A Facebook user Sanjay Choudhary recently posted an image of an old man with yellow coloured bags attached to his body, claiming that he was a suicide bomber who was caught by the Indian army. At the time of writing this article, the post had over 6,300 shares.
कब्र में जाने की उम्र में ये आतंकी 72 हूर पाने की तमन्ना लिए भीड़ में बम-ब्लास्ट करने के लिए जा ही रहा था कि सेना ने इसे पकड़ लिया। इनके सोच को गहराई से समझने की परमावश्यकता है ।
Posted by Sanjay Choudhary on Monday, 7 January 2019
The photograph has also been circulated on Twitter with the identical claim. Several among those who shared it are followed by railway minister Piyush Goyal’s Office (1, 2, 3).
Alt News found that the image was circulated last year as well. From a page Semah G. Weifur Fans, it received over 59,000 shares. This page made a similar claim of the man being a terrorist.
Be vigilant, terrorists have adopted a new strategy, they turn into a beggar with explosives. Their targets are schools,…
Posted by Semah G. Weifur Fans on Monday, 3 December 2018
What is the truth?
Upon reverse searching the image on Google, we found a 2014 tweet by Sisat.pk of the same photograph captioned differently – “Man with hashish jacket on turkhum border.”
Man with hashish jacket on turkhum border. pic.twitter.com/UHaMybE21j
— Siasat.pk (@siasatpk) December 28, 2014
We found another tweet from that same year by a Pakistan-based journalist also claiming that the man was caught with hashish at Turkhum border, which is a crossing point between Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Man with hashish jacket on turkhum border. pic.twitter.com/f04yuy0T9a
— Safdar Dawar (@DawarSafdar) December 27, 2014
ThePrint recently debunked the photograph. The viral image was also shared in 2014 with an altered claim that the man was an ISIS terrorist. Malaysian website rojakPOT had busted the false narrative.
An image of a Muslim man carrying hashish, caught by the Pakistani army at the Pak-Afghan border in Turkhum, was thus viral as a suicide bomber caught by the Indian army.
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