TV9 Bharatvarsh Airs Video From Pakistan as Taliban ‘Dancing in Celebration’ in Afghanistan
Two decades after US-led forces ended the Taliban’s rule in Afghanistan, the terrorist group has recaptured the country following US President Joe Biden’s decision to withdraw US military presence by September 11, 2021. By August 15, the Taliban captured 26 out of the country’s 34 provincial capitals.
TV9 Bharatvarsh aired a clip of men dancing with assault rifles and claimed this was the Taliban celebrating after capturing Maidan Wardak. This part of the broadcast was taken down from the channel’s social media accounts.
The video has been widely shared on Facebook and Twitter. It has also turned into a meme with people uploading the clip with different songs.
21 Savage & Offset - Ghostface killers pic.twitter.com/RSkE2mp92O
— Taliban dancing to your favorite song (@BlazerInk) August 17, 2021
On August 19, ANI editor Smita Prakash tweeted the video. [She has since deleted the tweet.]
The video has also been shared with a Bengali caption making the same claim – “কাবুল দখলের পর আফগান জনগণ যখন জীবন বাঁচানোর জন্য দিগবিদিক পালাচ্ছে তখন তালেবান জঙ্গিদের উন্মুক্ত ডিজে ড্যান্স।” [An open DJ dance by Taliban militants as Afghans flee for their lives after the capture of Kabul.]
Kassy Dillon, an American who is part of Nikki Haley's Stand for America Now, also posted the video.
Fact check
Alt News performed a keyword search on YouTube and found two instances of the video in question (1, 2). Both were uploaded in April. One of the videos was uploaded by Pak Mix 2021. This video is a compilation of multiple videos. The segment of the viral video is until the 1:34 mark.
We found another YouTube channel that shared a better quality video on April 20. The caption said “Bannu Dj”.
Pakistan-based journalist Iftikhar Firdous called out TV9 Bharatvarsh, saying that the viral video shows a wedding in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. “Dancers in the marriage are masquerading,” he claimed.
Unbelievable an Indian Channel is showing a viral video of a marriage in Khyber Paktunkhwa, Pakistan. Dancers in the marriage are masquerading. The anchor is showing them as Taliban celebrating the take over of Maidan in Afghanistan . This is next level bullshit lol. pic.twitter.com/TC18FRLXGd
— Iftikhar Firdous (@IftikharFirdous) August 15, 2021
We searched for the video using certain keywords and found that Wahab Pukhtoon, a Facebook user from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, had shared the TV9 clip while mocking the channel. After rummaging through his images, we suspected that he is the man in the blue Pathan suit seen in the viral video.
Alt News reached out to him on Facebook messenger for confirmation. He said, “The man in the blue suit is me. The video was shot on my phone at my cousin’s wedding on March 18, 2021, in the Bannu district.” Bannu falls under the southern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan.
To sum it up, TV9 Bharatvarsh aired a four-month-old video of men dancing with guns at a wedding in Pakistan in March as the Taliban celebrating after taking over Afghanistan five months later.
This article was originally published on Alt News.
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