Old video of Congress leader Sagheer Saeed Khan goes viral again linking to the 2024 general elections

Congress leader Sagheer Saeed Khan made these remarks in December 2018. The Congress had disowned and rejected Khan’s remarks and it has no link to the 2024 general elections.

Social media is geared up with so many images and videos related to elections. Amidst this, A video of Congress leader Haji Sagheer Saeed Khan is going viral. In the video Khan is heard saying, “Kashmir used to be known as heaven, is now filled with corpses…those innocent people who were killed here, if Congress comes to power, their families will be given ₹ 1 crore compensation and job to one person. Those innocent people who are behind the bars in terror cases will be released. The BJP leaders who are responsible for the killings here, no matter how prominent and powerful they are, a new law will be enacted, and they will be hanged…The army is just following their orders.” 

The video is being shared with implications that these remarks were made recently during the ongoing 2024 general elections. 

The caption states, leader Sagheer Saeed Khan is promising to give ₹ 1 crore each to the family members of terr0rists killed by Indian Armed Forces. He is also promising that when Congress comes to power, they will release all the terrorists from jail”.

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Fact Check-

We started our investigation by running a keyword and reverse image search on Google, whose results led us to the video report uploaded on 26 December 2018 on the YouTube channel of Republic world. According to the report, the Congress leader made these comments, expressing sympathy for terrorists and even promising them a cash reward should his party come to power. Additionally, Khan stated that if Congress were elected, families of those killed in the valley would receive compensation of one crore rupees and government jobs.

Using this hint, we searched further to understand the statement of the congress leader Sagheer Saeed Khan. This led us to many media reports from December 2018. India Today report of 27 December 2018, states “Congress leader Sagheer Saeed Khan is in the eye of a storm after he sympathised with the terrorists and also announced a cash reward for them in case the party comes to power. Speaking to local journalists in Jammu, the Congress leader targeted the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and said that the saffron party was committing “atrocities on innocent people” in Jammu and Kashmir.”

Moving forward, we have come across a video message of Ravinder Sharma firmly rejecting Khan’s statements on the Facebook page of the Indian National Congress – Jammu and Kashmir. It states, “In a statement PCC Chief Spokesperson #RavinderSharma while totally disowning the statement of Haji Sagheer Saeed Khan said that he had no mandate to make any statement on policy matter of the party without consulting the JKPCC any such statement which goes against status policy of government is totally disowned and out rightly rejected besides seeking appropriate action against him by the minority department of the party.”

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The video of Congress leader Sagheer Saeed Khan that is currently trending on social media is not recent, it is from 2018.

Conclusion-

Fact Crescendo found the claim made along with the viral video to be Misleading. Congress leader Sagheer Saeed Khan made these remarks in December 2018. The Congress had disowned and rejected Khan’s remarks and it has no link to the 2024 general elections.