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Image Credit: Twitter/The Wolf313
Old Images Of Destroyed Houses In J&K Shared As Photos Of Recent Demolition Drive
Writer: Jakir Hassan
A journalist at heart loves the in-depth work of reporting, writing, editing, research, and data analysis. A digital and social media enthusiast.
Jammu and Kashmir, 14 Oct 2022 11:52 AM GMT
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Creatives : Jakir Hassan
A journalist at heart loves the in-depth work of reporting, writing, editing, research, and data analysis. A digital and social media enthusiast.
The images show destroyed houses from two different old encounters; Bahmoo village Pulwama which occurred on July 4, 2017, and another encounter which occurred on September 25, 2020, in the Sirhama area of Bijbehara in Anantnag.
A set of images showing destroyed houses is going viral across social media with the claim that it shows the aftermath of an alleged recent demolition drive in Jammu and Kashmir.
The claim is viral in the context of recent encounters where two terrorists were killed in an encounter in Anantnag. As per a NDTV report, one terrorist was killed previously in an encounter in the Tangpawa area of Jammu and Kashmir's Anantnag on Sunday evening.
Claim:
The houses seen in the two viral images have been reduced to rubble. The claim with these images reads as "Kashmir Today," claiming that the destruction of houses took recently.
Another user, The Wolf_313, also tweeted the images with the following claim, "Again today 💔 We cur*se on occupation 😑مقبوضہ جموں و کشمیر #JammuKashmirRejectsindia"
Fact Check:
The Logical Indian fact check team verified the viral claim and found it to be misleading. The viral images dates back to 2017.
We conducted a reverse image search on the top image. We came across a report by The Wire published on 13 June 2018. The report titled, 'In Kashmir, No Door to Knock for Occupants When Encounters Reduce Homes to Rubble' gave information on the destruction caused by security forces, reducing houses to rubble.
The security forces undertook these operations to carry out encounters against militants in the Shopian district of Jammu and Kashmir. The image is captioned, "Pulwama: Remains of a house destroyed in an encounter between militants and security forces at Bahmoo village of Keller, 60 kms from Srinagar."
We also came across a report by Firstpost titled, 'Pulwama encounter: Locals throng funeral prayer march of three slain Hizbul militants in Kashmir' published on July 5, 2017.
The image's caption in the Firstpost report read, "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. PTI". The captions of these reports revealed that the destruction of the houses took place at Bahmoo village of Keller, 60 kilometres from Srinagar.
We then conducted a reverse image search on the second viral image. We came across the same image in the content curating website, 'Content Garden.' The image was uploaded on September 25, 2020.
The caption of this image reads, "Jammu and Kashmir, Sep 25 (ANI): A boy looks damaged house near the encounter site in Sirhama area Anantnag district of south Kashmir, on Friday. Two Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) militants were killed in an overnight encounter with security forces in the Anantnag district of Jammu and Kashmir. (ANI Photo)".
In our Fact Check, we came across the same image published by Kashmir Reader on September 26, 2020. The title of the report reads as, 'House blasted to rubble, two militants killed, four youths injured in explosion at encounter site'. The Kashmir Reader report notes that security forces killed two militants, one local and the other a Pakistani in Sirhama area of Bijbehara in Anantnag district. As per the report, security forces carried out explosions where the militants were holed up.
As per the report, "The house has been razed to the ground, and several other houses in the vicinity have also suffered severe to minor damage".
We then conducted a keyword search with the terms 'Anantnag encounter 2020'. We came across a report by Daily Excelsior published on September 26, 2020. In the report, we can see an image of the destroyed house from another angle.
Conclusion:
We found that one of the images dates back to 2017 and the other dates back to 2020. The images do show destroyed houses after encounters were carried out by security forces on militants which led to the destruction of houses where the militants were holed up. The images show two different old encounters from Bahmoo village Pulwama which occurred on July 4, 2017, and another encounter which occurred on September 25, 2020, in the Sirhama area of Bijbehara in Anantnag. Thus, we found that the viral images are shared with a misleading context.
If you have any news that you believe needs to be fact-checked, please email us at factcheck@thelogicalindian.com or WhatsApp at 6364000343.
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