This photo was actually taken at a funeral in September 2018 in Srinagar

This article is more than one year old.
Published on August 20, 2019 at 10:30
1 min read
By Supriya BATRA

A photo of men carrying a body in a funeral shroud through a street has been shared hundreds of times alongside claims that it shows “the situation of Kashmir” in social media posts uploaded after India stripped the disputed region of its autonomy. The photo is being shared in a misleading context; the image was actually taken in Srinagar in 2018 when a civilian was killed during a ‘cordon and search operation.’

The photo was published here on Facebook on August 10, 2019 and has been shared more than 3,000 times since.

The Hindi-language caption of the post translates to English as: “This has become the situation of Kashmir that people carrying the dead bodies for funerals are also being shot at by pellet guns. What kind of a free Kashmir is this, brother."

Below is a screenshot of the misleading Facebook post:

Screenshot of the misleading post

The same photo and claim were shared in other posts on Facebook, for example here and here, and on Twitter here and here.

On August 5, 2019, the Indian government revoked disputed Kashmir’s special status, granted by Article 370 of the Indian constitution. Here is an AFP video report on the issue.

But the photo does not show the current situation in Kashmir.

The image was first published here on a news website called “The Citizen” September 27, 2018.

The picture, taken by Kashmir-based photojournalist Basit Zargar was, the report says, taken in September 2018 when protests and clashes broke out after a 28-year-old civilian was killed in Noorbagh area of Qamarwari in Srinagar after Indian forces opened fire during a ‘cordon and search operation.’

The photo was also published here on October 18, 2018, on an Urdu-language blog, where the image has a watermark of the photographer’s name and the date.

The image used in the misleading posts also contains the watermark, which has been blurred.

In September 2018, authorities imposed curfew in the region and also suspended mobile Internet services, according to local and international media reports, for example here and here in September 2018.

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