A video of railway track equipment theft in Pakistan is being shared linking it to India
According to reports (here, here), on 17 August 2024, twenty coaches of the Ahmedabad-bound Sabarmati Express passenger train derailed near Govindpuri station in Kanpur, after the train engine struck an “object placed on the track (here). On 23 August 2024, a Jodhpur-bound Vande Bharat train narrowly escaped derailment after hitting a cement block placed on the track in Rajasthan’s Pali district. Amid these incidents, a video depicting young boys vandalizing a railway track or engaging in the theft of railway track equipment is being widely shared across social media platforms (here, here, here, and here). The video shows the boys using a large spanner to remove railway track equipment. The claim accompanying the video suggests that it depicts miscreants vandalizing a railway track in India. Some posts (here, here) also claim that Muslims in India are intentionally vandalizing railway tracks to blame the Indian government. Through this article, let’s fact-check the claims made in these posts.
Claim: Video shows miscreants vandalizing a railway track in India.
Fact: This viral video is from Karachi, Pakistan, and shows local children living near the railway track stealing railway equipment in the Boat Basin area of Karachi. Hence, the claim made in the post is FALSE.
To gather details about the viral video, we conducted a Google reverse image search using keyframes from the video. This search led us to the same video shared on Facebook by a page named ‘Momentique News’ on 06 December 2023. According to the video description, the footage shows an incident of railway equipment theft near Boat Basin, a locality in Karachi. The video’s caption reads: “Near Sir Taj Khan Pahatk Boat Basin Chowki, the valuable goods of railway line are being stolen a lot. P.S. Boat Basin is requested to take this action”. (Translation from Urdu to English).
The page identified itself as a news and media website based in Karachi, Pakistan. We then contacted the page admin about the video. Edwin Maher, the admin of the page, identified himself as a journalist and confirmed that the video is from the Boat Basin area in Karachi, Pakistan. He also stated that the video shows local children living near the railway track stealing railway equipment to sell it for scrap.
Upon further investigation, we found the same video uploaded by several Pakistani users on various social media platforms (here, here, here, here, here, and here) in December 2023. The descriptions of these videos also state that they show footage of the theft of railway equipment in Boat Basin, Karachi. During this search, we also found a video (archived link) containing visuals from the viral video uploaded on the official YouTube channel of Karachi South Zone Police (Media Cell DIG South Karachi Police) titled “Police Action Against Video Viral on Social Media of Theft of Track Nutbolts from Railway Line Boat Basin.” According to this video, the viral footage shows an incident of theft of railway track bolts and nuts near the Sartaj Khan Phatak railway line in Karachi. The Boat Basin Police officials detained the juveniles involved, who were later released to their parents after being warned to supervise their activities more closely. In the YouTube video, a police officer questions the three boys, one of whom admits to stealing nuts and bolts from the railway track in Shereen Jinnah Colony in Boat Basin, Karachi. The officer also cautions parents to monitor their children better to prevent similar incidents. The same video was also shared on the official Facebook page of Karachi Police (Media Cell – DIG South Zone). Based on this information, it is clear that the video depicts local children stealing railway equipment in Karachi, Pakistan.
According to a report published by the Pakistani media outlet Express Tribune in September 2022, there have been numerous incidents of railway equipment theft in the Sindh and Balochistan provinces of Pakistan. Railway officials stated that assets worth Pakistani Rs 88.581 million have been stolen since 2018, including railway tracks, fish plates, rods, and heating bolts.
To sum up, a video showing the theft of railway track equipment in Pakistan is being shared with false claims linking it to India.