Authors
A video of a pro-Khalistan rally is being shared on social media in association with the ongoing farmers’ protest. Slogans of ‘Khalistan zindabad’ can be heard in the video.
The caption shared with the video reads, “यह हिंदुस्तान का गरीब किसान है इनकी मांगें पूरी करो सरकार…अब कुछ लोग कहेंगे यह दिल्ली का नही, कुछ कहेंगे ये किसान नही। और कुछ कहेंगे अंकुर आर्य नफरत फैला रहा है। ताकि मूल संकट से ध्यान भटका सकें।”
Translated from Hindi to English it reads, “This is the poor farmer of India, please fulfill their demands …Now some people will say it is not from Delhi, some will say it is not a farmer. And some will say Ankur is spreading hatred. So that we can divert attention from the original crisis.”
We’ve noticed various other claims attributing images and videos of old/ unrelated Khalistan movements to the current farmers’ protests in Delhi. You can view these claims debunked by NewsChecker here and here.
Fact Check/ Verification
We did a reverse image search of keyframes from the video on Yandex.com. This led us to a Youtube video uploaded on a channel named “Singh is King” on 3 October, 2020.
The Youtube video includes similar keyframes as seen in the claim’s video.
Continuing our search using relevant keywords, we next came across a Youtube channel named “Khalsa Gatka Group”. On 25 May 2016, the channel uploaded a video titled, “Live From Beas (Shiv Sena not Come to Amritsar).” This video includes the clip from the claim which can be viewed at the 1.38-minute timestamp.
We compare similar keyframes from both videos below.
We also came across a May 2016 article published by Hindustan Times titled, “Sikh hardliners challenge Shiv Sainiks in absentia.” The first paragraph of this article reads, “Even as Hindu right wing Shiv Sena had called off its Lalkar Rally about three days back, Sikh hardliners assembled at the proposed site—the Beas bridge—on the National Highway -1 on Wednesday to challenge them.”
This claim is also debunked in our Hindi fact-check.
Conclusion
Our research makes it clear that the pro Khalistan rally video in the initial claim is at least four years old and is not associated with the ongoing farmers’ protest in Delhi.
Result: Misleading
Our Sources
Singh Is King Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ie_XqfpG0v0&t=130s
Khalsa Gatka Group: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5oP0XGk4Cw&feature=emb_title
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