Claim: The Government of India has released an official photo of the Saudi army chief meeting his Indian counterpart during his visit to the country in July 2024; The image hung in the background, which shows a Pakistani general signing the Instrument of Surrender that ended the 1971 war between the two nuclear-armed neighbours, was arranged to humiliate Pakistan and indicates the PML-N government’s worsening foreign policy.
Fact: The image is, in fact, from February 2022 when Royal Saudi Land Forces Commander Lieutenant General Fahd bin Abdullah Mohammed Al-Mutair met the then-Indian Army chief, Gen Manoj Mukund Naravane. The Saudi commander has not visited India since, neither during the tenure of the incumbent army chief, Gen Upendra Dwivedi, nor that of Gen Manoj Pande, who succeeded Naravane.
On 2 July 2024, Facebook user ‘Hassan Khalil Yousafzai’ posted (archive) a picture of an allegedly recent meeting between the heads of the Indian and Saudi Arabian armies, with the following caption:
“انڈیا تو چلیں دشمن ھے مگر سعودی عرب کو تو ھم اپنا دوست کیا برادر ملک سمجھتے ہیں اب خارجہ پالیسی کا یہ حال ھے کہ سعودی عرب کے آرمی چیف بھارت کے دورے پر ھیں اور بھارتی آرمی چیف سے ملاقات کہ یہ آفیشل تصویر جاری کی گئی ھے جس کے بیک گراؤنڈ میں لگی تصویر آپ دیکھ سکتے ہیں۔ Curse on the Mafias nexus
[India is definitely our enemy, but we consider Saudi Arabia our friend, even brotherly, country. Now the situation of foreign policy is such that the Saudi Arabia’s army chief is on a visit to India and an official picture [of him] with the Indian army chief has been released. You can see the picture in the background. Curse on the Mafias nexus!]”
The caption of the viral post — which appeared in a public group called ‘Sabir Shakir’, with over 74,400 members — also included the hashtag “#ReleaseImranKhan” and a mention of another group called “🇵🇰🇧🇫خــــود دار کپـــــــتان 🇧🇫🇵🇰”.
At the time the post was shared, the Facebook user’s profile picture appears framed within the colours of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) flag, suggesting that they are a supporter of the party.
The caption of the same post, however, erroneously included the emoji of the West African country Burkina Faso’s flag, perhaps in an attempt to refer to the party’s incarcerated founder and former prime minister, Imran Khan.
The picture in the background referred to in the claim is the well-known moment (archive) when Pakistan’s Lt Gen Amir Abdullah Khan Niazi — commonly known as A A K Niazi — signed the Instrument of Surrender that brought an end to the 1971 war and led to the birth of Bangladesh. The two individuals on the left and right sides of Niazi are India’s Lt Gen Jagjit Singh Aurora and All-India Radio (AIR) newscaster Surajit Sen, respectively.
The men standing immediately behind them include, from left to right: Vice Admiral Krishnan, Air Marshal Dewan, Lt Gen Sagat Singh, Maj Gen JFR Jacob, and Flying Officer SS Krishnamurthy, according to a copy of the image uploaded to Wikimedia Commons. The picture was taken on 16 December 1971.
Soch Fact Check also received the same claim on WhatsApp, but with slightly different text. However, both versions of the claim attempt to criticise the foreign policy of the incumbent government led by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.
The Imran Khan fiasco
Khan was first arrested (archive) on 9 May 2023 on the orders of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) over charges of corruption in the Al-Qadir Trust case (archive). His detention triggered violent, country-wide protests and he was released (archive) a few days later after the Supreme Court of Pakistan intervened.
The former PM was arrested (archive) and imprisoned for a second time on 5 August 2023, after a court ruled his “dishonesty [was] established beyond doubt” in the Toshakhana case. He has been incarcerated since then.
In January 2024, just a month ahead of the general elections in Pakistan, he was sentenced for a total of 31 years over charges of corruption, leaking state secrets, and an un-Islamic marriage, according to these reports (archived here and here).
