An image is being shared on social media claiming it as the picture of the anti-sharia signboard placed at the Indian side of the India-Pakistan border. This purported signboard states, “YOU ARE ENTERING INTO A SHARIA-FREE ZONE. PLEASE SET YOUR WATCHES FORWARD 1400 YEARS”. Let’s verify the claim made in the post.
Claim: Photo of anti-Sharia signboard placed at the Indian side of India-Pakistan border.
Fact: The photo shared in the post is a morphed one. The original photo shows a different warning signboard at the US-Mexican border. This signboard was placed at San Luis city in Arizona, United States. This signboard warns against illegal firearms trafficking into Mexico. Hence, the claim made in the post is FALSE.
On reverse image search of the photo shared in the post, a similar signboard photo was found in a photo essay article published on the ‘Latin Dispatch’ news website, on 15 September 2010. But, the text on the original signboard reads, ‘Warning/ Weapons and Ammunition is illegal in Mexico’. This signboard warns against illegal firearms trafficking into Mexico. The original signboard has not mentioned anything about Sharia law. The ‘Latin Dispatch’ article reported it as the warning signboard placed at the US-Mexican border. This signboard was reportedly shot by a US reporter named Molly O’ Toole, at San Luis city in Arizona state, United States. Molly O’ Toole shot this photo during his 852-mile trip from California to Arizona in 2010.
Similar signboards warning against illegal firearms trafficking are found at various places along the US-Mexico border. Those images can be seen here and here. When this signboard was digitally altered and shared with different contexts on social media, ‘Snopes’ published a fact-check article in 2018.
Also, ‘PIB Fact check’ has issued a clarification regarding this image on 26 July 2021. PIB mentioned that the image was digitally altered and clarified that the Indian army had not placed any such signboard at the India-Pakistan border.
To sum it up, a morphed image is shared as the Indian army anti-Sharia signboard at the India-Pakistan border.
