Claim: A viral image of what appears to be Pakistani men holding up a banner reading “We don’t want Kashmir, give us Virat Kohli” shared on social media.
Fact: The image is doctored. The original picture shows pro-Pakistan residents of Kashmir holding a banner that read, “We want independence”.
On 23 October 2022, Pakistan and India faced off in a cricket match where India defeated Pakistan by four wickets. Memes and jokes about the match were shared on social media.
Among such posts sharing comedic images, an image of men standing next to a flag of Pakistan holding up a banner reading “We don’t want Kashmir, give us Virat Kohli” was widely shared. The image reached hundreds of people and was reposted by several verified accounts.
Fact or Fiction?
Soch Fact Check reverse image searched the banner and found that it was a doctored version of an old photo. In the original picture, the banner reads, “We want azaadi [Independence]”.
The image was originally published in an article by the Indian news publication IndiaToday on 8 August 2016.
The doctored version of the image, where the banner reads “We don’t want Kashmir, give us Virat Kohli” has been shared as early as 2019.
Virality
Soch Fact Check conducted a CrowdTangle analysis for the 4-day period since 24 October 2022 to 26 October 2022 using the following search terms:
- “Cricket” “Kashmir” “Kohli”
- “کوہلی” “کشمیر”
The tweet made by the retired Indian army officer reached 360,194 followers on Twitter alone, gathering over 48,199 interactions.
We found that the image was also shared and re-shared on Pinterest India.
On Facebook, we found posts here, here, here and here.
We found several tweets with over 8,502 interactions here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here.
Conclusion: A viral image of what appears to be Pakistani men holding a banner that says, “We don’t want Kashmir, give us Virat Kohli”, is doctored.