‘158 Indian soldiers killed in a rocket launch attack by China’ is fake news - FACTLY
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
June 3, 2020
An image of burning army vehicles is doing rounds on social media with a claim that 158 Indian soldiers were killed in a disastrous rocket launch attack by China on Sikkim. The image is being shared in the context of recent border tensions between the two countries. Let’s fact-check the claim made in the post.
Image of a rocket launch attack by China in which 158 Indian soldiers were killed.
Fact: There are no news reports that 158 Indian soldiers were killed in a rocket launch attack by China in Sikkim during the recent border tensions between the two countries. Also, when the same image went viral in 2017 with the same claim, both Indian and Chinese governments had categorically denied those reports. So, the claim is FALSE.
When the image was subjected to reverse image search technique, it was found in an article published in 2017 with the title – ‘China Attacked India, 158 Indian Soldiers Lost Their Lives: Dunya TV Report’.  The image in this article was found to be a flipped version of the photo posted now. Dunya News is a 24-hour Urdu language news service in Pakistan. The article published by Dunya News is currently not available on their website but the archived version of their report can be seen here.
When searched for more reports about the death of 158 Indian soldiers in a Chinese rocket launcher attack in 2017, it was found that both the Indian and Chinese governments had categorically denied those reports. Several Indian media agencies have reported that the country’s External Affairs Ministry had denied the report of Dunya TV and called it ‘malicious propaganda’. Also, the Chinese media termed the Dunya TV report about the incident to be ‘baseless’.
Also, there is no recent incident in which 158 Indian soldiers were killed by China in a rocket attack on Sikkim.
To sum it up, an old image is being shared with a false narrative that 158 Indian soldiers were killed in a rocket launch attack by China on Sikkim.
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