During a TV debate on Manipur violence, Republic TV aired an image of what appeared to be a rocket launch site, implying a connection to the ongoing violence in Manipur. However, the report about the drone attack in Manipur is confirmed and accurate, but the image used in the broadcast was misleading. The picture shown by the channel, which depicted a rocket launch site, was not from Manipur as suggested. In reality, it is an outdated image of Palestine.
While broadcasting the image on Republic TV, Arnab Goswami said, Ladies and gentlemen, look at these pictures. This picture is of the ITLF drone squad. They issued a press release against me today. This was recovered in the month of October 2023. A drone was seized by the police and from the memory card, this footage was recovered. This establishes that they are running a drone squad. This was submitted to the court by some parties during the hearing on Manipur violence, this is happening in our country….
The truth about the image about Manipur, Fact Check
As soon as we confronted the report containing the image, we conducted research and analysis of the image and found that the image was not from Manipur but an old photo from Palestine.
To verify the claims, we performed a reverse image search on Google Lens. This led us to media reports containing the same image published in 2009.
During the research, we also found the same image on Wikimedia Commons, according to the information available, It shows Israel Defense Forces – Eight Qassam Launchers in Gaza. The description reads Eight Qassam launchers, seven equipped with operating systems and one armed and ready to launch. As per the details, it was taken on 6 July 2007.
Hence, it is evident from the verified sources that the image was not related to the violence in Manipur but an old image from Palestine.
Intent
Media outlets broadcasted decades-old images from Palestine as Manipur violence, without verifying.
Conclusion
Claim– The image of the rocket launching site was from Manipur violence.
Fact– This is an old image from Palestine and has been available online at least since 2009.
Related Article: Mob violence from Bishkek falsely linked to Manipur violence (dintentdata.com)
