A video showing a mob vandalising a building and setting it on fire is going viral on social media.
The claim: It states that the video shows people demolishing 100-year-old Lord Shiva temple in Pakistan recently.
Who shared it?: The claim was shared by several social media users, including Amardip Potfode, the state secretary of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) SC morcha, journalists Alok Jha and Mahesh Kumar Srivastava, both working for the right-wing propaganda channel Sudarshan News.
An archive can be seen here.
(Source: Twitter/Screenshot)
The truth: This video is from Pakistan but dates back to December 2020. It shows mob vandalising a Hindu temple in the Karak district of Pakistan.
How did we find out the truth?: We conducted a reverse image search on some of the keyframes of the video and found a report from 2020 which carried the same video.
The report was published on 31 December 2020 by The Times of India.
It stated that a mob reportedly led by Islamic clerics attempted to destroy an ancient Hindu temple on 30 December 2020 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa region's Teri village in Pakistan.
It also stated that the temple was rebuilt by the Supreme Court orders after it was dismantled by a mob earlier in 1997.
The report was published on 31 December 2020 by The Times of India.
(Source: TOI/screenshot)
We found another report posted by The Guardian on 30 December 2020.
The report mentioned that the crowd was riled up after fiery speeches at a rally.
The report was posted by The Guardian on 30 December 2020.
(Source: The Guardian/screenshot)
The same incident was reported by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) Hindi's YouTube channel on 30 December 2020.
The description of the video mentioned that the mob also damaged the mausoleum of a Hindu saint Shri Paramhans Maharaj.
Conclusion: Clearly, an old video of people destroying a temple in Pakistan is being falsely shared as recent.
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