Update (11 July 2022):
The same video which was debunked earlier is now being shared as Muslims in Kerala are driving vehicles over the Indian flag while people standing cheer holding a Pakistan flag. However, as explained below, the viral video is actually from Karachi, and could be traced to Karachi’s Delhi mercantile society area on Google street view.
Published (08 June 2022):
A social media post accompanying a video which shows groups of vehicles driving over the Indian flag on a road while people standing cheer holding a Pakistan flag is being widely shared, claiming that the incident took place in Tamil Nadu’s Thanjavur. Through this article let’s fact-check the claim made in the post.
Claim: Visuals showing groups of vehicles driving over the Indian flag in Thanjavur.
Fact: There are no such reports of people insulting Indian flag in Tamil Nadu, as shown in the viral video. Further, the viral video is actually from Karachi. As per the details visible in the viral video, we could trace the same locality in Karachi’s Delhi mercantile society area on Google street view. Hence the claim made in the post is FALSE.
There are no reports of people insulting Indian flag in Tamil Nadu’s Thanjavur. If at all any such incident had indeed taken place, media would have reported it, however, we could not find any such reports.
Further, if we closely observe the video, we could find many clues which indicate that the visuals are not from Thanjavur but from Karachi, Pakistan.
At 3:38 timestamp of the viral video, we could see a white van passing by, with ‘The Hunar Foundation’ written on it.
As per the information provided on the website of The Hunar foundation, the organisation is based out of Karachi, and it provides skill development/technical training to youth of Pakistan. It started it first batch in Karachi’s Delhi Mercantile Society area. Similar images of vehicles can be seen on the Facebook page of a Karachi based printing shop.
At 3:44 seconds we can spot a car with yellow number plate, with ‘BFK-625’ written on it. Through Google search, we found that such number plates are related to Pakistan’s Sindh province, of which Karachi is the capital city. News reports which published images of vehicle number plates similar to the one in the viral video can be read here and here.
Further at the beginning of the video, we can spot a shop with ‘Sanam’ written on it. Taking a cue from this, Google search with relevant keywords yielded couple of websites (here & here) which provided the location of the store named ‘Sanam Boutique’ in Karachi. The design of the name of the store in these websites is similar to the one seen in the viral video.
As per these websites, the store is located in Karachi’s Tariq Road, Delhi mercantile society. Further, we traced a shop with the same name in Karachi on Google map. Through Google Street view of this shop, we can find similar locality as seen in the viral video.
To sum it up, visuals from Pakistan related to insulting the Indian flag are being shared as from Tamil Nadu.
