Fact Check: Unrelated video of Muharram procession in Bengal falsely linked to Haryana violence

The video shows a group of young men and children marching on the street and dancing with weapons and Islamic flags.

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Kolkata,UPDATED: Aug 4, 2023 16:34 IST

India Today Fact Check

Claim

The video of a group of young men and children marching on the street and dancing with weapons and Islamic flags is from Haryana’s Nuh.

Fact

The video is not related to ongoing Haryana violence. The video was captured in West Bengal's Murshidabad on the day of Muharram.

By Tanujit Das: Amid the ongoing violence in Haryana, a video that’s going viral shows a group of young men and children marching and dancing with weapons and Islamic flags. One person shared the video on Twitter and wrote: “What is the motto behind this level of radicalisation among children? The Mewat Terror Attack exposed the truth of the so-called Ganga-Jamuni Tehzeeb, which not only failed to achieve peace but also became the subject matter of atrocities against Hindus in their own homeland." He also used other hashtags related to the ongoing violence in the state.

Others shared it with hashtags related to the violence in Mewat (Nuh district). Archives of similar posts can be seen here, here, and here.

India Today found that the video is not related to ongoing violence in Haryana. It is from West Bengal's Murshidabad.

Our Probe

In the viral video, we observed a statue in the background that featured people carrying a blue globe that had the Bangla letter “B” written on it. Statues featuring the emblem are all over West Bengal. This indicated that the video was likely shot in the eastern state.

After that, a reverse search of keyframes from the viral video led us to the Facebook profile of Shaikh Aptaj Bharatiya, who shared this video on July 29 and claimed it was from Dhuliyan, Murshidabad.

With the help of that clue, we found the actual place on Google Maps Street View.

The sculpture, the signboard, the blue railings, and the houses seen in the viral video matched with the Street View.

India Today also reached out to locals, who confirmed that the video was captured on Dakbangla and Dhuliyan State Highway, near Dhuliyan Municipality on July 29, the day of Muharram. The procession went towards Dakbangla from Dhuliyan Kanchan Tala High School in the afternoon.

Thus, it is safe to conclude that the video is not related to ongoing Haryana violence. The video was captured in West Bengal's Murshidabad on the day of Muharram.

(With inputs from Gopal Thakur, Murshidabad)

Edited By:

chingkheinganbi mayengbam

Published On:

Aug 4, 2023