On January 23, around 220 million people in Pakistan were deprived of electricity as its government reduced frequency to save fuel. Reportedly, the country has been facing frequent blackouts amidst the economic crisis. A British-Pakistani journalist Gul Bukhari shared an image on social media claiming Pakistan looked “wiped out” from the world map amidst the nationwide power cut. However, the reactions she received to her post were concerning. Netizens pointed out that the image she shared was photoshopped.
Twitter user Namira from Pakistan said, “Damn we wiped off a part of India and some of the ocean with us too.”
Damn we wiped off a part of India and some of the ocean with us too 😮💨 https://t.co/rNVq6Mi3Ay
— namira⁷ (@namiraakhalil) January 24, 2023
Journalist Syed Sajid Hasan from Pakistan proudly said the country is fine and the blackouts are just to save fuel. He said, “You wish but we are fine. Pakistan is healthy and blackouts are regular. The way to save fuel. And we are looking into the problem. Don’t get too excited.”
You wish but we are fine. Pakistan is healthy and blackouts are regular . The way to save fuel . And we are looking into the problem . Don’t get too excited . https://t.co/yKSDYJU0wZ
— Syed Sajid Hasan (@saiyidsajidshah) January 23, 2023
Varnica Raj Chauhan said, “Lmao. Can confirm that Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and UT J&K have light.
This is an edited image….”
Lmao. Can confirm that Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and UT J&K have light.
— Varnica Raj Chauhan (@VarnicaRajSingh) January 23, 2023
This is an edited image….. https://t.co/vHp1r6BuWZ
OpIndia decided to look into the matter and see whether the image shared was photoshopped. Interestingly, while claiming Pakistan got “wiped out”, Bukhari conveniently took away almost 1/6th of Indian Territory and ‘blacked out’ part of the Arabian Sea as well. It was visibly an edited image, and it looked like someone without knowledge of international borders used the Windows Paint Brush tool to paint black over Pakistan. Using photoshop, when we changed the image’s levels, it was evident which portion was painted over.
Next, we reverse-searched the image and found that the original image came from Wikipedia.
The next step was to see if Pakistan lits up during the night when there was no power failure. We checked the live satellite images and compared them with the old photos to confirm, and this is what we found.
On January 23, 10:30 PM, most of Pakistan was indeed dark. However, the darkness was thankfully limited to Pakistan and was definitely not infecting India.
When we went back to the last three days, we found the situation was the same at that time frame. On January 22, 10:30 PM, most of Pakistan was dark.
On January 21, 10:30 PM, most of Pakistan was dark.
On January 20, 10:30 PM, most of Pakistan was dark.
Verdict: The image Gul Bukhari shared was an edited image. Pakistan is mostly dark at night, possibly due to power outage issues but the darkness is strictly inside Pakistan and is not infiltrating India, unlike what the paintbrush tool seems to suggest.
