Claim: A picture shows people stranded due to heavy monsoon flooding in Punjab in July 2022.
Fact: The picture is misleading as it is not recent. It was taken on 23 July 2015 in Rajanpur.
On 27 July 2022, Twitter user @shahzadShafi007 posted a picture showing people displaced by floods taking refuge on a charpoy under a tree while surrounded by rainwater.
The tweet was captioned as follows:
“Flood in Saraiki Waseb as it doesn’t belongs to the this country
No Governess
No Media Coverage
No Hype
No Demand for resignation
No Tension.”
Pakistan — one of the worst-affected and most vulnerable countries to the climate crisis, according to the Global Climate Risk Index — has been battered with rainstorms and flash floods this summer. Hundreds of people have died and many more displaced.
Fact or Fiction?
Using relevant keywords and reverse image search tools, we found an article published on 27 July 2018 by The Sydney Morning Herald that carries the same image. The publication had credited the photograph to The Associated Press.
Soch Fact Check found the picture on AP Images, categorised under ‘Editorial Photography’. It was taken by Asim Tanveer on 23 July 2015 in Pakistan’s Rajanpur and captioned as follows:
“Pakistani villagers wade through floodwaters in Rajanpur, Pakistan, Pakistan, Thursday, July 23, 2015. The country’s military has deployed helicopters and boats Wednesday to evacuate flood victims, as 285,000 have been affected by monsoon rains and flash floods in and around the city of Chitral in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, according to the National Disaster Management Authority. (AP Photo/Asim Tanveer)”
Soch Fact Check, therefore, concludes that the image is misleading. It is not recent nor linked to the July 2022 flooding in Punjab.
Virality
Soch Fact Check used terms such as, “ڈیرہ غازیخان سیلاب” and “ڈیرہ غازی خان سیلاب” combined with “سیلاب,” on CrowdTangle and Facebook’s organic search tool for the month of July to find relevant posts.
The posts, many of which include other photos as well, are available here, here, here, here, here, here, and here. BOL Network reporter Tayyab Baloch, who has a verified Twitter account, also posted the misleading photo along with another one that Soch Fact Check has investigated.
Conclusion: The picture was taken on 23 July 2015 in Rajanpur and is not from the recent flooding in Punjab.
[…] Soch Fact Check also fact-checked another viral image claiming to show the aftermath of this year’s monsoon floods, the article can be found here. […]