Old Video Going Viral As Army Men Talking With The Family Of One Of The Pahalgam Attackers.

After the Pahalgam terror attack, various posts surfaced on social media. In such a video, an army man can be seen sitting on a veranda with an elderly Muslim man while two women wearing Burkas standing beside them. In the video, the army man can be seen asking them to ask their son to surrender. But the woman said that the person left on his own, they had nothing to do with it. She would rather want him dead if he comes back. The conversation goes on like this. Sharing the video on social media, users claimed that the video shows the family of one of the Pahalgam attackers. Sharing the video on Facebook, a user wrote, “Army officers went to the house of Kashmiri terrorist engaged in Pahalgam incident to explain to his mother, father and sister brother that he appeals to his son to leave arms and return, then listen to what his family and his mother said. Listen once, our army and central government give them a chance to improve every time but their thinking is very distorted and anti-national, now they will be conducted to the end!!”

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However, as we investigated, we came to know that the claim was misleading. The viral video is old and not related to the recent Pahalgam attack. Here’s the fact check.

Fact Check 

We started our investigation by taking some screenshots from the viral video and conducting a reverse image search. This led us to a YouTube channel where the viral video was uploaded on 10 June 2018. The caption of the video reads, “Viral video army asks active milltant Adil WANI family surrender but Adil family rejected the offer”

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We found the viral video uploaded on another YouTube channel on 9 June 2018. The description of the video reads, “The video conversation between a Kashmiri militant’s family and Army troopers, in which the former is seen denying to latter’s persuasion to ask their son to lay down arms, has gone viral on social media in Kashmir.”

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Moving forward, using relevant keywords, we found a report published on a website on 12 June 2018. According to the report, the girl seen in the video was Shahzada, sister of the militant Adil Ahmed Wani. 

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We found a report published on News18 on 12 June 2018. According to the report, “…Three days after the video went viral on social media, News18 traced the family to Jamnagri village in Shopian.

Both the father and the daughter said the Army came looking for his 19-year old son Adil Ahmad Wani, who had joined militancy last September.

Police said the group, which Wani joined, has a few cadres and recently three of its operatives were disarmed by a rival militant group because of some “ideological” issues.

“This video was shot by Army men… this was few days before Ramzan. There were some 20 Army men who came to the village. Three entered the compound of the house and asked us to ensure Adil surrendered,” said the father.

“They spoke to us politely and we gave our point too,” he said, adding the family is used to Army and police raids since their son left to become a militant.

“They have not been harsh but do keep on telling us to ask him to surrender,” he said.

The girl recalled that the conversation between the family and Army men lasted for more than 15 minutes and was not as short as the video clip.

Incidentally, her home is not far away from the two villages of the Shopian where 20 militants were killed in April. The district has seen close to 100 out of 467 youngsters join militancy in the last eight years according to a confidential police report.

Lt Colonel Rajesh Kalia, Srinagar based army spokesman, while commenting on the video said army asking the families to ask their wards to shun violence is government’s stated policy to get our misguided youth back.”

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This makes it clear that the viral video is old and not related to the Pahalgam terror attack.

Conclusion 

From our investigation, we can say that the claim is misleading. The viral video doesn’t show the family of one of the Pahalgam attackers. The video is old. According to reports, it shows the army men talking with the family of a militant, Adil Ahmed Wani, to get him surrendered.