2017 ‘Human Shield’ photo of a Kashmiri is being recently shared as recent - FACTLY
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
April 25, 2022
A photo of a man tied to a vehicle is being widely shared through a post claiming that it shows the Indian Army’s ‘Shobha Yatra’. Let us fact-check the claim made in the post.
Claim: Photo showing Indian Army’s recent ‘Shobha Yatra’.
Fact: The photo is from 2017 and is not a recent one. On 09 April 2017, during polling for the Srinagar Lok Sabha by-election, Major Gogoi- an Indian Army Officer- tied a Kashmiri man in front of a military jeep as ‘Human Shield’ against stone pelters in Jammu & Kashmir. Hence, the claim made in the post is MISLEADING.
When a reverse image search is done on the photo, the same photo was found in an article published in 2017. So, the photo is not a recent one. The photo shows a Kashmiri man tied to an Indian Army vehicle during the polling of the Srinagar Lok Sabha by-election on 09 April 2017. Indian Army officer, Major Gogoi had tied a man to the Army vehicle as a ‘human shield’ to guard himself against stone pelters, the video had triggered a public outcry then. Major Gogoi was honoured with Army Chief’s ‘Commendation Card’ for his counter-insurgency operations even before a Court of Inquiry completed the task of probing the incident.
Farooq Ahmed Dar, the ‘human shield’ who was tied to the army vehicle moved the Jammu and Kashmir human rights commission. Later, the State Human Rights Commission awarded 10 lakh rupees as compensation which the state government refused to pay in 2017. A review petition is said to have been filed against the decision of the state government; the case is reportedly under consideration. Major Gogoi later suffered loss of seniority and was exited from Kashmir for ‘fraternising’ with a local Kashmiri woman in 2018.
To sum it up, a 2017 photo of a Kashmiri tied as ‘Human Shield’ to an Army vehicle is being shared recently as recent.