Khan was seen for the first time (archive) since his incarceration in an apparently leaked photo from the 16 May 2024 proceedings, when he was allowed to appear in the Supreme Court via a video link.
A day prior to the court proceedings, the PTI leader was granted (archive) bail in a corruption case. Earlier, the sentences handed down in two of the four cases he was convicted in were also suspended; one of them (archive) was the Toshakhana case. However, he would not be released from jail, his lawyer had said (archive).
In July, it was reported that Khan was acquitted in two other cases (archived here and here) by Pakistani courts.
Fact or Fiction?
Soch Fact Check reverse-searched the image and found it to be from a meeting that took place on 15 February 2022, the “first ever visit by a serving Royal Saudi Land Forces Commander to India”, according to a press release issued by India’s Press Information Bureau (PIB).
At the time, news reports about the visit by multiple media outlets here, here, here, here, here, and here included the same image as well.
There are no reports corroborating the claim that Royal Saudi Land Forces (RSLF) Commander Lt Gen Fahd bin Abdullah Mohammed Al-Mutair has made any visit to India recently.
Two fact-checkers from an organisation accredited by the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN), of which Soch Fact Check is also a signatory, told us that there were no news reports about a visit by the Saudi army’s incumbent commander.
Moreover, the photo shows RSLF Commander Lt Gen Al-Mutair alongside Gen Manoj Mukund Naravane, who retired as India’s chief of the army staff in April 2022. He was succeeded by Gen Manoj Pande, while the incumbent Gen Upendra Dwivedi took over the post on 30 June 2024. No visits by the Saudi commander were reported during Pande’s tenure either.
Read more: Posters of Imran Khan were not put up in India in June 2024
Secondly, the picture hung in the background, which shows Pakistan’s A A K Niazi signing the Instrument of Surrender in 1971, is not particular to the image in the claim. As evidenced by the X (formerly Twitter) posts available here, here, here, here, and here, the portrait commonly appears in the background of the official images released by the Indian Army’s Additional Directorate General of Public Information (ADGPI). It is nothing new nor was it specially arranged for the Saudi commander’s visit in 2022.
The only foreign dignitaries whom Gen Dwivedi met recently include Maj Gen Lukuikila Metikwiza Marcel, the permanent defence secretary of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Mongolian Armed Forces Chief Maj Gen Ganbyamba Sunrev, and Israel Defence Ministry Director-General Maj Gen (r) Eyal Zamir, according to posts on ADGPI’s X account on 5 July, 17 July, and 23 July.
The viral claim appears to criticise the foreign policy of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) government; however, in February 2022, when RSLF Commander Lt Gen Al-Mutair visited India, Imran Khan was the prime minister of Pakistan. In fact, the current Planning and Development Minister Ahsan Iqbal — who was a member of the Opposition at the time — had incidentally disapproved of the Khan administration’s foreign policy over the same development.
Virality
Soch Fact Check conducted a CrowdTangle analysis for the period between 25 June and 8 July 2024 using the following search phrase “سعودی عرب کے آرمی چیف بھارت کے دورے پر ھیں اور بھارتی آرمی چیف سے ملاقات کہ یہ آفیشل تصویر جاری کی گئی ھے” and found close to 90 Facebook posts that garnered over 1,200 interactions.
The claim was shared on Facebook here, here, here, here, and here. On X, it was posted here, here, here, here, and here.
Baadban News also published a report about the claim here.
Conclusion: The picture is actually from February 2022 when Saudi Army commander Lt Gen Fahd bin Abdullah Mohammed Al-Mutair met Gen M M Naravane, who was the Indian Army chief at that time. The Kingdom’s military head has not visited India during the tenure of Gen Upendra Dwivedi, the incumbent army chief, or that of Gen Manoj Pande, who succeeded Naravane.
Background image in cover photo: Joydeep Sensarma
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