Old video shows Indian wrestling match, not Pakistani fighter defeated

The clip of a woman dressed in a saffron-coloured traditional salwar kameez pummelling another woman in a wrestling unitard was shared on Facebook on August 13.

"A Pakistani female wrestler won the final of the women's wrestling championship held in Dubai. She mocked the Indian women watching this wrestling competition and challenged any Indian woman to come on stage and fight her," reads part of the Hindi-language caption.

It goes on to say a woman then came on stage and "defeated the Pakistani wrestler twice", adding that this is "the fate of those who insult our country".

The post also adds the woman in saffron -- a colour deeply associated with far-right Hinduism -- had trained with India's Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh -- a Hindu nationalist organisation that holds paramilitary drills and has been accused of fomenting sectarian division (archived here and here).

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Screenshot of the false Facebook post taken on August 27, 2025, with a red X mark added by AFP

India and Pakistan have long been at odds, fighting three major wars and countless border conflicts since independence from the British partitioned the two countries along religious lines (archived link).

The latest flare-up was in May, which left more than 70 people dead following missile, drone and artillery attacks between the two countries (archived link).

The video of the fight surfaced with similar claims of an Indian woman defeating a Pakistani fighter on Facebook and X.

However, the footage actually dates back to 2016 and both women are Indian. 

A reverse image search on Google using keyframes from the clip found it was uploaded on the verified YouTube channel of CWE India -- an Indian wrestling promotion and training academy -- on June 13, 2016 (archived here and here). 

"KAVITA accepted the open challenge of BB Bull Bull," reads the description of the video.

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Screenshot comparison of the false post video (L) and the 2016 YouTube video, with the red X added by AFP

"CWE" can also be seen printed on banners surrounding the ring. 

A keyword search of the two named fighters found several reports about the bout (archived links here and here). 

According to the articles, Kavita Devi, an MMA champion, had accepted an open challenge from wrestler Sarabjit Kaur -- also known as BB Bull Bull or BB Bulbul -- at a 2016 CWE event (archived links here and here).

Kaur confirmed that the video of her 2016 fight was being "shared with false claims".  

"This is a video of a match in 2016 at our academy in Jalandhar in which Kavita accepted my challenge," she told AFP in a phone call on August 27. 

She added: "We both are Indians and belong to the Hindu community. Please do not spread fake news with this video." 

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