<strong>Morphed image shared as recent meeting between Former Afghan Presidents meeting Mullah Mohammed Yaqoob…</strong>
A photo showing former Afghan Presidents Ashraf Ghani and Hamid Karzai meeting the foreign minister of Afghanistan under Taliban regime, Mullah Mohammad Yaqoob, is going viral on social media.
However, when we fact-checked the photo, we found it to be edited. Here is the reality of the photo.
Viral Tweet
In the above tweet, we can see a photo of Hamid Karzai, Ashraf Ghani and Mullah Mohammad Yaqoob. The tweet says, “A picture which is telling thousand stories from ex government and current Taliban . These three are all the same no matter by the name of Taliban, republicans or whatever, whomever. The reality is these three people are murders and once again wants to kill the innocents in Afg.”
However, Fact Crescendo's findings show that the social media claims are false as the image is old and has been digitally altered.
Fact check
We started our investigation by applying Google reverse image search on the viral image in order to find out the truth behind the shared image and the social media claims. Upon investigation, we found out that the image, which is being shared on social media as recent meetings among Former and current Afghan government leaders, is not original and has been actually digitally altered.
During our investigation, we found that the original photo was published by thenationalnews.com on March 17, 2019. According to the article, this photo was taken when the former President of Afghanistan, Mohammad Ashraf Ghani met with the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed and the Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces in Abu Dhabi during his visit to UAE in 2019.
Read full article here – The National | Archived Link
After analyzing both the images closely, it can be easily understood that the image shared on social media has been digitally morphed.
Although there are reports that former President Hamid Karzai met separately with Mohammad Mohaqeq and Karim Khalili in Turkey, the social media claims of meeting between Ashraf Ghani, Hamid Karzai and Mullah Muhammad Yaqoob in Dubai recently are false and misleading.
Therefore, it is also clear that the photo shared is not from the alleged latest meeting between Ashraf Ghani, Hamid Karzai and Maulvi Muhammad Yaqoob in Dubai.
Conclusion
From the above investigation, it is clear that the viral photo of meeting between Ashraf Ghani, Hamid Karzai and Taliban government’s foreign minister Mullah Mohammad Yaqoob is fake. There are also no news reports about any such meeting. Hence, the viral tweet is misleading.
Title:Morphed image shared as recent meeting between Former Afghan Presidents meeting Mullah Mohammed Yaqoob…
Fact Check By: Fact Crescendo TeamResult: Altered
