Guwahati: Amid increased military tension in Tawang in Arunachal Pradesh following a face-off between Indian and Chinese troops, misleading videos are now being widely shared on social media with claims that these videos are from the latest December 9 clash along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in the Tawang sector.
While one video shows a skirmish between soldiers in a snow-covered landscape, a second video shows Indian soldiers having a heated moment near a Chinese army vehicle. However, despite the claims, we have found that none of the videos are from the recent clash reported from Tawang.
Also Read | Arunachal: Indian, Chinese troops clash near LAC in Tawang
Claim 1
Sharing the video of the skirmish on Twitter, a user (@RealBababanaras)) claims that approximately 150 Indian soldiers came heavily over more than 300 Chinese soldiers. (See the archived version)
Click here and here for archives of more such tweets
Fact-check
We fragmented the video using the InVid tool and performed a reverse image search on the keyframes. This led us to reports published by various news organisations in June 2020. It was shared in the backdrop of the India-China border row in Galwan. According to this video report by NDTV on June 22, 2020, the video was from Sikkim.
“Indian and Chinese officers are seen clashing in a video of a high-altitude skirmish in Sikkim that has emerged days after the deadly face-off at Ladakh. A Chinese officer is punched by an Indian jawan as soldiers of both sides brawl in the mobile phone video that lasts over five minutes,” it reported.
Though we couldn’t independently verify the exact location of the video, we can safely say that it is an old video and not from the recent skirmish between India and China in Tawang.
Claim 2
In the second video a supposedly injured Chinese soldier can be seen detained by the Indian soldiers. The video shows the Indian Army personnel smashing a Chinese military vehicle with stones and sticks. Users sharing the video claim that it is from the Tawang clash.
Click here and here for archived versions of the video.
Fact-check
We fragmented the video using the InVid tool and ran a reverse image search on the keyframes and found that the video has been circulating on the Internet since May 2020. According to this report by Daily Mail (UK), the video was ‘believed’ to be from May 2020 on the banks of Pangong Lake in eastern Ladakh.
The report states that the Indian government had condemned the video footage amid “escalating dispute at the Himalayan border” between India and China in May 2020.
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“Believed to have been filmed around two weeks ago on the banks of Pangong Lake, a mile into Indian territory, the footage purports to show Indian forces battering a People’s Liberation Army soldier and smashing up a Chinese armoured car,” it said.
Thus, we can conclude that these videos circulating as the recent border row between India and China are old and not from Tawang. Further, no official images or videos of the recent border skirmish in Tawang have come out in the public domain.
Also Read | Not 1962 anymore: Arunachal CM on China’s intrusion in Tawang