Fact Check: Video showing Indian, Pakistani armies exchanging sweets is not recent, dates back to 2017
Diwali, the festival of lights, was celebrated by millions of people across the globe. It is a major festival for the
Soldiers exchange sweets
Diwali, the festival of lights, was celebrated by millions of people across the globe. It is a major festival for the Hindus, Sikhs, Jains and other religions too. Around one billion people, across the world, celebrated Diwali. Jawans of the Indian army also celebrated the festival with the villagers in Uri in the Baramulla sector of LoC. The scenes of exchanging gifts, and sharing sweets between the army and the locals could be seen. The soldiers and villagers also conveyed best wishes to each other and their families on the occasion. Prime Minister Narendra Modi continued his tradition of celebrating the festival with India’s armed forces. He visited the BSF outpost along the Pakistan border, interacting with soldiers and sharing Diwali greetings.
Amidst this, a video of soldiers exchanging gifts and sweets is going viral with the claim that the troops of India and Pakistan army at the border are exchanging gifts on the occasion of Diwali in 2024. The claim in Hindi goes as “भारत पाकिस्तान बोर्डर पर दिवा
Fact Check:
The claim is Misleading. The video is an old one.
When we extracted keyframes from the viral video and searched them using Google reverse image search, we found that the video was from the year 2017. We found a video shared by a YouTube channel on October 18, 2017, with the title ‘The Indian Army & Paki Army, exchanging Diwali gifts at the Kaman Post peace bridge, at the LoC.’
But upon further search, we found that the video is older than that. We found images shared by ANI on the X platform with the caption ‘Kaman Setu, Uri (J&K): Sweets exchange ceremony between Indian & Pak Army on the occasion of 66th Republic Day’. ANI posted the picture on Jan. 26, 2015.
The YouTube channel of Headlines Today shared the video on January 26, 2015, with the title ‘R-day: Indian Soldiers greet Pak Counterparts with sweets’. The description of the video states ‘Indian soldiers got a chance to greet their Pakistani counterparts along the LoC and international border on the occasion of Republic Day. This was conducted at the Aman Setu.’
According to Economic Times, Indian and Pakistani troops along the Line of Control exchanged sweets at three places in Jammu and Kashmir on the occasion of Republic Day. A unit of the 12 Infantry Brigade of Amry exchanged sweets with their Pakistan counterparts at Kaman post in the Uri sector on the Srinagar – Muzaffarabad road.
Therefore, the viral video is not recent and does not show soldiers of India and Pakistan exchanging sweets on the occasion of Diwali in 2024. It shows soldiers exchanging sweets on the occasion of the Republic Day of India in the year 2017. The claim is Misleading.