Authors
On the 3rd anniversary of the 2019 Pulwama attack on Tuesday (February 14), netizens in India and abroad took to social media to pay tributes to the 40 CRPF jawans who were killed in the attack.
In this context, a video showing a daughter purportedly paying tributes to an Army colonel during his last rites by saluting his mortal remains, is going viral on social media, with users claiming that the man was killed during the 2019 Pulwama attack.
Twitter user Meghupdates was among those who shared the video with the caption “Heartfelt tributes to our brave heroes who lost their lives in #PulwamaAttack. The Nation will always be Indebted by your Supreme Sacrifice. Salute to the families. #PulwamaAttack2019”.
Several other users have shared the same video with the same claim.
Link to the tweets here, here, here, here and here
The video is also being shared on Facebook with the same claim.
The incident took place on February 14, 2019, on national Highway near Lethpora area of Pulwama district of J&K, in which 40 CRPF personnel were killed, when a suicide bomber Adil Ahmad Dar rammed an explosive laden vehicle onto the bus carrying the jawans. Later Pakistan-based militant group Jaish-e-Mohammed took the responsibility of the attack.
Fact Check/ Verification
Newschecker fragmented the video into keyframes and conducted a reverse image search on one of them. We found several reports carrying the same image.
We found a report on Rediff carrying the same image with the caption ‘Colonel M N Rai’s daughter gives the Gorkha regiment’s war cry as she salutes her father who made the ultimate sacrifice for the motherland fighting terrorists in south Kashmir’s Pulwama district in January 2015’.
Using this as a clue, we ran a keywords search and found another report by Times of India dated January 30, 2015 under the title ‘Martyred Colonel Munindra Nath Rai’s eldest daughter salutes him’.
“Emotions ran high as Colonel Munindra Nath Rai, killed by militants in Kashmir, was laid to rest at the Brar Square cemetery in Delhi Cantonment. Rai’s 11-year-old daughter choked up as she shouted her father’s regiment’s old battle cry, then raised her right hand to salute him for the last time as she burst out in tears”, the report stated.
We also found a report by Oneindia stating that “The 39-year old colonel of the 2/9 Gurkha Rifles was killed while fighting militants at Tral. He was awarded the Yudh Seva Medal on Republic Day, just the day before”.
It must also be noted that the 2019 Pulwama attack targeted a CRPF convoy and not the Army.
Conclusion
Newschecker investigation has revealed that a video showing the last rites of Colonel Munindra Rai, killed in an encounter in Tral area of Pulwama in 2015, is being shared as the last rites of one of the personnel who lost their lives in the 2019 Pulwama attack.
Result: Missing Context
Our Sources
Report by Times of India dated January 30, 2015
Report by Rediff dated December 07, 2017
Report by Oneindia dated January 30, 2015
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