Fact Check: No, The Baby In This Viral Video Was Not Kidnapped And Taken To Dubai

A 24-second long video has gone viral on social media, showing a baby found hidden inside a duffle bag. The video was shared by HGS Dhaliwal, an Executive Director of Security at the Airport Authority of India, on September 15 with the caption – “Baby Bagged!! A 5-month-old baby was kidnapped and carried to Dubai from Karachi inside a Travel Bag. Fortunately, it was detected at Dubai Airport and the baby was found safe!!”

Baby Bagged!!

A 5 month old baby was kidnapped and carried to Dubai from Karachi inside a Travel Bag.

Fortunately, it was detected at Dubai Airport and the baby was found safe!! pic.twitter.com/qpBKhUu30I

— HGS Dhaliwal, IPS (@hgsdhaliwalips) September 15, 2019

Media outlets like Mirror Now, The Tribune, Latestly wrote articles based on the claims soon after the tweet went viral.

In fact, our sister website Tarksangat fell for the claim too.

Establishing The Truth

This video was actually shared by a Twitter user on Jun 24, 2019, and attracted as many as two million views.

"A 5 months old Pakistani baby was kidnapped and taken to Dubai in a hand carry bag.
The kidnapper was caught at Dubai Airport on arrival. The baby is safe and has been returned to his parents." Parvez Khan. pic.twitter.com/hf2yDi7kzH

— McMyc ™. (@Its_WNMichael) June 24, 2019

In fact, this same video was shared by one Parvez Khan on November 4, 2018, and attracted 83,000 shares.

https://www.facebook.com/100004581510321/videos/1112450915584282/

A Twitter user had commented that the accessories and the bag that can be spotted in the video are of the Saudi Arabian brand, Al-Saniedi.

That bag and accessories inside is from AlSaniedi brand in Qassim province of Saudi Arabia for Camping products

— Asife (@asife) September 16, 2019

A time-search on Twitter will reveal for the word ‘baby’ in Arabic (طفل and الطفل) an October 2018 tweet by a user @ProfAlsaadi.

( طفل وشنطه )
تصلح روايه لمسلسل خليجي لرمضان القادم ..
من إضافات الإعلاميه الأستاذه ( السعديه ) / أم سالم الهاجري .. شكراً لك . pic.twitter.com/OyNAPsNsEj

— Prof.Alsaadi (@ProfAlsaadi) October 27, 2018

Interestingly, this video carried a watermark reading ‘noash_a’.

Another user shared the same video demanding that the ‘perpetrator’ be punished, to which @noash_a replied, “This is the same child who is active and this is his father enjoying his time in the desert and you stay on Twitter and no one notices or reads anything about you.” (Translated from Arabic). In the comment, @noash_a posted another video of the same baby.

https://twitter.com/noash_a/status/1056639220683587584?s=20

If the baby’s facial features are compared, it is clear that the baby in the two videos is the same.

Therefore, if the sequence of events is followed, the video was shared between October 28 and 29, 2018 and most likely also created by @noash_a, who is probably not a stranger to the child.

Subsequently, on October 31, 2018, the video was shared with a totally different narrative, with an Arabic page on Facebook claiming that the video represents a Filipino maid kidnapping a child. The second part of the video shows the alleged woman, however, it was not shot at the same location. To support the claim, the two clips were most likely merged.

From November 2018 onwards, the video began to circulate with the claim that a Pakistani baby was kidnapped and taken to Dubai. The video is still being circulated with the same narrative. Whether the video was created in jest or it depicts some real incident cannot be established conclusively. However, the ‘Pakistan-Dubai’ claim is absolutely insubstantial.

Creating or sharing fake news is never justified. We have a responsibility to verify everything that we post on the internet. To ensure that our national debate is healthy and well-informed, each and every one of us has a responsibility of treating what we read with a pinch of salt, a spoonful of doubt, and a flood of research.

Also Read: Fact Check: No, The Child In The Viral Picture Did Not Die In Bihar Floods