Pakistan's Minister for Maritime Affairs, Ali Haider Zaidi, tweeted on Friday an old video from the funeral of slain militant Burhan Wani and claimed it was millions of Kashmiris protesting against the Indian government's recent decision to change the status of Jammu and Kashmir.
The thirty-second clip tweeted by Zaidi shows a top angle view of multitudes gathered in a large open field. The original audio of the video has been overlaid with a soundtrack of the song 'Jung E Azadi'.
"Millions of #Kashmiri rally in IOK against @narendramodi Govt repealing of 35-A. #SaveKashmirFromModi," the minister tweeted.
The clip was viewed over 50,000 times and liked over 5,000 times at the time of writing the article.
Millions of #Kashmiri rally in IOK against @narendramodi Govt repealing of 35-A. #SaveKashmirFromModi pic.twitter.com/xoHYwSUYaw
Click here to view an archived version of the tweet.
The claim is amiss as Kashmir is currently in a state of an information and physical lockdown, with cellular network and internet access banned in many areas and forces deployed in huge numbers in the region. Section 144, banning the gathering of five or more people has also been put in place in the state.
BOOM was able to find a 2018 YouTube video titled 'Burhan wani's funeral'.
The video Zaidi tweeted appears to be culled from the same video. (Watch the video below from 0:13 to 0:40)
Given that Burhan Wani died in 2016 - two years before the video was uploaded we looked for older videos.
We also found an October 2016 video shot from the same angle.
The video, uploaded on October 18, 2016, has been captioned as 'A Sea Of People In The Funeral Of Burhan Wani In Tral Kashmir'
A comparison of the frames from the video tweeted by the politician and the one uploaded to YouTube shows it was shot from the same location.
The bark of the tree and a yellow umbrella can be seen in both frames.
Burhan Wani, a Hizbul Mujahideen commander, was a poster boy for militancy in Kashmir. The 22-year old, who had cult like status in the valley, was killed along with two other associates by Indian security forces on July 8, 2016 in south Kashmir’s Kokernag in Anantnag district. His death was a trigger for plunging the region into further clashes with Indian forces.
Wani's funeral in Tral saw an outpouring of support from locals. The sea of people who had gathered to mourn him also raised anti-India and pro-Pakistan slogans.