The Indian government’s decision to revoke key provisions of Article 370 relating to the state of J&K continues to reverberate on social media in the form of misinformation and/or disinformation. Now, sections of social media users are spreading the claim that the Canadian government has “refused visas to Indian Army Generals and Brigadiers who served as intelligence officers for their part in Kashmir”.
🇨🇦 Canada refuses visa for Indian Army Generals and Brigadiers who served as intelligence officers for their part in #Kashmir: thank you @JustinTrudeau for your brave stance pic.twitter.com/KaCwdsz7jy
— Lord Nazir Ahmed (@nazir_lord) August 21, 2019
As can be seen in the above tweet by Lord Nazir Ahmed, which has been retweeted over 5800 times, the basis for this claim is a video report by a news channel. Ahmed is a member of the House of Lords in the UK. This video is 2:20 minutes long. Alt News found a longer version of this video shared on Facebook by several users. The video and accompanying claim have been circulated widely in the Pakistani social media ecosystem.
The same claim, that Indian army officers have been refused visas by the Canadian government for alleged atrocities in Kashmir, has been made in an article published by a website, Research Snipers.
FACT CHECK: THIS IS A VIDEO FROM 2010
This information that the Canadian government has refused visas to senior Indian army personnel over their alleged role in Kashmir, is not recent and has nothing to do with the revocation of key provisions of Article 370 by the Indian government. A vital clue in this regard is the logo of the news channel seen in the video- Headlines Today.
It may be noted that Headlines Today is the former name of India Today, the popular English TV news channel owned by the India Today group. The channel was renamed in 2015. This itself is proof that the video dates back to at least 2015 if not earlier. To find out more about the video, Alt News used specific keywords on YouTube, and found this video posted nine years back i.e. in 2010.
Using the date and time filter on Google, Alt News then sifted through news reports of 2010, and found several articles relating to the diplomatic row which ensued when the Canadian government had refused to issue visas to several ex-servicemen and intelligence officials, citing human rights violations.
It may be reiterated that the claim that Indian army personnel have been refused visas by the Canadian government, pertains to news of 2010 and is not related to the recent developments in J&K.
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