Authors
Vasudha noticed the growing problem of mis/disinformation online after studying New Media at ACJ in Chennai and became interested in separating facts from fiction. She is interested in learning how global issues affect individuals on a micro level. Before joining Newschecker’s English team, she was working with Latestly.
Indians paid homage to the 40 CRPF soldiers who were martyred in the terror attack in Kashmir’s Pulwama on its third anniversary on Monday, February 14. Several social media users shared a video claiming to show the Pulwama attack on an army truck with their messages of tributes to the fallen soldiers. However, Newschecker has found that the viral video is unrelated to the terror attack on CRPF soldiers.
Several Twitter users have shared this video.
A Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) terrorist rammed an explosives-laden vehicle into a bus carrying CRPF soldiers in Pulwama on February 14, 2019 leading to the death of 40 passengers. The police had identified the suicide bomber as Adil Ahmed alias Waqas Commander from Kakapora in Pulwama.
In August 2020, the NIA had filed a 13,500-page chargesheet in a special court against 19 people for planning and carrying out the 2019 Pulwama attack. The “blind case” was solved by the NIA after piecing together the electronic evidence and statements of terrorists and their sympathisers arrested in different cases, officials said.
The last of the surviving terrorists involved in the 2019 attack on a CRPF convoy in Pulwama has been killed in an encounter in Anantnag on December 30, 2021, according to IGP Kashmir Vijay Kumar.
Also Read: Old Visuals Of Supermarket Fire Shared As Videos Of Drone Attack In Abu Dhabi
Fact Check/Verification
To verify the claim that the viral video shows the 2019 attack on CRPF soldiers in Pulwama, we conducted a Google reverse image search on the keyframes of the video and found a clip from the video was uploaded on a website called ‘Imgur’ on August 4, 2017.
Taking a cue from here we searched for keywords ‘VBIEDs blast’ on Google and came across the longer version of the video was posted on a website called ‘Miliatry.com’, dated October 9, 2009, with the title ‘Huge IED in Iraq’.
Newschecker continued the investigation and searched for keywords ‘VBIEDs IED Blast in Iraq’. We found the viral video was posted on a YouTube channel called ‘Moto Manic’ on December 7, 2017, titled ‘VBIED IED SEP 02 2007 camp taji iraq huge explosion.’
We also found that the same video was uploaded on December 8, 2009 on a YouTube channel called ‘brian spalding’ with the same title. The description of the video read, “This is a vbied ied right outside of the gate at camp Taji iraq sep 02 2007 I was laying in bed watching a movie when I heard the explosion, and the room shook and blew out the windows. My living quarters were 1/4 mile away.”
We also came across a report by McClatchy Newspapers, dated September 2, 2007, titled ‘Round-up of daily violence, Sunday 2 September 2007.’ According to the report, “Around 4 p.m., a suicide car bomb targeted the first gate of the Iraqi Army Taji base killing 2 soldiers and injuring 8 others.”
Conclusion
The viral video claiming to show the 2019 Pulwama attack is actually from Iraq. The video shows a suicide car bomb attack at Camp Teji in Iraq in 2007.
Result: False Context
Sources
YouTube Channel Of Moto Manic & Brian Spalding
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Authors
Vasudha noticed the growing problem of mis/disinformation online after studying New Media at ACJ in Chennai and became interested in separating facts from fiction. She is interested in learning how global issues affect individuals on a micro level. Before joining Newschecker’s English team, she was working with Latestly.
