Two videos showing a man brutally thrashing a Sikh man has gone viral as an incident from Pakistan.
One of the video shows a man wearing a yellow T-shirt, punching and kicking a bloodied Sikh man while bystanders recorded the assault on their phones. The other video shows the incident from a distance.
However, we found that the videos were not from Pakistan but from Ludhiana, Punjab. Reportedly, the man was beaten up for trying to steal a phone.
CLAIM
Those sharing the viral videos used a caption that read, "पाकिस्तान में सरदार का ये हाल है और यहां का सरदार मुल्लों के साथ मिलकर खालिस्तान का ख्वाब देख रहा है."
[Translation: This is the condition of Sardars in Pakistan while the Sardars here is dreaming of Khalistan together with Muslims.]
(Note: Due to the distressing nature of the visuals, we have refrained from using any video links.)
The second video showed the assault from a wider angle, shot from a distance.
The video was shared widely on Facebook and Twitter.
WHAT WE FOUND OUT
Using the InVID WeVerify Google Chrome extension, we divided one of the videos into multiple keyframes and conducted a reverse image search on some of them along with keywords in Hindi and Punjabi.
While going through the search results, we came across a tweet posted by a Twitter user called Jas Oberoi that had the viral video. We went through his other tweets and found he said that the video was from Ludhiana, Punjab.
Taking a cue from this, we conducted a keyword search and found a news report published on PTC News that carried screenshots from the viral videos.
The article, published on 5 March, said that viral video was being used to create communal tensions. It further said that the Sikh man was caught stealing in the Tibba area of Ludhiana.
We also found a video report on PTC News' YouTube Channel containing clips from the viral video.
We then contacted the SHO of Tibba Police Station, Nardev Singh, who confirmed that the incident was from Ludhiana, Punjab and not Pakistan.
"The victim was trying to steal the attacker's phone and was caughter, following which the attacker got angry and beat him up. Cases have been registered against both the victim and person beating him," Singh told The Quint.
Evidently, a video from Ludhiana, Punjab was shared as that from Pakistan.
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