The video of soldier catching a snake is not from the Poonch terror encounter site, but of a training related to Indonesian Army Special forces group named Kopassus
At least four soldiers lost their lives and three others were wounded in a terrorist ambush on two military vehicles in J&K’s Poonch district on 21 December 2023.Amidst this, a video showing a man dressed in military uniform catching a snake with his bare hands is being circulated on social media, with the claim that it depicts the visuals from the Poonch terror encounter site.
The caption of the viral post states, “Visual from #Encounter Site of #Poonch where 4 Brave #IndianArmy soldiers lost his life”.
Fact Check-
We started our investigation by running a reverse image search on Google on one of the key frames of the viral video. The results led us to a YouTube channel named Calon Prajurit which translates to ‘candidate soldier’ from Indonesian to English. The video was uploaded with the caption that read “TNI SI HANTA RIMBA” means ‘TNI The Ghost Of The Jungle.’The video was uploaded on 14September, 2021, which itself is a longer version of the viral clip.
The description part mentions, that the channel shares all things about the Indonesian National Army, including drills, tips for graduating from the army, graduating from the military and passing the police test.
TNI is the abbreviation for the Indonesian National Military (Tentara Nasional Indonesia). In further search, we discovered that Kopassus, an Indonesian Army special forces unit known as Hantu Rimba, while conducting a keyword search for TNI .The group conducts special operations missions for the Indonesian government and specialises in jungle warfare, amid allegations of human rights violations.
According to a Reuters report dated 24 January, 2018, then US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis saw Indonesian troops drink snake blood, roll in glass, break bricks with their heads, walk on fire, and more, in a rare military demonstration meant to show the unique skills of Indonesia’s military.We saw that the channel also features several other training videos of soldiers tackling snakes. They can be seen here and here.
Conclusion-
Fact Crescendo found the claim made along with the viral video to be False. The viral video of soldier catching a snake is not of Indian Army, but of a training related to Indonesian Army Special forces group named Kopassus.The video dates back to 2021 and has no relation with the recent Poonch attack.
Title:Old video of training related to Indonesian military shared as visuals from Poonch of Indian Army soldier with snake
Written By: Usha ManojResult: False
