Did hunger during lockdown cause this man to kill his son?
An image went viral on social media with a man standing near a lifeless body of a child. A rope can be seen tied to the child’s neck and it has been claimed that the kid was killed as the family was unable to feed him due to the national lockdown to prevent COVID-19.
This image is has been posted in Facebook and Twitter with a caption that said, “जब ये फोटो अरब दुनिया तक पहुंचे तो उनको जरूर बता देना के ये उसी हिंदुस्तान की रोज़मर्रा आने वाली तस्वीरो में से एक तस्वीर है जहां लोकडाउन में पूरा परिवार भूख की शिद्दत से तंग आकर आत्महत्या कर लेता है …मगर सत्ता के नशे में मदहोश सरकार हिंदूवादी चरमपंथियों और मीडिया को साथ लेकर केवल मुसलमानों के उत्पीड़न के मज़े लूटने को ही राजधर्म मानती है ☹️☹️”. This roughly translates to, “When this photo reaches the Arab world, do let them know that this is one of the images that has come from India, where the national lockdown forces an entire family to suicide due to hunger. On the other hand, the government and media who are drunk in power enjoy oppressing Muslims”.
Several Facebook posts could be seen with similar captions and the image.
The image with a similar narrative was also seen in Twitter.
Truth
This claim is FALSE. When a Reverse Image search was performed, a YouTube video published on April 19 talks about the incident. According to the video, this incident happened in Rahim Yar Khan in Pakistan. The video also mentioned the father, Liaquat Hussain strangled his son to death and hung his corpse by a rope in order to frame his in-laws for the murder.
According to an article published by The Tribune on the same incident, Superintendent of Police Investigation Faraz Ahmed revealed at a press conference that the man killed his three year old son to seek revenge from his wife’s family. Therefore, this proves that the image is neither from India nor was it due to COVID-19.
