An image of a burning pyre is viral on social media, with many Pakistan-based accounts claiming that it shows the last rites of Rohit Kataria, a Rafale pilot killed on May 7 in retaliatory strikes by the Pakistan armed forces after India launched Operation Sindoor.
The image has gone viral amid the ongoing conflict between India and Pakistan. Scores of unverified visuals such as this one have been doing the rounds and are being linked to the geo-political tensions between the two countries. The latest crisis was triggered by a terrorist attack that killed 26 civilians in Pahalgam, Kashmir, on April 22.
X user @DI313_ shared the photo with a caption that the death ceremony of Squadron Leader Rohit Kataria was being held on May 12. “He leaves behind his wife Shalini Chaudhary and 2-year-old son Chandan,” the caption added. The user had shared a 5-digit number, 32292, alongside Kataria’s name. This seems like a badge or service number. At the time of writing this, the post had over 150,000 views. (Archive)
Several other X users, including verified accounts @IntelPk_ and @War_Analysts, shared the image with similar claims. (Archived versions here, here and here.) The claims and image were also viral on Facebook.
Fact Check
First, a relevant keyword search of the name Rohit Kataria led us to a government press release from January 2024, in which he was mentioned as a group captain and pilot. Rohit Kataria was awarded the Vayu Sena Medal for devotion to duty. From there, we found his service number, 27443, which did not match the service number mentioned in the social media claims. When we looked up the service number 32292 mentioned by those whos shared the funeral photo, we found that it belongs to squadron leader Inder Setia and not Rohit Kataria.
Moreover, the Indian Air Force has emphatically said its pilots have reached back home safely. So, it was clear that the image did not show an IAF officer’s last rites.
We then did a reverse image search and found a CNN report from September, 2011, titled, “India’s burning issue with emissions from Hindu funeral pyres” which used the same photo as a representative image. The image was captioned, “Hindus pay last respects at a mass cremation of 15 school girls on the banks of the river Orsang in Bamroli in the Indian state of Gujarat, April 16, 2008,” and was attributed to AFP/Getty Images.
We also found the same photo on Getty Images. The caption of the 2008 image of a mass cremation said that 44 people, most of them children on their way to school, had drowned after their bus plunged into the Narmada canal at Bodeli in Gujarat.
Taking cue from this, we performed a keyword search and found several news reports from the time. According to an India Today report, the incident took place about 70 km from Vadodara in the early hours of April 16. The bodies of 44 victims, including the conductor, had been recovered. The bus from Vag-Bhod village was on its way to Bodeli. Most of the children were between eight and 10; only five children survived the accident.
As it stands, a 2008 image of a mass cremation of school girls who passed away in an accident near Vadodara is being circulated with claims that it shows the funeral of a Rafale killed in Pakistani strikes. So far, the Indian Air Force has not declared that any pilots were martyred.
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