Claim: A picture collage on social media claims that it shows an Indian spy who allegedly lived in Pakistan for ten years and worked for India.
Fact: One of the women in the collage is Seema Haider, a Pakistani who recently moved to India. The second woman is Major Samia Rehman, who serves in the Pakistani Army.
On 15 July 2023, a picture was shared in a Facebook post with the Urdu caption,
یہ عورت انڈین ایجنٹ ، پاکستان کا بارڈر کراس کیا پاکستانی شناختی کارڈ بنوایا شادی کر لی 4 بچوں کی ماں بن گئی 10 سال پاکستان میں جاسوسی کرتی رہی کسی کو کانوں کان خبر نہ ہوئی، کیونکہ ہماری ناپاک فوج پختونوں کے خون چوسنے میں مصروف ہے. شرم کرو.
Translated [This woman was an Indian agent, crossed the border of Pakistan, got a Pakistani identity card, got married, and became a mother of 4 children. She was spying in Pakistan for 10 years, but nobody heard about it, because our dirty army is busy sucking the blood of Pakhtuns. Have some shame.]
Fact or Fiction?
Last week, social media was abuzz with news that an alleged married woman from Pakistan, known as Seema Haider, smuggled herself with her four children to India to marry Sachin Meena, who she met through the online game PBUG.
This news sparked a wave of misinformation about the details of the woman, none of which are confirmed yet. Subsequently, Haider was arrested by the police India. However, she was later granted bail by the court and is in hiding at the moment, according to some news reports.
The image being fact-checked is a collage of two pictures; one of a woman in traditional attire, and the other of a woman in a Pakistan Army uniform, holding a certificate.
The post claims that Seema Haider is an Indian Army official while some other posts with the same picture claim that she is a Pakistani Army officer Major Samia working in India as a spy. There are conflicting news about the woman and her origins, and no official report has been published by any country.
To investigate the matter, Soch Fact Check conducted a reverse image search on the left-side image in the collage. The results showed an article published on 11 March 2020 on United Nations (UN) website with the title “My 8 favourite things about being a peacekeeper”.
The article reads “On 8 March, International Women’s Day, Major Samia Rehman from Pakistan shares her 8 favourite things about working as a UN peacekeeper. She serves as an operational planning officer with the UN Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO).”
The article features the same image of a Pakistani Army officer with the certificate and mentions that she was awarded an appreciation certificate from the Special Representative of the Secretary-General (SRSG).
Furthermore, a keyword search showed that Major Samia Rehman is serving in Pakistani Army and completed her work with the UN in 2019 as a peacemaker. She was also featured in the popular TV serial Sinf-e-Ahan.
It is important to note that this fact-check is only investigating the viral images associated with Seema Haider, not any details of her case.
Virality
The picture of Major Samia Rehman was falsely linked to Seema Haider in multiple posts and with different claims.
It can be found here, here, here, and here on Facebook. On Twitter, the misleading posts can be seen here and here.
Conclusion: The picture of Major Samia Rehman was falsely linked with the alleged Pakistani Seema Haider, who allegedly moved to India a few days ago.