The viral image purportedly shows a Muslim man in the Indian Army’s custody, with yellow-coloured packets alleged to be bombs.
New Delhi: A picture of a Muslim man falsely accused of being a suicide bomber is doing the rounds on social media.
The viral image in question purportedly shows a Muslim man in custody of the Indian Army, with yellow-coloured packets, alleged to be bombs, attached to his body.
On Tuesday, a Facebook user, Sanjay Choudhary, shared the image. The accompanying text in Hindi said, “At this old an age, this man was on his way to bomb a crowded space but the Army caught him. It’s essential to understand the depths of their thinking.”
The post received over 6,300 shares and reactions on Facebook.
A Twitter handle named Rajputana Rifles also shared the same image with the same text Tuesday. The tweet was retweeted by 44 users and liked 81 times.
https://twitter.com/rajpootsir/status/1082670148127997952
However, the man in question was neither a suicide bomber nor was he caught by the Indian Army.
The actual image is from Pakistan when its Army caught a man at the Torkham border, infamous for drug smuggling from Afghanistan. The yellow packets seen in the picture are not bombs but hashish, a cannabis-based drug.
Dating back to 27 December 2014, the photo was posted on Twitter by Pakistani journalist Safdar Dawar.
Man with hashish jacket on turkhum border. pic.twitter.com/f04yuy0T9a
— Safdar Dawar (@DawarSafdar) December 27, 2014
The uniform of the Army personnel also confirms that the image is from Pakistan.
Not the first time
The image is going viral in India now, but this isn’t the first time that it is misleading people on the internet.
In January 2016, a Facebook page, Syria Truths, had shared the same image claiming that the man in question was an ISIS terrorist. The post also claimed that the man had said that he wanted to bomb people to have dinner with the prophet. The claims were busted by a Malaysian news portal The Rojak Pot.
In collaboration with SM Hoaxslayer.