An old 2015 video of security forces dispersing a ‘Muharram’ procession in Kashmir is being falsely shared as a recent one

A video of security forces using batons and firing tear gas on a crowd is being shared with the claim that they were dispersing a procession held during the recent ‘Muharram’ celebrations in Kashmir. Let’s try to analyze the claim made in the post.

Claim: Latest video of security forces dispersing a procession held as part of the recent ‘Muharram’ celebrations in Kashmir.

Fact: It is an old video. The video shows security forces in Kashmir dispersing Muslims who participated in Muharram processions in 2015. Hence, the claim is MISLEADING.   

When the video in the post was run through the ‘InVid’ plugin, several keyframes were obtained. On subjecting these keyframes to reverse image search, no relevant search results were obtained. In the video, a store “Pirson chemists & druggists” can be seen at -0:54 duration.

When looked on Google Maps with the keywords Pirson chemists & druggists’, a store with that name was found to exist in Jammu & Kashmir. So, it can be concluded that the video was taken in Jammu & Kashmir.

Also, a watermark “AP” can be seen on the posted video. On searching in “AP Archive” YouTube channel with keywords ‘Muharram Kashmir’, many search results were obtained. When one goes through those search results, the video posted was found among them. From the description of the video, it was found that the video shows security forces in Kashmir dispersing Muslims who took part in ‘Muharram’ procession. But, when one looks at timestamp of the video, it was known to be uploaded on 31 July 2015. So, it is an old video and has nothing to do with the current events.

To conclude, an old video of security forces dispersing a ‘Muharram’ procession in Kashmir is being falsely shared as a recent one.

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