Lighthouse Journalism discovered a video circulating on social media platforms. In the video, claimed to be from Nepal, a man was seen catching a tear gas shell mid-air during the protest and was seen throwing it back.
During the investigation, we found that the video was unrelated to the Nepal protests and was actually from Pakistan, dating back to an older event. The viral claim is false.
Claim:
X user @Ramrajya shared the video with a misleading claim.
Other users are also sharing the video with the same claim.
Investigation:
We started the investigation by running a Google reverse image search on the keyframes obtained from the video.
We found the video uploaded on Facebook in May 2022.
We found the same video uploaded on the Facebook page of Gulf Today on 26th May 2022.
The caption said: Pakistani protester catches a teargas canister, throws it back to the police
We also found the video on a website.
We also found the video uploaded on X in 2022.
The screenshots from the video were also uploaded in a website, propakistani.pk.
The website said: Incredible footage of a young worker of PTI catching a lit-up tear gas canister and throwing it out of harm’s way is making the rounds on various social media platforms. The social media users were impressed by the bravery of the young man and commended him for his courageous act.
Conclusion: A video of a man catching a tear gas canister was taken in Pakistan in 2022. The claim that this is recent from the Nepal protests is false.
