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| - Fact Check: Is the Indian flag at Attari-Wagah border visible from Lahore? WhatsApp forwards aren't always factual
The India Today Anti Fake News War Room found that while the image is from Pakistan but from the Attari-Wagah border and not Lahore. The Indian flag at the Attari-Wagah border is visible in Pakistan but only within a ten-kilometre radius.
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India Today Fact Check
The Indian flag at the Attari-Wagah border is visible in Pakistan but only within a ten-kilometre radius. Pakistani journalists confirmed it was not visible from Lahore, which is more than 20 kilometres away.
A photo of the Indian flag at the Attari-Wagah border went viral on social media. Harsha Kakar, a retired Major General of the Indian Army, tweeted the photo that contained the text, “India’s Tallest Flag On Wagah Border Is Seen From Lahore’s Market”. Kakar claimed he received the photo on WhatsApp.
Other social media users shared the photo with the same claim. Some of those posts are archived here, here, and here.
The India Today Anti Fake News War Room (AFWA) found that while the image was indeed from Pakistan, it was from the Attari-Wagah border and not Lahore. The Indian flag at the Attari-Wagah border is not visible from Lahore at all.
AFWA PROBE
In the photo, we found a ‘C24’ logo in the bottom left corner. Using this, we searched and found a video from March 23, 2017, on the YouTube channel of Pakistani news outlet City 24. This video, titled “Wagah Attari border Indian flag disappeared,” contained the viral photo and reported on how the Indian flag usually visible from the Pakistani side of the border allegedly disappeared for some time.
An India Today report from August 2017 stated that the 360-foot-tall tricolour erected by the Punjab government in March that year suffered wind damage and had to be taken down and replaced several times. In August 2017, Pakistan installed its own 400-feet-tall flag to rival the Indian one.
To make sure if the Indian flag was visible from Lahore, India Today contacted Pakistani journalists who confirmed that the photo was from the Pakistan side of the Attari-Wagah border. Imran Gabool of the Pakistani daily Dawn and Lahore-based journalist Waris Paracha added that the Indian and the Pakistani flags at the border were not visible beyond a ten-kilometre radius. The distance from Lahore to the border is more than 20 kilometres.
Thus, we concluded that the viral photo was not from Lahore but from the border itself and the Indian flag at the Attari-Wagah border is not visible from Lahore at all.
(With inputs from Yash Mittal and Pathikrit Sanyal)
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