No, This Video Doesn’t Show People ‘Invading’ Bhagyalakshmi Temple in Hyderabad

The video shows people trying to cross barricades that the police had set up after a sound system caught fire.

A DJ set in the procession had caught fire near the Charminar, after which the police erected barricades for public safety.

(Source: X/Altered by The Quint)

A video showing a crowd pushing against police barricades in Hyderabad, with the police retaliating to control the crowd, is being shared on social media.

The claim: Users are sharing the video with text which reads, "Are they trying to invade Bhagyalakshmi Temple? Their long-standing attempt to uproot this sacred site is evident. The situation at #Charminar in #Hyderabad is going out of control. The Eid-e-Milad-un-Nabi rally has turned violent—Namazis are pushing the police and smashing barricades."

An archive of this post can be seen here.

(Source: X (formerly Twitter)/Screenshot)

At the time of writing this report, this X post by user '@AbhishekOfficl' was viewed nearly three lakh times.

(Archives of more posts sharing this claim can be seen here, here, here, and here.)

Is it true?: No, the claim is false.

• The video shows the commotion between people participating in an Eid-e-Milad-un-Nabi procession and the police, after a DJ set which was a part of the procession caught fire.

• The police had reportedly set up barricades for public safety and had not allowed people to come close to it until the situation was brought under control.

How did we find out the truth?: Using keywords such as 'bhagyalakshmi temple charminar eid e milad' across platforms, we looked for more information regarding the incident.

• This led us to a post on X, which mentioned that a fire broke out during a "Milad-un-Nabi festival rally," at Hyderabad's Charminar, where the Bhagyalakshmi temple is also located.

The post mentioned that a fire broke out during a Milad rally.

(Source: X/Screenshot)

Taking a cue from this, we added the word 'fire' to our search term, which led us to news reports with the same visuals.

• On 19 September, a DJ and sound system caught fire near the Charminar during a Milad-un-Nabi procession, Siasat reported.

• The report added that a stampede-like situation arose due to the fire, after which the police erected barricades around the Charminar.

• However, some youths tried to get past the barricades after arguing and fighting with the police, after which the police hit the crowd with sticks.

News18 Telugu also shared the same visuals on their YouTube channel.

Police statement: We came across an X post on Hyderabad police commissioner CV Anand's account, which shared visuals with the text, "There was a fire accident involving a DJ system in front of Charminar which stopped the procession for over an hour and led to arguments with police," in reply to a post claiming that the police had lathi-charged the people.

• In the video, Anand can be heard saying, "For safety measures, (we) set up barricades and had to keep people away," after a DJ set caught fire.

• "Some people tried to break (the barricade) and come in, so we spoke to them and requested them to get back," Anand said.

Temple clarifies: We came across the temple's page on Facebook, where we found a contact number.

When we reached out to the temple via WhatsApp, they told us that "nothing like this happened near the temple. It was a little far away."

• They also shared a video update of the temple's condition, which was recorded at 10 pm on 19 September, in which a man clarified that "everything is fine" around the temple.

• The video was also shared on their official YouTube channel.

The Quint contacted Hyderabad's commissioner of police and will update this report as and when we receive a response.

Conclusion: A video of people pushing their way through barricades is being shared with the false claim that it shows them trying to "invade" the Bhagyalakshmi Temple at Hyderabad's Charminar.

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