No, Uddhav Thackeray Didn't Call Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb a Martyr

Uddhav Thackeray called Aurangzeb, the Kashmiri soldier, who was brutally murdered in 2018, a martyr.

A 30-second video, showing Uddhav Thackeray 'praising Aurangzeb' in his speech by calling him a martyr, is making rounds on social media.

This clip is going viral amid the ongoing political crisis in Maharashtra where Thackeray and Shiv Sena is facing opposition from several members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs) who have joined a rebellion led by Maharashtra MLA Eknath Shinde.

However, the viral clip is being shared with a misleading context. Thackeray talked about an Indian soldier named Aurangzeb who was abducted and later killed by militants in Pulwama district of Jammu and Kashmir in June 2018.

CLAIM

The caption of the viral clip takes a dig at the Thackeray family and claims that Uddhav Thackeray is calling Aurangzeb, the Mughal emperor, a marytr.

Similar claims can be seen here, here, and here. We also received the claim as a query on our WhatsApp tipline.

WHAT WE FOUND OUT

We noticed a logo of a Marathi news channel, TV9 Marathi, on the top right corner of the video along with 'TV9 Marathi live' written at the bottom.

Taking a cue, we conducted a keyword search on Google in Marathi using 'Uddhav Thackeray Aurangzeb speech TV9 Marathi'.

This led us to a YouTube video from 8 June 2022 uploaded by the official channel of TV9 Marathi.

The viral clip can be seen in this video from 1:47 timestamp. Thackeray starts talking about the Indian soldier named Aurangzeb in Marathi from 1:05 timestamp, while taking a dig at Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for propagating their idea of 'Hindutva'.

"One such soldier was fighting for his country. He had killed many terrorists as he was a gunman. He was abducted on his vacation while going home. A few days later, his dismembered body was found. His name was Aurangzeb who became a martyr for our country. So you are saying that he is not ours, because he is a Muslim? No matter who he is, he fought for our country and that's what 'Hindutva' is for us."

Uddhav Thackeray, Chief Minister of Maharashtra

We also found an article by TV9 Marathi posted on 8 June 2022 which clarified that Thackeray spoke about the Indian soldier who was murdered in Kashmir in 2018.

Rifleman Aurangzeb belonged to 4 Jammu and Kashmir Light Infantry, and was posted at the camp at Shadimarg in Shopian. He was abducted later and killed by militants in Pulwama on 14 June 2018.

This led to massive outrage in Kashmir and the Indian Army later detained three personnel of 44 Rashtriya Rifles in connection with the murder in February 2019.

Evidently, a part of Uddhav Thackeray's speech was given a spin to mislead that he called Aurangzeb, the Mughal emperor, a martyr who died for the country.

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