Skip to main content

Fact check: Sketch of Pahalgam attack suspect resembling Babar Azam is doctored

Posts from multiple users on social media on Wednesday shared a screenshot from an Indian news outlet, claiming it showed a sketch of one of the suspects in the Pahalgam attack resembling Pakistani cricketer Babar Azam. However, the viral image was edited and the original sketch did not resemble the athlete.

Twenty-six lost their lives in an attack in occupied Kashmir on Tuesday. The attack took place in Pahalgam, a popular destination in the scenic Muslim-majority territory that draws thousands of visitors every summer.

The assault has been claimed by ‘The Resistance Front’, a hitherto unknown entity; media reports have quoted the outfit as claiming the attack to protest against demographic changes in the disputed region.

On Wednesday, a Facebook user shared a screenshot of an alleged social media post by Indian media outlet India Today, featuring sketches of the suspects involved in the Pahalgam attack, one of which resembled Babar.

The post racked up more than 2,000 reactions.

The image was also posted on the forum of digital media outlet Siasat.pk with the caption: “Indians lost their minds – Pakistani cricketer Babar Azam involved in terrorist attack.”

Similar claims were widely shared by Pakistani users on many social media platforms as can be seen here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here.

A fact-check was initiated to determine the veracity of the claim due to its virality and spread by users, as well as due to significant public interest in the events unfolding between India and Pakistan in the wake of the Pahalgam attack.

Analysing the image through multiple tools to detect evidence of tampering or use of artificial intelligence showed that Sight Engine indicated a 95 per cent likelihood of facial manipulation while Fake Image Detector classified it as either a computer-generated or modified image.

A reverse image search yielded the original post shared by India Today on Wednesday that showed that the sketch did not resemble Babar.

Therefore, the fact-check determined that the claim about a sketch shared by an Indian media outlet of one of the suspects of the Pahalgam attack resembling Pakistani cricketer Babar Azam is false. The viral image of the sketch was edited since the original sketch of the suspect did not resemble Babar at all.

This fact check was originally published by iVerify Pakistan — a project of CEJ and UNDP.



from The Dawn News - Home https://ift.tt/qvmXSeT
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Ministers rubbish notion that proposed retirement age extension to favour ‘one particular institution’

Information Minister Attaullah Tarar on Tuesday rubbished the notion that a proposed extension in the retirement age was to favour “one particular institution”, adding that the move would be implemented across the board if approved. The rebuttal comes in the wake of media reports claiming that the government was mulling changes to the Constitution to fix the tenure of the chief justice . Currently, judges of the Supreme Court, including the chief justice, retire after attaining the age of superannuation, i.e. 65 years, as stipulated in Article 179 of the Constitution. While giving his opinion recently on the reports of the constitutional amendment, Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar had said he “will not vehemently turn down the proposals related to the tenure of the chief justice”. Addressing the issue during a press conference in Islamabad today along since Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb and the law minister, Attaullah said the extension in the retirement age was “a proposal to a...
Post a Comment
Read more

Explainer: Iran’s economy faces rocky road amid rising prices, falling currency

Iran’s economy is going through one of its most difficult periods in years, fueled by sanctions, high inflation, and a significant drop in the value of the national currency, the rial. These pressures have had a direct impact on living standards and have also fueled recent protests. The protests began on Dec. 28 in commercial hubs in the capital Tehran, when shopkeepers, merchants, and small business owners staged strikes and demonstrations to protest soaring inflation, the collapsing rial, and deteriorating economic conditions, and have since grown into nationwide anti-government expressions of discontent involving workers, students, and others across multiple cities. The Iranian president said Sunday that his government is determined to address Iran’s economic problems amid the protests. Masoud Pezeshkian said the government admits to “shortcomings and problems” and is working hard to alleviate the people’s concerns, especially on the economy. Currency collapse at the centre of c...
Post a Comment
Read more

Mitchell Starc surpasses Wasim Akram as most prolific left-arm pacer in Test history

Australian veteran Mitchell Starc became the most prolific left-arm paceman in Test history on Thursday, surpassing Pakistan great Wasim Akram. The 35-year-old bagged England’s Harry Brook at the Gabba in Brisbane on day one of the day-night second Ashes Test for his 415th wicket since his debut at the same ground 14 years ago. It moved him past Wasim, widely recognised as the greatest left-arm bowler the sport has seen. Wasim played 104 Tests for his 414 wickets with Starc reaching the milestone in his 102nd, helped by a career-best 7-58 in the first innings of the opening Ashes Test at Perth. Starc is now 16th on the all-time wicket-taker list and could move above both India’s Harbhajan Singh (417) and South Africa’s Shaun Pollock (421) in the current pink-ball Test. After that he will have New Zealand’s Richard Hadlee (431) in his sights. from Dawn - Home https://ift.tt/xclHiX2
Post a Comment
Read more