Old Video From Colombia Falsely Linked to Nagaland Ambush

The video of locals confronting military could be traced back to 2018 and is from Colombia.

An old video of locals confronting military officials in Colombia was falsely linked to the recent civilian killings in Nagaland.

(Photo: Altered by The Quint)

A video of locals confronting with military officials is being shared on social media with users linking it to the recent civilian killings in Nagaland.

On Saturday, 4 December, 14 civilians were killed in a case of mistaken identity by the 21st Para Military personnel in a counter-insurgency operation.

However, the viral video is neither recent nor from Nagaland. It could be traced back to 2018 and is from Colombia.

CLAIM

The claim along with the video reads: "Soldiers don't fire unless attacked upon, even then they warn first. See this video, you will know #NagalandFiring."

You can view the archived version here.

(Source: Facebook/ Screenshot)

MJ Augustine Vinod, retired group captain and fighter pilot had tweeted the viral video that had garnered over 15,000 views, with the text: "REMEMBER INDIA Soldiers don't fire unless attacked upon, even then they warn first See this video, you will know #NagalandFiring. (sic)"

The Twitter user later replied to the tweet, that has now been taken down: "Applicable to all professional armies of the world Any time if the year.(sic)"

Several social media users shared the video on Facebook and Twitter and the archived version of the posts can be viewed here and here.

WHAT WE FOUND OUT

On scanning through the replies to the viral tweet, we found that Karma Paljor, editor-in-chief of EastMojo had suggested that the video is from Colombia and not Nagaland.

EastMojo's Karma Paljor had suggested that the video is from Colombia.

(Source: Twitter/ Screenshot)

VIDEO IS OLD AND FROM COLOMBIA

Taking a cue from here, we searched on YouTube with relevant keywords in Spanish and came across a bulletin uploaded on 5 January 2018 by Cablenoticias, a Colombia-based news channel that carried the viral visuals.

The caption along with the video, when translated in English, reads: "Confrontation between indigenous and military in Corinto, Cauca."

A Colombia-based news channel had carried the viral visuals in 2018.

(Photo: YouTube/ Altered by The Quint)

Further, El Tiempo, a national newspaper in Colombia, published an article in July 2018 featuring developments regarding the incident seen in the viral video that took place in January 2018 in Corinto, Colombia.

As per the article, the soldiers tried to arrest a group of locals, who according to the authorities, had occupied a property illegally. In the viral video, the locals confronted the military officers with one of them putting a knife on one of the soldiers' neck, prompting the latter to shoot.

Later in July, a court in Cauca sent the alleged attacker to jail, the article added.

Several other Colombia-based media outlets such as Semana and W Radio had reported on the incident in 2018 and the articles can be read here and here.

Evidently, an old video of locals confronting military officials in Colombia was falsely linked to the recent civilian killings in Nagaland.

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