Fight During Durga Puja Immersion in Chhattisgarh Given a False Communal Spin

A video showing some people attacking a truck playing music with sticks and stones has gone viral with a claim that Hindus in Chhattisgarh's Bilaspur were attacked during a Durga puja visarjan (immersion) rally by people from the Muslim community.

The claim comes days after the Durga puja festivities were completed in the country.

However, we found that the claim was misleading. While the video was from Bilaspur, the fight was not communal. The fight was between two different groups of Durga puja worship committee members over the issue of immersion. Police confirmed that the people involved in the incident on both sides were Hindus.

CLAIM

The video was shared by a user with a claim that read, "बिलासपुर सदर बाजार से दुर्गा विषर्जन करने जा रहे हिन्दुओ पर तलवार लाठी डंडे रॉड से किया गया हमला".

[Translation: Hindus going to perform Durga Visarjan from Bilaspur Sadar Bazar were attacked with sword sticks and rods.]

The caption further slammed "Hindu-Muslim unity".

Several other social media users shared the same video with similar claims. While not all directly blamed people from any community for the attack, they wrote that "Hindus were attacked."

Archives of more such posts can be found here, here and here.

WHAT WE FOUND OUT

We conducted a keyword search based on the information in the viral posts, and found several news reports on the incident, including one on Quint Hindi, which was published on 7 October.

The report carried a screenshot from the viral video and noted that the fight was between two groups carrying out processions in the Durga puja immersion rally.

Another report in the Hindi daily Dainik Bhaskar added that the argument was over who would go first for the immersion.

This argument snowballed into a brawl, and young people from both groups started beating each other. The report added that both groups had filed an FIR against the other. 

Additional Superintendent of Police (ASP) Rajendra Jaiswal also released a statement to the press, which said that the "scuffle broke out near Sadar Bazar area between members of two Durga puja committees over which party would go first for the immersion". He added that some people were identified and arrested, and the police were on the lookout for others.

None of the reports mentioned anything about people from a different community "attacking Hindus".

To get clarity on the same, we reached out to the police in the City Kotwali police station in Bilaspur. They dismissed the claims of the clashes being communal.

"The viral video is from last week and was taken during the Durga puja immersion rally. There was a huge crowd, and this scuffle broke out between the two groups. So far, 20 people have been arrested, and all are Hindus. We are still looking for more people involved in the incident," the officer-in-charge told The Quint.

Evidently, the claim that "Hindus were attacked" during Bilaspur's Durga Puja visarjan event was misleading. The clash was between two Hindu groups.

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