Claim: An image shows Gwadar Port at night where Dr Mahrang Baloch is leading the “Baloch National Gathering”.
Fact: The picture is not from Gwadar or Pakistan. It is from Mumbai, India, where the Indian cricket team was welcomed with a parade after winning the ICC T20 World Cup.
On 27 July 2024, a Facebook page Chaman News Quetta posted an image (archive) with the caption,
ڈاکٹر ماہ رنگ بلوچ کی قیادت میں کارواں گوادر بندرگاہ کے ساتھ آج رات کی خوبصورت تصویر.
Translation [Beautiful picture tonight with the caravan led by Dr. Mahrang Baloch along the Gwadar port].
Baloch National Gathering
Baloch Yakjehti Committee (BYC) – a group advocating for the rights of Baloch citizens – organised ‘Baloch Raaji Muchi,’ or ‘Baloch National Gathering’, in Gwadar on 28 July 2024, to protest against enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings of Baloch people. However, the Balochistan government blocked all entry and exit points and imposed Section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure in the provincial capital Quetta. Internet and mobile signals were suspended in the area ahead of the march.
But despite roadblocks, a large number of people managed to make their way from across the province to Gwadar’s Marine Drive. During the march, clashes erupted between security forces and participants of the march in which at least three people were killed and several were injured, reported Dawn.
Human rights organisation Amnesty International called on Pakistani authorities to immediately lift the internet shutdown, and termed the use of force against participants a “blatant violation of people’s right to freedom of peaceful assembly”.
Fact or Fiction?
Soch Fact Check conducted a reverse-image search using Google Lens and Yandex. The result led to an article from 6 July 2024, published by the Indian media outlet Times Now, which included the same image. The photo essay titled, “All You Need to Know About Marine Drive, Mumbai’s Marine Drive” showed different images of the area. According to the caption, the image in question is from when “The Indian cricket team celebrated their ICC T20 World Cup victory with a parade along Marine Drive, drawing enthusiastic crowds across Mumbai”. The route of the parade was from Nariman Point to Wakhede Stadium, Mumbai, the caption detailed.
The same picture of the parade was also published on 5 July by Social News in an article which stated that “The Indian cricket fans showed up in huge numbers for a massive crowd at the Marine Drive here for an opportunity to see the T20 World Cup-winning side during the Victory Parade on an open-top bus”.
The Guardian also posted a video of the parade. The blue open bus in the image in the claim can also be seen in this footage, with Indian cricketers aboard the top of the bus, lifting the trophy during the celebrations.
Virality
On Facebook, the picture with the false claim received 85,000 likes, 13,000 reshared and 6,900 comments. It can also be seen here, here and here.
Conclusion: A picture allegedly showing a huge rally at Gwadar from the Baloch National Gathering is actually from Mumbai, and was captured during the celebration of India’s victory in the T20 cricket World Cup earlier this month.
Background image in cover photo: Getty Images
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