside similar false claims on X here and here, as well as on Facebook here and here.

But the picture was published before the protests took place.

Victory parade

A reverse image search on Google found the same photo published by India's ANI news agency in a report about a victory parade in Mumbai on July 5, 2024 following the national cricket team's win at the T20 World Cup the week before (archived link).

India won the T20 World Cup title in dramatic and emotional fashion with Virat Kohli starring in a thrilling seven-run victory over South Africa at Kensington Oval Bridgetown, Barbados on June 29, 2024.

The photo is captioned "A visual from Team India's bus parade from Marine Drive to Wankhede Stadium" and credited to former Indian cricketer and National Cricket Academy chief VVS Laxman.

Below is a screenshot comparison between the photo shared in the false post (left) and in the ANI report (right):

Screenshot comparison between the photo shared in the false post (left) and in the ANI report (right)

Laxman also posted the photo to his official X account on July 5 alongside two other photos of the victory celebrations.

The post read in part: "Spectacular scenes from Mumbai. This is what Sport does, unite people and give them so much to cheer about and spread joy" (archived link).

The photo posted by Laxman also corresponds to a Google Maps photo of Mumbai's coastal Marine Drive, where the cricket team's victory parade took place (archived link):

Screenshot comparison of the photo shared by Laxman (left) and a Google Maps photo of Marine Drive (right), where the victory parade took place

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