Tawang : Fact-checking videos flowing amongst India-China clash

GUWAHATI: Amid rising military tensions following a clash between Indian and Chinese troops in Arunachal Pradesh’s Tawang, misleading videos are now being widely shared on social media with claims that the videos were taken off the line on December 9. of the latest clashes with the actual control. (LAC) in Tawang Sector.
While one video shows a skirmish between soldiers in a snow-covered landscape, another video shows Indian soldiers having a heated moment near a Chinese army vehicle. However, despite the claims, we have found that none of the videos report the recent clash from Tawang.

Claim 1

Sharing a video of the skirmish on Twitter, a user (@RealBababanaras) claimed that around 150 Indian soldiers came heavily on more than 300 Chinese soldiers. (View archived version)

Fact-Check

We fragmented the video using the InVid tool and performed a reverse image search on key frames. This led us to reports published by various news outlets in June 2020. It was shared in the backdrop of India-China border dispute in Galwan. According to this video report of NDTV on 22 June 2020, this video was from Sikkim.

“Indian and Chinese officers are seen clashing in a high-altitude skirmish in Sikkim in a video that has emerged after days of deadly clashes in Ladakh. A Chinese officer was punched by an Indian soldier as both sides “The soldiers are fighting in a mobile phone video that goes on for more than five minutes,” he reported.

Although we could not independently verify the exact location of the video, we can safely say that it is an old video and not the recent clash between India and China in Tawang.

Claim 2
In another video, an allegedly injured Chinese soldier is seen being detained by Indian troops. The video shows Indian Army personnel smashing a Chinese military vehicle with stones and sticks. Users who share the video claim that it is a Twang Clash.

Fact-Check
We fragmented the video using the InVid tool and did a reverse image search on key frames and found that the video has been circulating on the internet since May 2020. According to this report by Daily Mail (UK), the video was ‘trusted’. From May 2020 on the banks of Pangong Lake in eastern Ladakh.

The Indian government had condemned the video footage in May 2020 amid the “escalating conflict on the Himalayan border” between India and China, the report said.
It said: “The footage, believed to have been filmed about two weeks ago on the banks of Pangong Lake, about a mile into Indian territory, shows Indian forces killing a People’s Liberation Army soldier. Hoye and smashing a Chinese armored vehicle”.

Thus, we can conclude that these videos circulating as the recent border dispute between India and China are old and not of Tawang. Moreover, no official photo or video of the recent border skirmish in Tawang has surfaced in the public domain.