Claim: ARY News on 9 February 2023 published a news report with the headline, “Student, 16, stabbed to death by schoolmates,” making it appear as if the incident occurred in Pakistan.
Fact: The stabbing, in fact, took place in Haryana’s Faridabad district in India. ARY News’ report and relevant links on Facebook and Twitter are misleading.
On 9 February 2023, ARY News posted a report (archive) titled, “Student, 16, stabbed to death by schoolmates,” on its Twitter account (archive).
The cover image of the news report shows what looks like closed-circuit television (CCTV) footage of three young men on a bike in what appears to be a country in South Asia.
Fact or Fiction?
Soch Fact Check found this to be misleading. When we clicked on the link to the news report, the first and second paragraphs read as follows:
“A class 11 student was stabbed to death by a group of his fellow schoolmates in India’s Haryana state when he was on his way home.
According to Indian police officials, the 16-year-old victim, who studied at a private school in Haryana’s Faridabad district, was returning home on a motorcycle with his friends when he was waylaid by around 10 bike-borne youths.”
ARY News has not mentioned in its headline or the tweet that the incident took place in India.
We also found reports on the incident from Indian media outlets, such as India Today (archive) and Tribune India (archive). The two publications quoted police as saying the 16-year-old victim — a student of Class 11 — was “stabbed to death by a group of adolescents, some of whom were allegedly his schoolmates”.
Virality
Soch Fact Check checked the social media accounts of ARY News and found it on Twitter (archive) and Facebook (archive) but not on TikTok or Instagram.
The publication’s tweet has so far gained more than 6,000 views.
Conclusion: ARY News’ report and relevant links on Facebook and Twitter are misleading since the stabbing took place in Haryana, India.
Background image in cover photo: Javier Peñas