Houses Damaged In Kashmir Encounter? No, These Images Are Old 

Authors

Abrar Bhat

Images showing houses, purportedly brought down to rubbles after an encounter in the valley, are  being shared on social media platforms, with users claiming it to be recent. A twitter user @TheWolf_313 was among those who shared pictures of two damaged houses with an anti-India hashtag. The user claimed that the pictures were recent. 

Another user @fallenchinarr also shared the same pictures of the damaged houses claiming ‘Kashmir Today’. In reply to a comment by a user, the user replied that the alleged encounter took place Yesterday.

Newschecker has found that these pictures are old and from two different encounters in Kashmir.

Fact check/ Verification 

Newschecker began the investigation by conducting a google reverse image search of one of the pictures of damaged houses which led us to a report on Firstpost, that carried the same photograph. The report, dated on July, 05, 2017, revealed that the image was clicked at an encounter in Pulwama when several houses damaged during the exchange of fire between terrorists and security forces.

“Two soldiers were injured during the operation while four civilians sustained injuries in security forces action during protests near the encounter site. Several houses were also destroyed in the shelling between militants and security forces”, the caption of the picture reads.

Another report on The Wire, which dwelled on the plight of the locals whose houses damaged due to the  encounter, carried the same image. The caption revealed that the house was destroyed during the encounter in Bahmoo village Pulwama July 4, 2017. The two reports reveal that the image is from 2017 and not recent.

On conducting a reverse image search on the second image, we were led to a report by Kashmir Reader dated September 26, 2020 carrying the same photograph. The report claimed that the encounter took place in Sirhama area of Bijbehara in Anantnag.

“The explosion, it was later known, was carried out by government forces to blow apart the house the militants were holed up in. “The house has been razed to ground and several other houses in the vicinity have also suffered severe to minor damage,” the report stated.

We found the same picture carried by content agency “Content Garden”, which also confirmed that the house was damaged during an encounter in Sirhama area of Anantnag on September, 27, 2020.On further analysis we found another image of the same house clicked from a different angle carried by Daily Excelsior, which also confirmed that the picture is from the 2020 encounter in Sirhama Anantnag.

Conclusion

The Newschecker investigation on the pictures of damaged houses revealed that the pictures are old and from different encounters in Kashmir and not from any recent encounter.

Result: False 

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Authors

Abrar Bhat