Islamist Circulating Old Fireworks Video To Falsely Claim Kashmiris Celebrated India’s Defeat In World Cup

Australia secured their sixth Men’s ODI World Cup title on Sunday by defeating India in Ahmedabad, with over 90,000 fans in presence. A day after the match, a video showing people bursting crackers is gaining traction on the X platform (formerly known as Twitter). Numerous Islamist handles are circulating the video, alleging that Kashmiri people were celebrating India’s defeat in Srinagar by igniting fireworks. An account named Tahir Awan (Archived link) wrote, “Kashmiri people started celebrating Indian defeat against Australia in Indian occupied Kashmir.”

Kashmiri people started celebrating Indian defeat against Australia in idnian occupied Kashmir #INDvsAUS#Panauti #IrfanPathan #Australia #AustraliaVsIndia#AUSvIND pic.twitter.com/3hvPxhxKJ0

— Tahir Awan 💦 (@Tahir_Awan000) November 19, 2023

Other handles like Kashmir observer (Archived link) shared another video showing fireworks with the same claim.

Video of the day ❤️
Kashmiri celebrate Australia win in indi!an occupied kashmir.#Worlds2023 #CWC23Final #INDvsAUS #WorldcupFinal #FreePalestine #Australia pic.twitter.com/q3XWI616DR

— Kashmir Observer 🍁 (@UmarIbn634768) November 19, 2023

Also Read: Fact Check: Did PM Modi Abruptly Exit the Stage After Handing Over the World Cup Trophy, Creating an Awkward Moment for the Australian Captain?

Fact Check

In our research, we extracted multiple keyframes from all videos and performed a reverse image search on the extracted keyframes. Using a reverse image search, we found that the first video which was tweeted by the handle Tahir was an old video. Facebook page Soan Kashmir posted the same video on August 14, 2020 with a caption “Firecrackers on Pakistan’s Independence Day in Downtown, Srinagar.” Therefore the claim that Kashmiris are celebrating India’s defeat is false and not related to yesterday’s cricket match.

Another video encrypted by Kashmir Observer is also old and unrelated to the claim that Kashmiris were seen celebrating India’s defeat in the 2023 World Cup. Using a reverse image search, we found a video on Twitter by Major Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry (Archived link), which is from 2017. The caption of the video reads, “And this is………Srinagar!!” This makes it clear that the video is not about Kashmir celebrating India’s defeat.

And this is………Srinagar!! pic.twitter.com/Espi1dcmcq

— DG ISPR (@OfficialDGISPR) June 18, 2017

So the claim that Kashmiris are celebrating the Indian cricket team’s defeat against Australia by lighting fireworks in Srinagar is false because the videos that are being circulated are not from recent.

Also Read: No, there is no Communal angle in the incident involving a Sikh beaten by a mob in Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh