A new video of an alleged cloudburst near Amarnath Cave on Wednesday was shared widely on social media, which was also confirmed by a top official. As the news of Amarnath cloudburst was widely reported by both local and national newspapers, the J&K Disaster Management Authority has issued a clarification, denying those reports.
The claim
A senior J&K DMA official shared a video on social media and said that about 4,000 pilgrims were shifted to safety after a cloudburst near the holy cave shrine of Amarnath. Many news channels had reported the news of the flash flood triggered by cloudburst near Amarnath.
The video of the flash flood was shared widely on social media, with many users, including verified accounts on Twitter, sharing the same with claim about 4,000 pilgrims' rescue.
Fact check
International Business Times reviewed the footage and claims made by news channels and officials on the Amarnath cloudburst. Shortly after the news reports of the flash flood triggered by the cloudburst near the holy shrine cave, J&K DMA issued a clarification saying no such incident had taken place on Wednesday.
Additionally, the senior DMA official who had shared the video of the flash flood and rescue of the pilgrims tendered an apology. The video in question was in fact an old one, which was recirculated by some unscrupulous person with the intention of causing panic.
"Actually we were misled by some unscrupulous person, who sent us an old video seemingly of a cloudburst at Holy cave. We took it real and as such reported. Soon after the news was made public by media houses, we came to know that the incident was of some other day", the official was quoted as saying.
International Business Times spoke to Dr Piyush Singla, IAS, Deputy Commissioner Anantnag, to seek clarity on the reports. The senior IAS official said they are investigating the source of the baseless rumour.
"Investigation has started on who spread this baseless rumour. Some people posted old videos and spread fake and baseless news about cloudburst near cave. We are investigating," Singla, IAS, told IBTimes.
A DDMA official has also confirmed that no cloudburst occurred near the holy cave as multiple reports claimed. Officials said there were heavy rains at the cave shrine on Tuesday and only 500 pilgrims were present there, who were advised to move to safer places. No rescue operation was conducted.
Hence, IBTimes has arrived at the conclusion that the claim of a cloudburst near Amarnath is false and no incident as reported by many media houses had occurred on Wednesday.
