Fact Check: Discrediting the ‘PoK’ Tiranga Story – No Evidence of Indian Flag Waved at Pak Protests

Since May 10, there have been large-scale, violent protests in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) against the Shahbaz Sharif government’s economic policies and rising prices in the country. Do people really wave the Indian flag at these protests to show how angry they are at the government? A picture that is going popular right now is said to prove that.

“The Indian flag was flown in Rawalkot (POJK), Pakistan Occupied Jammu and Kashmir, during a protest against the Pakistan Army and Police,” said a user on X. Many people posted the same picture on Instagram and Facebook with the same claims. The old files of them can be seen here, here, here, and here.

Indian news sites like News Nation, Punjab Kesari, and Gujarati Mid-Day also wrote about how the Indian flag was raised in PoK while protests were going on. And news sites like Wion and Siasat Daily used the picture that went viral to talk about the protests.

The picture from Rawalakot that went popular was changed; the Indian flag was added digitally. At the gathering in PoK, the Indian flag wasn’t flown.

“The Indian flag 🇮🇳 was hoisted in Rawalkot (POJK), Pakistan Occupied Jammu and Kashmir, during a protest against the Pakistan Army and Police.” pic.twitter.com/ta0H3wifdO

— Sajid Yousuf Shah (@TheSkandar) May 10, 2024

We found that the photo was upside down when we were trying to figure out where the viral picture of the Tricolor came from. In response to the posts that went viral, many X users also shared the original picture and pointed this out. Images and movies are often turned upside down or flipped to make them harder to search for in reverse.

We were sure the picture was reversed because we could see writing on it: in the original picture, an autorickshaw had “BAZGAR” written on its back. In the popular picture, the letters Z and G can be seen backwards on the sides. The two pictures can be seen next to each other.

PHOTO LEADS TO BANK ROAD IN POK’S RAWALAKOT

We found a Facebook reel from May 12 that had videos from several protests in PoK when we did a keyword search in Urdu about the current protests there. The video in the upper left area looked a lot like the picture that went viral. It said “Rawalakot Tourism Hotel” on it as well. The main city of Poonch district in Pakistan is Rawalakot. It’s clear that this is the same place when you look at this movie and this picture next to each other.

We used Google Maps to look for the Rawalakot Tourism Hotel and found another hotel called Green Valley on the same road. In 2023, someone shared a movie on the Google Maps page for this hotel. This movie shows that it really is on Rawalakot’s Bank Road.

WHEN DID THIS PROTEST TAKE PLACE?

The owner of the Kashmir General Store on Rawalakot’s Bank Road about the picture that went popular. He said there were protests in front of his store on May 10. Khan said that the reports that the Indian flag was raised at this rally were false.

We found a Facebook post from May 10 and a film from May 11 that both talked about the same protest. It’s important to remember that neither of them had the Indian flag on them.

NO PAK MEDIA REPORTS ABOUT TIRANGA

Putting up the Indian flag at a protest against the government in PoK would make a fuss, and the Pakistani media would definitely cover it. Many news sites in the country wrote about the protests, but we couldn’t find any mention of the Indian flag. Also, the original picture (which didn’t have the Indian flag) was used in a lot of Pakistani news stories.

Also, Jabbar Chaudhary, the executive editor of a Pakistani news website, said, “The picture being shared on social media is completely fake.” In Rawalakot or any other part of PoK, the Indian flag was not flown. There are protests going on in Kashmir right now, but no one has done anything so extreme.

PHOTO FORENSICS REVEALS MANIPULATION

We used the InVid tool to see if the viral picture had been changed in any way. The GIF below shows the places where the photo was changed. The light green marks show these areas. In the picture that went popular, this is exactly where the Indian flag could be seen.

This makes it very clear that the Indian Tricolor was added to a protest in PoK to make it seem like it had something to do with India.