2011 Video From Bihar Firing Incident Shared as From Assam Eviction Drive

The video is from 2011 when police firing killed four people in Forbesganj area of Araria district in Bihar.

A video in which a policeman can be seen stomping on a man, is being shared on social media with the claim that it shows the violent eviction drive in Assam targeting Muslims.

The video is being shared in the backdrop of the anti-encroachment eviction drive carried out by the government of Assam in Darrang district on 23 September, which left two civilians dead in police firing.

However, we found that the video is from 2011 from Forbesganj area of Araria district in Bihar, when police firing killed four people protesting against the construction of a factory.

CLAIM

The 33-second video is being shared with the claim that reads that Muslims are being targetted in Assam and they face genocide in the state, along with the hashtag 'Assam Horror'.

(Trigger Warning: Visuals can be distressing. Viewer discretion is advised)

The post was shared by a Pakistan-based journalist Moeed Pirzada on Facebook and the archived link can be seen here. However, the post has now been deleted.

Social media users have shared the video along with the same claim and the archived links can be seen here and here.

WHAT WE FOUND OUT

We broke down the video into several keyframes using Google Chrome's InVid extension and conducted a reverse image search on some of them. A Yandex search result led us to a YouTube video published in 2011.

The title of the video read, "Forbesganj, Araria, Bihar, India Police Firing on June 03, 2011.(sic)"

Taking cue from here, we looked for news reports, and a report by NDTV read that four persons were killed and 30 others, including 25 policemen, injured in police firing and clash between the cops and locals in Forbesganj in Araria district, Bihar on 3 June 2011.

We also found the video on India Today on 24 June 2011, which showed the police brutality caught on camera.

WHAT HAPPENED IN ASSSAM?

On 23 September, visuals emerged from Sipajhar in Assam’s Darrang district during an eviction drive, which showed police firing at a villager, who was later stomped by a photographer. Two people were reported dead and several others injured in the violent clashes.

The photographer – Bijay Shankar Baniya – was employed by the Darrang district administration to document the eviction drive and was later arrested. You can watch The Quint's report here.

Clearly, a decade old video from Bihar is passed off on social media with the claim that it shows the recent situation in Assam.

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