This photo has circulated online since 2019 in reports about heavy rain during monsoon season in Pakistan
- This article is more than one year old.
- Published on December 16, 2020 at 09:40
- 2 min read
- By AFP Pakistan
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The photo was published on Facebook here on December 8, 2020. It shows flooding around Lahore’s Minar-e-Pakistan monument. The post has been shared 220 times.
The post’s Urdu-language caption translates to English as: “Minar-e-Pakistan (Tower of Pakistan) ground has been flooded. The government has set records of intolerance. Government has reached the extremes of its cowardice. Mr Niazi (PM Imran Khan) do whatever you want to do, the rally will be definitely held and it will be befitting.”
The post circulated days before the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM), a major coalition of opposition political parties, held a rally at the Minar-e-Pakistan monument on December 13, 2020, as Pakistani newspaper Dawn reported here and here.
The photo has been shared more than 1,200 times after it was published alongside a similar claim on Facebook here, here, here and here; and on Twitter here, here, here and here.
The claim, however, is false.
A Google reverse image search found the same photo was published on July 17, 2019, here by Pakistan’s largest English-language newspaper, The News.
The report, headlined “Massive rain batters, drowns Lahore,” states that heavy rain flooded the city over a 17-hour period.
Below is a screenshot comparison of the photo published in the newspaper in July 2019 (L) and the photo in misleading post (R):
An opposition rally was held at the same venue on Dec 13, 2020, this AFP photo shows. No flooding was reported on that day.
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