A video of a few men beating young men atop a truck has been widely shared on social media with the message that “a handful of Muslims taught a hundred Hindus how to recite the Hanuman Chalisa in front of a mosque”. The viral video and accompanying claim seem to be insinuating that Muslims attacked Hindus in front of a mosque.
It is pertinent to note that recently multiple instances of communal violence were reported across several states during Hindu religious festivals, mostly Ram Navami processions.
The video and accompanying claim are viral on Facebook
The same video has been widely circulated on Twitter with a caption that translates to, “Is this the protection afforded to Hindus”?
“Hindu ki barbvadi” ????
क्या यही सुरक्षा है हिंदुओं की?
????????????????????????
pic.twitter.com/ALnsLTRren— Sanni Mathur (@SanniMathur2) May 11, 2022
हिंदू मुस्लिम एकता को मजबूत करते मजहबी
कब तक भागोगे हिंदुओं ? pic.twitter.com/FL9YWDxf8S— शंखनाद (@TeamShankhnaad) May 12, 2022
The same video has also been shared on Twitter by a user, claiming that this is an incident that took place in Rajasthan, under the watch of the Gehlot government.
राजस्थान मे गहलोत सरकार की सह पे चुस्लिमो का बढ़ता आतंक ????
क्या यही सुरक्षा है हिंदुओं की?
???????????? pic.twitter.com/AzG74dYQ4J— Giyan???????????????????? (@Jiyan2023) May 12, 2022
Fact-check
Taking screenshots from the video, we performed a reverse image search on Google and came across several YouTube videos of the same incident. One of these videos stated that the incident took place in Bangladesh.
Upon performing a Bengali keyword search on YouTube, we came across a video report by a local Bangladeshi news channel stating that this video is from Haziganj in Chandpur district of the Chittagong division in Bangladesh.
The report reveals that the incident took place around the time of Eid celebrations when groups of unruly Muslim youngsters played blaring DJ music on trucks and caused a public nuisance. The report states that members of an Islamist group called Tauhidi Janata can be seen beating the youngsters with sticks. The report also states that the youngsters were later arrested by the O.C of the Haziganj police station before being released on warning.
We also spoke with Mohibbulla Mohib, a journalist based out of Cox’s Bazar in Chittagong, who confirmed that the video depicts Muslim youth being beaten up for causing a public scene and nuisance during Eid celebrations. Mohib said, “This video is from Chittagong. These are Muslim youth blaring DJ music and having fun on Eid. In the past, such incidents have led to accidents. Therefore, this year, responsible citizens took measures to curb such incidents.”
Thus, a video from Bangladesh was shared with the false claim that Muslims beat up Hindus in India.
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