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| - Fact Check: 2018 video of Congress leader's remarks shared in connection with upcoming J&K polls
India Today Fact Check found that the viral clip is not recent but from 2018. Congress at the time had distanced itself from party leader Sagheer Saeed Khan's controversial remarks.
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India Today Fact Check
Congress leader Haji Sagheer Saeed Khan did make these remarks but in 2018. The party distanced itself from the controversial statement at the time.
For the first time after the abrogation of Article 370 in 2019, Jammu and Kashmir will see Assembly elections in September and October. This will also be the first Assembly elections in a decade there. The Indian National Congress announced it will contest in alliance with Farooq Abdullah’s Jammu and Kashmir National Conference.
A video now making the rounds shows a man, allegedly a Congress leader, speaking on terrorists and terrorism in the valley. The man can be heard saying, “If Congress comes to power, we will end the violence caused by the BJP. The people who are jailed for terrorism would be released. Those who are killed in the name of terrorism, their families would be compensated with Rs 1 crore.” He further says that those BJP leaders who ordered the Indian Army to encounter people would be hanged under the Congress rule.
An X user, while sharing the viral clip, wrote, “Congress promises to J&K people that if they win: They'll release all the terrorists locked in jail They'll give 1 crore compensation to the families of those who were killed. They'll hang all the BJP leaders who spoke against terrorism.”
The viral clip was shared by several users on Facebook as well. Its archive can be seen here.
India Today Fact Check found that the viral clip is from 2018. At the time, the Congress had distanced itself from Sagheer Saeed Khan’s controversial remarks.
OUR PROBE
Several X users claimed that the Congress leader in the video was Sagheer Ahmed. We also observed the logo of “JK Media” in the viral clip. Using these clues, we ran a keyword search and found the viral clip uploaded to the YouTube channel JK Media on December 26, 2018.
This made it clear that the viral clip is not related to the upcoming elections in Jammu and Kashmir. According to this clip, Congress leader Sagheer Saeed Khan made these remarks in Jammu.
We also found several media reports regarding Sagheer Saeed Khan’s statement. According to a report by News18, the controversial statement was made by Haji Sagheer Saeed Khan, who was a minority cell observer in the All India Congress Committee.
In June 2018, the Bharatiya Janata Party withdrew its support to the Jammu and Kashmir People's Democratic Party-led government and the Governor's Rule was subsequently imposed in Jammu and Kashmir. Later on December 20, 2018, the President’s Rule was imposed by the then-Governor Satya Pal Malik. These controversial statements by Haji Sagheer Saeed Khan had landed the party in a soup.
According to an India Today report, the Congress at the time distanced itself from the leader and his remarks. "The Congress disowns and rejects Sagheer Saeed Khan's statement. He is not a spokesperson of the party. He has no mandate to speak on such issues. We will recommend our national leadership to take action against him. We stand with our security forces in the fight against terrorism," Ravinder Sharma, then-chief spokesperson of the Jammu and Kashmir Congress said.
Furthermore, we found a video statement by Ravinder Sharma on the Jammu and Kashmir Congress’ official Facebook page as well.
It is thus clear that the controversial statement by the Congress leader is not recent.
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