Claim: A video shows a petrol pump in Lahore being set on fire to protest against fuel hikes in Pakistan.
Fact: The video is from June 2020, when a petrol station in Narowal, Punjab, was set on fire by people protesting against the petrol cartel.
Fact or Fiction?
On 30 January 2023, Twitter user Maj Gen Harsha Kakar shared a photo claiming that a video shows a petrol pump being set on fire after a hike in fuel prices in January 2023.
The tweet reads as follows:
“*Lahore #Petrol pump set on fire after increase of rs 35 in petrol. People of #Pakistan are very angry with their Goverment, Army and ISI*
#PakistanEconomy #PetrolDieselPrice #Petrolprice
Current situation of pakistan 🇵🇰
Aur inko Kashmir chhaiye [And they want Kashmir]”
Soch Fact Check found the claim to be misleading. A Google Reverse Image Search of the keyframes led to a three-year-old video on DailyMotion titled, “Petrol Pump Burnt in Pakistan.” The video, posted on 18 June 2020, is accompanied by the caption, “Puma petrol pump caught fire and burnt in Narowal, city of Punjab Province, Pakistan.”
To ascertain the origin of the video, Soch Fact Check searched Google with the keywords “Petrol pump burnt in Narowal Pakistan.” The results turned up a YouTube video by Tauseef Ahmad Official as well as a Facebook post shared on 12 June 2020 and a 14 June 2020 video posted on Facebook by World of Information.
The graphic below shows a comparison between the viral clip and the DailyMotion video.
Soch Fact Check looked for clues in the video, such as the petrol pump’s name and red canopy, to find out where exactly it was filmed. We identified the petrol pump on Google Maps as Admor Petrol Pump through the puma logo.
Star News HD had also reported on the incident on 12 June 2020.
The proliferation of the claim could be linked to the government jacking up the prices of petrol and high speed diesel (HSD) by Rs35 per litre in January 2023.
Virality:
The video posted by @kakar_harsha gained significant traction, with over 34,400 people viewing the post, more than 28,000 viewing the video, as well as 72 retweets and 347 likes as of writing time.
The claim was also found here and here on Twitter.
On Facebook, it can be found here.
Conclusion: The viral video does not show a petrol pump being set on fire in Lahore. In fact, it’s a three-year-old video from June 2020, when people burnt a pump in Narowal to protest against the petrol cartel in Pakistan.