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| - Fact Check: Pak fuel price hike triggered mob to set fire to petrol pump in Lahore? No, this video is old
A video on social media claimed that a fuel price hike in Pakistan had triggered a mob to torch a petrol pump. Here's the truth behind the video.
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India Today Fact Check
This is at least three years old and therefore, not related to the recent fuel price hike in Pakistan.
After a record depreciation in its currency, Pakistan announced an increase in petrol and diesel prices by PKR 35 per litre on January 29. The steep hike in fuel prices in Pakistan sparked wildfires of misinformation on social media, on both sides of the border.
A video going viral on social media shows a petrol pump going up in flames. Those sharing it claimed that a petrol pump was set on fire in Lahore, Pakistan, following the fuel price hike.
In the video, seemingly shot from the inside of a car, plumes of heavy smoke can be seen billowing from what appears to be a petrol pump. Even News 18 reported on the video, its headline stating in Hindi that fuel price hikes led to people igniting a petrol pump in Lahore. An archived version of that report can be seen here.
A Twitter user who shared the video wrote, "People are crying for those who lost their lives in #Peshawarblast while a group of extremists set a patrol pump on fire in #Lahore just because the prices of Diesel Patrol are high." The archived version of this tweet can be seen here.
On January 30, nearly 50 people, including police officers and an imam, were killed and over 100 were wounded in a blast at a mosque in Pakistan’s Peshawar. The blast reportedly happened during afternoon prayers.
AFWA found that the viral video is neither from Lahore nor related to the recent hike in fuel prices.
AFWA Probe
To verify the veracity of the viral claim, we performed a reverse image search of the keyframes of the video. This led us to a few videos on YouTube and Facebook, shared in June 2022.
We also found the same video on DailyMotion. The caption to this video in Urdu roughly translated to: "A Puma petrol pump caught fire and burnt in Narowal, city of Punjab Province, Pakistan.” We also found multiple uploads of the same video on YouTube. One such video can be seen here.
Around the same time, many uploaded the video to Facebook, with similar descriptions, corroborating that this incident occurred in Narowal, a district of the Punjab Province in Pakistan. According to a report by Dunya, published on April 13, 2019, a mini petrol pump in Naroal Old Kachhari Chowk caught fire and a 12-year-old died during the incident. The Dunya report, however, did not contain photos or videos from the incident.
AFWA, therefore, has not been able to establish the exact date of the incident. We reached out to journalists in Pakistan, as well as the people who shared the video to ascertain when this happened. The story will be updated upon receiving a response.
Thus, it is clear, that an old video of a petrol pump fire was passed off as mob violence triggered by a recent hike in fuel prices in Lahore.
(Written by Vikas Bhadauria, with inputs from Sanjana Saxena)
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