Delhi is under lockdown since April 19, 2021, as the cases of coronavirus surged amid the second wave of the pandemic. The Delhi Chief Minister, Arvind Kejriwal first announced lockdown between April 19 to May 10 and later extended it up to May 17, 2021. This would be the fourth week of the lockdown imposed as the Covid-19 numbers in the city skyrocketed.
In middle of this chaos of rising number of COVID-19 cases, a video of a crowded market in Lahore, Pakistan is being shared with false claims that it is a scene from Delhi’s Jaffrabad, with people violating social distancing norms put in place for COVID-19, and shopping for the upcoming festival of Eid.
Eid literally means a “festival” or “feast” in Arabic. There are two major eids in the Islamic calendar per year, Eid al-Fitr earlier in the year and Eid al-Adha later.
Eid al-Fitr is a three-day-long festival and is known as the “Lesser” or “Smaller Eid” when compared to Eid al-Adha, which is four-days-long and is known as the “Greater Eid.” Eid al-Fitr means “the feast of breaking the fast.” The fast, in this instance, is Ramadan, which recalls the revealing of the Quran to Prophet Muhammad and requires Muslims to fast from sunrise to sundown for a month. This year, the calendar lists Eid ul-Fitr on 12 May, Wednesday. Generally, the Islamic community in India celebrates the festival a day later than in Saudi Arabia. Thus, Eid ul-Fitr will be celebrated on 13 May, Thursday in India.
Breaking down the video into several frames and conducting a reverse image search using the InVid Google Chrome extension the same video was found that was uploaded by a Facebook page, Colour’s, on April 26, 2021, with a caption, “Ichara market Lahore.” This led to an Instagram post of Aamir Liaquat Hussain, member of national Assembly of Pakistan and television host, who had shared the viral video on 26 April. A local YouTube Channel, KG Entertainment also shared the video on April 27, 2021, claiming it to be Ichra market Lahore. Another YouTube channel Digital Today did a ground reporting on how despite surge in coronavirus cases, people are rushing for shopping in Lahore’s Ichra Bazar ahead of Eid.
A Pakistani news portal, The News also reported on April 28, 2021 that several shops were sealed in Ichra Bazaar after locals violated COVID-19 norms.
Further, a Facebook post shared by Assistant Commissioner Model Town Lahore on 27 April stated that the assistant commissioner had visited Liberty and Ichhra markets to take action against violation of COVID SOPs. Pakistan-based newspaper Dawn published a report on 28 April 2021 saying that army troops, accompanied by civic administration officials, visited various market places, including Ichhra Bazaar, to ensure that people did not flout COVID rules.
As the case of COVID-19 has surged in Pakistan as well, hence the Punjab government of Pakistan has announced a lockdown on 6th May from 8th May till 15th May to contain the spread of coronavirus during the Eid-ul-Fitr holidays.
Thus, a video from Pakistan’s Lahore was used to falsely claim that people flouted COVID norms in Delhi’s Jaffrabad.
