Fact Check: This image of BSF jawans injured in Meghalaya bus accident is from 2019
Social media posts shared the image of a bus accident claiming that 12 jawans were killed in the mishap in Meghalaya. India Today Anti Fake News War Room (AFWA) has found the claim to be false.
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India Today Fact Check
This image is from a mishap in 2019 after a bus carrying BSF jawans fell into a gorge in Meghalaya's Umtyra.
An image from the site of a bus accident is being circulated on social media. Those sharing it claimed it is of a recent mishap in Meghalaya that killed 12 jawans.
One such post can be seen below.
India Today Anti Fake News War Room (AFWA) has found that the claim is false. This image is from an incident in Meghalaya in 2019. There are no recent reports of any major accident linked to jawans in the state.
AFWA PROBE
With the help of a reverse image search of the image in question, we spotted a report from Meghalaya. Published in 2019, it carried the same photo.
According to this report published by North East Now on October 31, 2019, the image shows a bus carrying 20 BSF jawans of 93rd Bn that met with an accident at Umtyra in East Jaintia Hills of Meghalaya. One person died and 22 others including 20 BSF jawans received injuries as a bus fell in a gorge, it said. The deceased was identified as J. Gogoi, the civilian helper of the bus.
The personnel were returning to their base from Assam’s Morigaon district and were on the way towards Silchar via Meghalaya when one of the buses skidded off the National Highway NH 6 at Umtyra.
As per the reports, the injured jawans in the bus accident were taken to Khliehriat community health centre and North Eastern Indira Gandhi Regional Institute of Health and Medical Sciences (NEIGRIHMS) in Shillong.
A video from the incident was also uploaded by some YouTube channels in 2019.
Moreover, we couldn’t find any recent report about 12 jawans succumbing to injuries in a road accident in Meghalaya. Had such an incident happened, it would have made the news.
It is hence clear that the claim 12 BSF men died in a bus accident in Meghalaya on February 19 2022 is false. The image shared to support the claim is from 2019.
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