Video of Islamic flags hoisted in Punjab shared as Pakistani flags

A video of flags hoisted on the terrace of several buildings in Jalandhar, Punjab was shared on social media with a claim that these were Pakistani national flags. In the video, a man can be heard calling the territory “mini Pakistan”. Twitter handle @noconversion posted the video with the message, “Pakistani flags … in Jalandhar Punjab, this area Vijay Colony is infested with Christian Missionaries”. It has garnered more than 900 retweets so far.

Pakistani flags … in Jalandhar Punjab , this area Vijay Colony is infested with Christian Missionaries @AmitShah @SureshChavhanke @rohitsardaana @ZeeNews @aajtak @amitmalviya pic.twitter.com/GMqn4owAN5

— No Conversion (@noconversion) November 6, 2019

A few more people on Facebook shared the video with a similar narrative. A post by a Facebook user Karishma has amassed close to 1,300 shares at the time of writing this article.

Fact-check

With the help of a keyword search on Google, we found a news report published by Dainik Bhaskar on November 4, 2019. This was also pointed out by a Twitter user. On November 4, the police reached Jalandhar’s Vijay Colony along with a local Shiv Sena leader who informed that the Muslim community was allegedly raising Pakistani flags. According to the report, the flags were removed by the residents, however, a protest was later staged. The Muslim community argued that the flags were “Islamic religious flags”, not Pakistani flags. After the outrage, the police realised their misunderstanding and the flags were reinstated under the police’s direction.

In the comparison below, one can observe a clear distinction between the two flags. The Pakistani national flag (right) has a vertical white stripe on the left with a crescent moon and a star on a green background. On the other hand, the flags that were used in Jalandhar (left) had two stripes, one with white spots on a blue background and other with black zig-zag lines on a white coloured stripe. These were hoisted in the locality to mark the celebration of Prophet Hazrat Muhammed’s birth anniversary on November 10.

A video of Islamic flags hoisted in Punjab’s Jalandhar was shared with the false narrative that Pakistani flags were raised in the locality. The police mistook them for Pakistani flags and took them down, however, the flags were later restored.

[This article was updated on November 8 to include the tweet by Pakistani user @MirMAKOfficial.]