A protester holding a poster stands in front of policemen while blocking a highway during a nationwide general strike called by farmers to protest against the recent agricultural reforms in Mumbai on December 8, 2020. (AFP / Indranil Mukherjee)

Video of a one-man protest at a 2019 cricket match in London is being misleadingly shared as the 2020 farmers’ protests in Delhi

This article is more than one year old.
Published on December 9, 2020 at 05:00
2 min read
By AFP India

A video showing a man in a turban shouting slogans against India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been viewed tens of thousands of times in Facebook and Twitter posts shared as major protests by farmers continue in New Delhi. The video is being shared in a misleading context: the man was actually filmed shouting at a 2019 cricket match between Pakistan and Afghanistan, held in Headingley Carnegie stadium in Leeds, England. The footage has no link to the ongoing farmers’ protests.

The 15-second video was shared on Facebook here on November 27, 2020.

The Hindi-language caption translates as: “Sardarji is shouting ‘down with Modi government’, which is understandable, but why is he shouting long live Pakistan and long live Khalistan.”

Sardarji is a title used before the name of Sikh men.

Khalistan is a Sikh political ideology calling for an independent homeland. Sikh men typically wear turbans.

Screenshot of the misleading Facebook post

The misleading post was shared as farmers in India demonstrate against new agriculture laws and block key highways on the outskirts of the capital. Here is an AFP report on the issue.

The video was also shared here, here, here and here on Facebook and here and here on Twitter, alongside similar claims.

But the video is being shared in a misleading context.

A reverse image search on Yandex led to this YouTube video posted on July 1, 2019, as well as a Snapchat video uploaded on TikTok on the same date.

The video was also posted here on a Facebook group named “Khalistan youth” that regularly posts Sikh seperatist content on its page.

The videos show a stadium with crowds waving the Pakistan flag as well as the Afghanistan flag in the back.

The TikTok video also shows a blue roof with the word “Headingley” plastered on it.

Below is a screenshot of the TikTok video that shows the blue roof:

Screenshot of the TikTok video posted on July 1, 2019

The 2019 Cricket World Cup match between Pakistan and Afghanistan was held on June 29 in the Headingley Carnegie Stadium. News reports indicate that pro-Khalistan and Pakistan slogans were shouted during the Pakistan and Afghanistan cricket match.

A keyword search led to a news segment by India’s ANI News, posted on their YouTube channel on July 6, 2019.

The footage in the misleading posts appears at the 20-second point. The segment also features several other clips of the same incident taken from different angles.

Screenshot of the ANI news segment posted on July 6, 2019.

Is there content that you would like AFP to fact-check? Get in touch.

E-mail