A video showing security personnel firing tear gas shells on a highway is being shared on social media as violence in Bengaluru, as a ‘wake up call’ to Hindus.
But the incident is actually from West Bengal’s Dinajpur where violent protests broke out over the alleged rape and murder of a minor.
CLAIM
The video is viral on social media with the claim,
“हिन्दुओं बस सोते रहो ओर ये लोग इनका काम कर रहे है| बैगलोर”
(Translation: "Hindus just keep sleeping, and these people are doing their job. Bangalore")
The video uploaded by a Facebook page 'Cocktail Videos' had over 78k views at the time of writing this article.
WHAT WE FOUND OUT
The video is actually from an incident in West Bengal's Dinajpur.
A reverse image search of the keyframes of the video led us to News18's report dated 19 July 2020, stating that the suspected rape and murder of a minor girl in the North Dinajpur district of West Bengal led to violent clashes between protesters and security forces in the Chopra area.
The image was attributed to news agency, ANI.
With a keyword search, we found a tweet by ANI, carrying a smaller clip of the video.
ANI stated that the protesters blocked the road, setting police vehicles and buses on fire. The security personnel had to deploy tear gas shells to disperse the locals.
A local reporter also confirmed to The Quint that the video was from Dinajpur, not Bengaluru, as claimed.
Further, we found a news report by Bengali daily, Anandbazar Patrika, dated 19 July 2020 stating that, “according to the locals, the 15-year-old girl was abducted from her home on Saturday night by a miscreant. He allegedly took the girl to a place next to the house and raped her.”
However the article added that the autopsy did not reveal any signs of sexual harassment and the girl, a resident of Sonapur village, died due to poisoning.
The enraged locals resorted to blocking the National Highway 31 to demand arrests of the culprit, resulting in clashes with the security forces.
Evidently, the incident from West Bengal has been falsely shared as the recent violence in Bengaluru.
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