A video of army personnel attending to soldiers who seem to have collapsed has been widely shared on social networking platforms. It has been claimed that the soldiers collapsed due to taking the COVID-19 vaccine.

The video is circulating on Facebook and Alt News has also received verification requests on WhatsApp and the official Alt News mobile application.

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Fact-check

An army man could be spotted wearing a t-shirt that said ‘XV’ which stands for XV Corps or Chinar Corps of the Indian Army located in Srinagar which is responsible for military operations in Kashmir Valley.

A reverse-image search of the video’s keyframes with the keyword ‘Kashmir army collapse’ took us to the same video uploaded by Instagram page Defence Squad on August 21. “In an organised & supervised training activity near Pathankot, due to severe weather conditions, there has been one fatal casualty & few individuals admitted in MH Pathankot,” read the description.

The page has carried the statement of the Indian army on the training during the 9 Corps Recce Troop Competition.

The video was similarly reported by Editorji. It said that an army man passed away and a few others collapsed due to the heat during training near Pathankot.

The incident was also reported by English media. “A soldier died and four others had to be hospitalised after nearly three dozen soldiers collapsed due to heat and exhaustion during an endurance run conducted at Mamun military station near Pathankot on Saturday,” reported The Indian Express adding, “It was learnt that the endurance competition was already going on for 72 hours and a 10-km leg with full load and weapon was undertaken at a relatively late hour — around 9 am — when the weather was not conducive.”

The video has therefore been shared with a false anti-vaccine narrative.

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About the Author

Pooja Chaudhuri is a senior editor at Alt News.