Photos from Taiwan and Syria shared as ‘Army tanks on Karachi streets’. - FACTLY
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
October 22, 2020
With the ongoing political and police-vs-army crises in Pakistan, some photos are being shared with the claim that army tanks have been deployed on Karachi streets. Let’s fact-check the claim made in the post.
Claim: Photos show army tanks deployed on Karachi streets.
Fact: While one photo shows army tanks on the streets of Yuanshan Township in Taiwan, the other photo is related to Aleppo (Syria). Hence the claim made in the post is FALSE.
Photo 1: (archived)
When the photo was run through Google Reverse Image, the same photo was found in an article published by the ‘Taiwan News’ in March 2020 with the title – ‘Tanks spotted in NE Taiwan as tensions with China rise’. Also, the uncropped version of the photo can be found in ‘The Economist’ article with the description that the photo was taken in the Yuanshan Township in Taiwan.
Also, the Google street view of the same location in Taiwan can be seen here.
Photo 2: (archived)
This photo was found in an article published by ‘CNN’ in 2016 with the title – ‘Aleppo: Five years to ruins’. In the description of the photo, it can read that the photo was taken in easter Aleppo (Syria). A similar photo from the same location can be also found on the ‘AP Images’ website. So, this photo is also not related to Pakistan.
In the Facebook post, it is also mentioned that ‘Sindh policemen just killed 5 Army jawans’. While the ‘ANI’ has reported that some personnel have died in the clashes between the Karachi Police and Pakistan Army, ‘News 18’ in its article has written – ‘Unconfirmed information posted by The International Herald on Twitter said a “civil war” had broken out in Karachi after Sindh Police and Pakistan Army exchanged fire. It further reported that 10 Karachi police officers had died in the clashes. But Pakistan’s leading newspapers Dawn carried no such reports’. So, at the time of writing this article, there is no official confirmation about the killings.
To sum it up, the photos from Taiwan and Syria shared as ‘Army tanks on Karachi streets’.