Fact-check: Video of mouse nibbling on cake is not from Balochistan
The clip was first posted on social media by a dental surgeon in Indian-occupied Kashmir on December 5
Updated Tuesday Dec 13 2022
A clip that appears to show a mouse eating a slice of cake, during an official meeting, has been viewed hundreds of thousands of times in false social media posts claiming it was filmed in Pakistan’s southwestern Balochistan province.
In reality, the video has been filmed in India.
Claim
Shared by multiple social media accounts, the 26-second clip appears to show an official meeting ongoing in Balochistan, chaired by the chief secretary of the province, while a mouse, sitting on the table, munches on a piece of cake.
“What is the rat doing with the chief secretary of Balochistan? Watch till End,” wrote one Twitter user on December 7.
The clip has been viewed over 5,500 times.
A Facebook user posted the video with the caption: “While the chief secretary Balochistan was busy in a meeting, a mouse was busy eating the cake placed in front of him.”
Fact
The clip began doing the rounds on Pakistan’s social media on December 7. But it was first posted on the internet on December 5.
Several Indian media outlets, ETV Bharat and NDTV, state that the video was recorded in Indian-occupied Kashmir.
As per ETV Bharat, the video was filmed during a talk held at a university in Kashmir.
Through advance search Geo Fact Check was able to trace that the video was first posted on social media on December 5, by Dr Arif Khawaja.
Khawaja is a dental surgeon in Indian-occupied Kashmir. The clip he posted has been viewed over 86,000 times.
Geo Fact Check reached out to Khawaja, who confirmed that the “video is from some meeting in J&K.”
Separately, Muhammed Hamza Shafqaat, the secretary information Balochistan, also told Geo Fact Check that the video was not from Balochistan “but from somewhere in India”.
Shafqaat further shared images of the chief secretary Balochistan’s meeting room, which does not match the one visible in the clip of the mouse.
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