Fact-Check: Photo of Pakistan Army Major Falsely Shared as One of Seema Haider
The woman in a military uniform is Major Samia Rehman, who has served in the United Nations Peacekeeping Force.
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A photo of a woman in a military uniform has gone viral on social media, where users are claiming that it shows Seema Haider, who came to Uttar Pradesh's Rabupura from Pakistan via Nepal.
The claim: Users are sharing this photo to claim that Seema Haider is a spy from Pakistan who was sent to India to entrap Indian youth and settle in India.
(Archives of more claims can be seen here, here and here.)
Is it true?: No, the woman dressed in the military uniform is Pakistan's Major Samia Rehman, who served in the United Nations' (UN) Peacekeeping Force, not Seema Haider.
The certificate seen in Rehman's hand was given to her by the UN for her services.
How did we find the truth?: We cropped the photo to isolate the woman in the military uniform and ran a reverse image search.
The results led us to an article published on a website called Showbiz Pakistan on 18 January 2022, which carried the viral image.
The website identified the woman as Major Samia Rehman from the Pakistani Army.
As per this page, Rehman has played a character named after herself in a TV series titled 'Sinf-e-Aahan'.
It added that she had served in the UN's Peacekeeping Force in 2019, working in Congo. For this, she was awarded the Secretary-General certificate by the UN.
The website identified the woman as Major Samia Rehman.
(Source: Showbiz Pakistan/Altered by The Quint)
Taking a cue from this, we looked for more details about Rehman on the United Nations' Peacekeeping website.
Here, we came across an article which was published in March 2020 and mentioned her name.
An article on UN's Peacekeeping website mentioned Rehman's name.
(Source: UN Peacekeeping/Altered by The Quint)
According to this article, Rehman worked as an Operations Planning Officer with MONUSCO (United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo).
It carried several photos of Rehman in a military uniform, including the one in the viral claim.
The article mentioned that Rehman had worked to protect civilians in different provinces in the nation, such as Ituri, North Kivu, South Kuvi, Tanganyika, Kasai, as well as Goma.
She had also worked in the Congo to control violence and conflicts between communities and peacekeeping forces, it added.
The MONUSCO mission's website carried the same photo as the viral claim.
(Source: Monusco.UNMissions/Altered by The Quint)
"My husband also served in the DRC as a peacekeeper from 2018–2019," it read, mentioning that Rehman had worked with peacekeepers from 11 countries, including the United Kingdom, France, Russia, India, Russia, Bangladesh, South Africa, Uruguay, Gambia, and Ghana.
She had been awarded the Special Representative of Secretary-General (SRSG) Appreciation Certificate for her services, which is the certificate visible in the viral photo.
Does Rehman still serve in the UN Peacekeepers' force?: Using relevant keywords, we came across a tweet by UN Peacekeeping's official Twitter handle.
The tweet was shared on 11 May 2020 and said that her duty ended on 6 April 2020.
Next, we contacted Pakistani journalist Faiz Paracha, who confirmed that Rehman was serving under the UN. She came back to Pakistan and currently serves in the Pakistani Army.
Paracha confirmed that Seema Haider and Samia Rehman are two different people, adding that Rehman has also worked in a super hit TV series called 'Sinf-e-Aahan'.
Who is Seema Haider?: Pakistan's Seema Haider came in contact with Sachin, a resident of Uttar Pradesh's Rabupura, while playing PUBG, an online game.
After this, she came to India via Nepal with her four children to be with him.
Subsequently, Haider was arrested by the police. However, she was later granted bail by the court and now lives with Sachin.
As per a report by BBC Hindi, Haider lived in Pakistan's Karachi. It also shows her house and her husband, Ghulam Haider.
Her husband can be heard saying that Seema used to play PUBG with Sachin and has now moved in with him.
In this photo, it can be seen that Rehman and Haider are two different people.
One can see that the photos show different women.
(Source: Altered by The Quint)
Conclusion: The woman in the viral photo is not Seema Haider, but is Pakistan Army's Major Samia Rehman.
(Disclaimer: This Quint report is only limited to stating that the woman in the viral collage is not Seema Haider but is a different person identified as Major Samia Rehman. Investigative agencies are probing Seema Haider's entry into India and gathering other information related to her.)
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