Several social media users have posted an image of a Sikh man lying on the ground, claiming that he died during farmers’ protests in Delhi.
The image has been shared with the following Hindi text, “दिल्ली किसान मोर्चे में एक और किसान भाई शहीद हो गए , उनके इस शहादत को मै कोटि कोटि नमन करता हूँ।”
It was shared by Twitter handle All India Kisan Sanghrash and Ramandeep Singh Mann. The former’s tweet gained over 1500 retweets. (Archived links 1 and 2)
दुखी मन से बता रहा हूं।।।।
दिल्ली किसान मोर्चे में एक और किसान भाई शहीद हो गए , उनके इस शहादत को मै कोटि कोटि नमन करता हूँ। @vinodkapri @PJkanojia @_sayema @SonuSood pic.twitter.com/jrNov5f8Aq
— All India Kisan Sanghrash (@IndianFarmerPro) December 24, 2020
Several Facebook users also posted this image with the above-mentioned Hindi text.
Old image
The image dates back to at least 2018. It was traced to a Facebook post shared in the month of September that year, gaining over 30,000 shares. As per the post, the image shows an unidentified 70-year-old man at Bohri Chowk in Punjab’s Tarn Taran city.
While we were unable to verify details of the photograph, it is unrelated to the recent farmers’ agitation. However, it is also noteworthy that several protesters have passed away in the ongoing movement. According to a report published by Al Jazeera on December 18, the police said that at least 25 people have died, “several of them due to bittering cold”, in three weeks of the protests.
This post was originally published on Radio Free.