Video From Myanmar Falsely Shared as 'Kuki Terrorists' Using Drones in Manipur

This videos shows commandos from Myanmar using drone cameras and not people from the Kuki community.

Fact-check: Misleading claim about Kuki tribes of Manipur is being shared with videos from both, Manipur and Myanmar. 

(Photo: Altered by The Quint)

A video showing a man in a black combat uniform holding a drone camera is being shared on the internet. The clip then shows drone footage of villages, farms, and forests is being shared on the internet.

What's the claim?: The claim states that this video is from Manipur and shows 'Kuki terrorists' navigating the Manipur police to attack them.

The state has seen a series of violent clashes since May, where over 90 people have died.

An archive can be seen here.

(Source: Facebook/Screenshot)

(Archives of similar claims can be found here and here.)

What's the truth?: This video showing the men in uniform are commandos from the Chinland Defense Force (CDF) Thantlang from Myanmar.

• However, the visuals of the bird's eye view showing the landscape are indeed from Manipur.

How did we find out the truth?: We performed a reverse image search on some of the keyframes of the video and came across a YouTube video.

• This video was shared by an Australian news outlet, ABC News In-depth on 18 August 2022.

• The video was a documentary on Myanmar and rebel group, Chinland Defense Force (CDF).

• At 15:41 timestamp, the part seen in the viral part starts playing.

• We compared the viral video with the YouTube video and found similarities.

Comparison of visuals, the original video is from Myanmar. 

(Source: Altered by The Quint)

• The video continues and shows ABC reporter Matt Davis explaining CDF was formed in 2021 and young people were recruited.

• Further, the video shows a man, with a gun, standing besides a board which reads, "THANTLAND BATTALION, CAMP VUICHIP".

Screenshot from the documentary. 

(Source: ABC/Screenshot)

Where is the drone footage from?: Although the starting ten seconds from the viral video were from Myanmar showing CDF, the rest of the visuals from the drone were indeed from Manipur.

• On performing a relevant keyword search, we came across a 24 minutes video uploaded on YouTube.

• The video was shared by 'Lamka Talk', a news outlet based in Manipur on 29 May.

• The title of the video read, "Drone footage shows involvement of state police commandos in attacking Tribal villages in Manipur."

• We compared the visuals from the viral video to the YouTube video and found similarities.

• (Note: Swipe to see all of them.)

Comparison of visuals from Manipur.

Comparison of visuals from Manipur.

Comparison of visuals from Manipur.

• We also reached out to C Lian Langel, who runs Lamka Talk who told us that the drone footage shows Kangvai, Changpikot area in Churachandpur district of Manipur.

Conclusion: Edited video merging clips from Myanmar and Manipur have gone viral to claim that 'Kuki terrorists' are using drone cameras in Manipur. 

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