Morphed photo shared as Indian army soldiers raising tricolour flag at Mount Kailash

“India has taken into control 60–70 km of the Kailash mountain range and captured such peaks that were used by China earlier to prevent Kailash Mansarovar pilgrimage. Soldiers shouted slogans of Har Har Mahadev in the area,” reads a message on social media. It accompanies a photograph of Indian army soldiers raising the tricolour flag atop a mountain.

(Translated from: “कैलाश पर्वत श्रृंखला की भारत ने 60-70 किलोमीटर तक का वह पूरा क्षेत्र अपने अधिकार में ले कर ऐसी चोटियों पर कब्जा कर लिया है जिसके दम पर चीन हर बार कैलाश मानसरोवर की यात्रा रोकने की धमकी देने के साथ ही आंखें दिखाता था।वहां भारतीय सैनिकों ने लगाए हर हर महादेव के नारे.”)

From the Twitter account @RajSriv43245377, the claim drew over 300 retweets and close to 600 likes.

The photograph is circulating against the backdrop of the Indian army occupying the high ridgeline of the Kailash Range opposite the Chushul Bowl on the intervening night of August 29-30.

The same was promoted by Twitter handle @Qweenofjhansi gathering over 900 likes.

The picture is also circulating on Facebook. It has been shared with another message that read, “India’s Ranbakura took control of a large part of Kailash mountain occupied by China in 1962 and waved the tricolour flag. (हिन्द के रणबाकुरों ने 1962 में चीन द्वारा क़ब्ज़ाये गए कैलाश पर्वत बड़ा हिस्सा अब अपने कब्जे में लेकर तिरंगा लहराया.”)

Old image morphed

A similar image was viral in June with the false claim that India captured the Chinese side of the Pangong Tso lake. Alt News Fact Check on the claim spread by a dubious website can be read here.

A reverse-image search had led us to the original picture used by The Print in an article from May 13, 2020. The photograph, credited to ANI, was used for representational purposes.

This image has clearly been morphed and shared recently.

We found another image of the same event in an India Today report from January 26, 2020. As per the article, the image shows soldiers celebrating the 2020 Republic Day at the Line of Control (LoC).

Alt News also reverse searched the viral image on Yandex after blurring out the soldiers and the flag. This led us to the original photograph that has been used in the background.

Therefore, a picture from 2020 Republic Day celebrations at the LoC was morphed and shared with the false claim that it shows the Indian army raising the national flag at Kailash mountain. India recently occupied the heights in Chushul sector.