Fact Check: Viral Video Of a Child Sitting On a Dead Body Unrelated to Pahalgam Attack

A few days after the Pahalgam terror attack, several videos have gone viral on the internet. One video shows helpless tourists at Pahalgam during the massive attack, which is being widely circulated online.

In another viral video, a man recording his zipline ride unknowingly captured footage of the attack. Unaware of the danger below, the tourist continued filming his vlog and coincidentally passed right over the attackers. Another video shows a man falling to the ground after being shot.

Amidst all this, a different video is being shared on social media showing a child sitting on a dead body, crying uncontrollably. The video later cuts to the same child crying inside a vehicle, while a woman tries to calm him down with promises of biscuits and chocolates.

It has been claimed that the child's father was killed in the Pahalgam attack and that security personnel later rescued the child.

The video was shared by social media user with the text, A child sits in silence beside her father’s lifeless body,This is not just a terror attack; it’s an assault on humanity, on innocence, i Highly condemn this brutality, I pray for this innocent soul to have the strength to overcome this trauma and to all the innocent people who were attacked !

You can find the archive link of the post here, along with the screenshot mentioned below.

Disclaimer: The video contains sensitive content that may be disturbing to some viewers. Viewer discretion is advised.

Fact Check:

The claim is false. The video has been available since at least 2020. It shows a victim of a militant attack in Kashmir and is not related to the Pahalgam attack.

When we searched using relevant keywords, we found lots of videos related to the Pahalgam attack, but we did not find this particular video covered by any mainstream media. No publication has included it in their articles either.

During the reverse image search we found on 2nd July 2020 a article published by Al-Jazeera with the title, Photo of toddler sitting on his grandfather’s body angers Kashmir.

Al Jazeera published an article with the photo that went viral after the Pahalgam attack. When we compared both the image we found both the images are same. ( The picture contains sensitive content, so we are not displaying the comparison image here.)

In the article Al Jazeera briefly mentioned, A picture showing a three-year-old child sitting on his grandfather’s dead body in Sopore town of Indian-administered Kashmir has stirred anger in the Muslim-majority region, with the family of the deceased accusing the security forces of killing the 65-year-old civilian during a gunfight.

Indian Express Published, The J&K Police, which released the boy’s photos saying they had rescued him at the site of the encounter, said his grandfather, 65-year-old Bashir Ahmad Khan, was killed when militants opened fire on security forces on the outskirts of Sopore.

In 2020 National Herald India published the photograph with the title, Photo of toddler sitting atop grandfather’s body latest addition to list of children caught in J&K conflict

We also found a Hindustan Times video on YouTube from July 1, 2020, showing a young child crying inside a police vehicle, sharing the same information.

Hence, it is proven that the claim is false. The video is clearly old and shows a victim of a militant attack in Kashmir. It is unrelated to the Pahalgam attack.