Video of Animal Operators Hitting Kedarnath Pilgrims Shared With Communal Spin

Rudraprayag CO Prabodh Ghildiyal told The Quint that all people involved are from the Hindu community.

A video showing horse and mule operators attacking pilgrims at Kedarnath Dham is being shared with a false communal claim which says that the operators belong to the Muslim community.

(Source: Facebook/Altered by The Quint)

A video of some men assaulting people with sticks is being shared with a communal claim on social media.

The claim: The video is being shared to claim that horse and mule operators belonging to the Muslim community thrashed Hindu pilgrims at Kedarnath Dham.

An archive of this tweet can be seen here.

(Source: Twitter/Screenshot)

The Quint received queries for this video's verification on its WhatsApp tipline.

(Archives of more claims on social media can be seen here, here and here.)

Is it true?: While the incident is true, the communal angle given to the incident is false.

• The video shows horse and mule operators at Kedarnath Dham in Uttarakhand's Rudraprayag hitting with pilgrims sticks after an argument over passenger safety on 10 June.

• Speaking to The Quint, Rudraprayag CO Prabodh Ghildiyal rubbished the communal angle, saying that all involved in the incident belong to the Hindu community.

How did we find out?: Using relevant keywords, we looked for news reports related to the video.

• This led us to an article by Free Press Journal which carried the viral video, mentioning that it happened in Uttarakhand's Rudraprayag district and that the police had started an investigation into the matter.

• We looked for more details on Rudraprayag Police's social media accounts, where we came across a tweet from their verified account mentioning that a case had been registered at Sonprayag police station and the accused had been arrested.

• In the same thread, the police named the five accused, identifying them as

  • Ankit Singh,

  • Santosh Kumar,

  • Rohit Kumar,

  • Gautam,

  • and a minor.

The verified account also shared a video statement by Rudraprayag Superintendent of Police (SP) Vishakha Bhadane.

• In the video, Bhadane mentioned that the licenses of the accused horse and mule operators had been suspended.

In a Facebook post, the police said that a resident of Delhi's Mahipalpur registered a complaint at the Sonprayag police station on 12 June, two days after the incident took place.

• They added that the fight happened after a group of pilgrims had raised their voices against a horse being mistreated near the Bhimbali bridge and the operators started "thrashing and abusing" them.

Police deny communal angle: Speaking to The Quint, Rudraprayag CO Prabodh Ghildiyal rubbished the communal angle given to the incident.

"We took prompt action and arrested the accused after our investigation. The Hindu-Muslim angle given to this incident is wrong. All accused belong to the Hindu community and the people who were attacked were Hindu pilgrims."

Rudraprayag CO Prabodh Ghildiyal

He then said that people should not share such incidents with false communal angles.

Conclusion: A video of horse and mule operators attacking pilgrims at Kedarnath Dham in Uttarakhand is being shared with a false communal claim, which says that the operators belong to the Muslim community.

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