Authors
Vaibhav is a part of Newschecker’s English team, where he spots and debunks all kinds of misinformation, making the rounds on the internet. A Journalism graduate from St. Xavier's College, Mumbai, he holds an M.A degree in Philosophy and an M.Phil from Delhi University.
As Navratri celebrations began today on 26th September, 2022 across India, a 10 second video clip of devotees purportedly celebrating Navratri at the Hinglaj Mata Mandir in Balochistan, Pakistan, is going viral in social media. Newschecker has found that the video is old and not recent.
The video has been shared on Twitter by user @IFazilaBaloch which has garnered 11,400 likes and 1,912 retweets on the platform. The video has been shared along with the caption ‘Happy #Navratri to our Hindu brothers and sister’s in India and across the globe.Our Hindu community celebrating. Navratri in Balochistan’.
Newschecker found similar claims with similar captions.
Hinglaj Mata Mandir: One of The 51 Shakti Peeth
The Hinglaj Mata Temple is located along the banks of the Hingol River in Hinglaj, the Balochistan region of Pakistan. The goddess seated at the shrine is commonly known as Hinglaj Devi or Hingula Devi and is one of the 51 Shakti Peethas made in honour of Goddess Sati. It serves as a spiritual hub for numerous Hindu groups in Pakistan.
Fact Check /Verification
We started our investigation with a reverse image search of the key-frames of the video on Google and found a tweet which displayed the same video by user @ExposeAntiIndia uploaded on Twitter on 25th October, 2020. According to the user, the video is from Hinglaj in Balochistan.
Using this as a clue, we conducted a keyword search with the words “Hinglaj, Balochistan” and “Navratri” and found a video uploaded on Youtube titled ‘How Hindus are Celebrating Navratri in the Mountains of Balochistan – Mud Volcanoes & Hinglaj’ uploaded on 25th November, 2020 by a verified channel named ‘The Wide Side’ which is a Pakistan based channel which creates content based on News and Current Affairs.
Around the 4:48 minutes into the video, we notice the same man in the YouTube video, who is seen passing around the ‘aarti thali’ in the viral video, confirming that both the videos were shot from the same location at the same time.
Newschecker also found a report by India TV uploaded on their website on 24th October, 2020 titled ‘Navratri worship in Hinglaj Mata temple in Pakistan, Congress leader shared video’ when translated via Google Translate.
The report contained a Tweet by the verified handle Dr. Shakeel Ahmad who was a former Lok Sabha member and General Secretary of the Indian National Congress. The tweet contained the same video as the viral video shared along with the caption ‘Navratri 2020 worship in Hinglaj, Pakistan.’ on 24th October, 2022.
Although we could not identify the source of the video, Newschecker found that the video has been available on the internet since October, 2020.
Conclusion
Newschecker’s investigation reveals that the video of Navratri celebrations being performed in Balochistan is not a recent video but from October, 2020. Although we could not identify the source of the video, the video has been present online for almost 2 years.
Result: Missing Context
Our Sources
Tweet by Indian Intelligence News on 25th, October, 2020.
Youtube video by The Wide Side on 25th, November, 2020.
Report by India TV on 24th October, 2020.
Tweet by Shakeel Ahmad on 24th, October, 2020.
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Authors
Vaibhav is a part of Newschecker’s English team, where he spots and debunks all kinds of misinformation, making the rounds on the internet. A Journalism graduate from St. Xavier's College, Mumbai, he holds an M.A degree in Philosophy and an M.Phil from Delhi University.
