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| - Fact Check: Video from Saudi Arabia falsely shared as Holi celebration at Atal Tunnel
A video showing a spectacular display of fireworks and plumes of colourful smoke near a building is being widely shared on social media, claiming that this was how Holi was celebrated at Atal Tunnel in Himachal Pradesh. India Today's AFWA probes the truth.
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India Today Fact Check
This old video is from King Abdulaziz Center for World Culture in Saudi Arabia. It has no connection with Holi.
A video showing a spectacular display of fireworks and plumes of colourful smoke near a building is being widely shared on social media. It is being said that this was how Holi was celebrated at Atal Tunnel in Himachal Pradesh.
A Facebook user shared the video with the caption, “HAPPY HAPPY HOLI. ATAL TUNNEL, ROHTANG, HIMACHAL PRADESH.”
India Today Anti Fake News War Room (AFWA) has found that the video is from King Abdulaziz Center for World Culture in Saudi Arabia. The video has been on the Internet since 2018 and has absolutely no connection with Holi.
The video is being widely circulated on Facebook with similar claims. The archived version can be seen here
AFWA probe
Upon reverse-searching key frames of the video, we found that a YouTuber had shared it last year with the caption, “Colorful Fireworks at The King Abdulaziz Center for World Culture khobar”.
Taking this as a cue, we did a keyword search and found that Prince Abdullah bin Khalid al Saud of Riyadh had shared part of the viral clipping on Twitter on October 28, 2018. Prince Abdullah is a visiting research fellow at the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation (ICSR) at King’s College, London.
He had captioned the video as, “Beautiful daytime fireworks show @Ithra in Dhahran”. In the next tweet, he added: This was during Creativity Season “Tanween”, the largest creativity event in the region 17 days event.
Beautiful daytime fireworks show at @Ithra in Dhahran pic.twitter.com/paf8Y92wTb
— (@AbdullahKhaledS) October 28, 2018
The King Abdulaziz Center for World Culture, also known as Ithra, incorporates museums, library and theatre and exhibition halls. It is situated in Saudi Arabia’s Dhahran city.
Ithra had organised “Tanween”, a 17-day gathering of the brightest and most creative minds of the country, as per an October 20, 2018, report by “Arab News” (https://www.arabnews.com/node/1390026/saudi-arabia). This report has a mention of daytime fireworks at 4pm. The Facebook page of Ithra had also posted some visuals on October 17, 2018.
Though we cannot be completely sure, but it is most likely that the viral video is of fireworks displayed at Ithra in Saudi Arabia on the occasion of a creativity event called “Tanween”.
We compared a screen grab of the viral video with a picture of King Abdulaziz Center for World Culture taken from Google maps. Comparing the two, one can easily spot similarities between them.
Atal Tunnel, on the contrary, looks completely different. The world’s largest tunnel was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on October 3 last year. It is located in Rohtang, Himachal Pradesh.
Last year, the tourism ministry had posted a video of the tunnel on Twitter.
The lifeline of Himachal Pradesh Atal Tunnel, the longest highway tunnel in the globe will help you reach Leh in a few hours. Our Hon'ble PM Shri Narendra Modi inaugurated this spectacular wonder on 3rd October, 2020.
Repost: ‘kullumanaliadventures’@prahladspatel #DekhoApnaDesh pic.twitter.com/n32fhKotOm
— Ministry of Tourism (@tourismgoi) October 21, 2020
Therefore, it is evident that the viral video is of colourful fireworks at King Abdulaziz Center for World Culture. It does not have any connection with Holi.
(With inputs from Sourabh Bhatnagar)
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