A video is going viral on social media that shows a group of people surrounding a car that drives over the Indian flag. In the video we can see a bunch of cars driving over Indian flags kept to the road. Several vehicles can be seen driving over the flag, including a rickshaw and a car along with men on motorcycles. People can be seen waving the Pakistani flag and cheering from the sides.
The users who shared the video claims that the incident happened in Kerala, and the text shared alongside the video asks people to raise their voices against the act if they were true patriots and share the video as much as possible.
Fact Check-
We conducted a keyword search on Google but unable to find any news reports related to this incident in Kerala. Next by performing a reverse image search on Google, we discovered a YouTube video, similar to the viral video. which mentioned that the video was from Pakistan. Caption states that “Pakistani people driving on Indian flag”
Keeping this in mind, we closely observed the video and found many clues which indicate that the visuals are not from Kerala but from Karachi, Pakistan. At 3:38 timestamp of the viral video, we could see a white van passing by, with ‘The Hunar Foundation’ written on it.
According to the website of The Hunar Foundation, the organisation is based out of Karachi and focuses on providing technical training in Pakistan. It started it first batch in Karachi’s Delhi Mercantile Society area. This indicated that the video was likely from Pakistan. There were other such clues. For example, the rickshaws seen in the video do not look similar to the ones seen on the Kerala roads.
At 3:44 seconds we can spot a car with yellow number plate, with ‘BFK-625’ written on it. Through Google search, we found that such number plates are related to Pakistan’s Sindh province, of which Karachi is the capital city.
In further search, we spotted a shop board named ‘Sanam’ written on it. Taking a cue from this, Google search with relevant keywords yielded couple of websites. You can see them here and here. Which provided the location of the store named ‘Sanam Boutique’ in Karachi. The design of the name of the store in these websites is similar to the one seen in the viral video.
As per these websites, the store is located in Karachi’s Tariq Road, Delhi mercantile society. Further, we traced a shop with the same name in Karachi on Google map. Through Google Street view of this shop, we can find similar locality as seen in the viral video.
Taking account of these evidences we can confirm that the incident took place on Tariq Road in Karachi, Pakistan. It is not recent and not from Kerala.
Conclusion-
Fact Crescendo has found the claim made along with the viral video to be False. The viral video of people driving over the Indian flag is not from Kerala but from Pakistan’s Karachi. It dates back to 2020.
Title:The viral video of people disrespecting the Indian Flag is not from Kerala but from Pakistan
Fact Check By: Usha Manoj Result: False
This story was originally published by Fact Crescendo and republished by OrissaPOST as part of the Shakti Collective.
