Harassment in Sri Lankan Uni Passed off as an Incident From India

(This story was first published on 19 August 2019 and is being republished from The Quint’s archive in the light of similar claims about the video resurfacing.)

CLAIM

A video showing some boys throwing water at girls who are clad in burkhas is being circulated on social media with the claim that it depicts the condition of Muslim women in India at present.

The claim with which the video is being shared reads: ‘The situation of Muslims women in india right now. Where is Muslim Ummah, where is peacekeepers. Our sisters are put to disgrace mercilessly, they hurting thier faith.#PrayForKashmir #KashmirBleedsUNsleeps #HumanRightsWatch (sic)’

The Facebook page of ‘Muslims 21ST Century’ had shared the video which was viewed over 21,000 times till the time this article was written.

TRUE OR FALSE?

While the video has not been tampered with, it is being shared with a false claim. The video is not from India but Sri Lanka. The video was shot at Eastern University’s campus in Sri Lanka.

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WHAT WE FOUND OUT

We did a YouTube search using the key words ‘people throwing water Muslim’ and found a video that was published on 27 February. Upon scrolling down and reading the comments on the video, we found a user had claimed that it was from the Eastern University in Sri Lanka and that it was an incidence of ragging.

As per AFP’s Colombo correspondent, the language being spoken in the video is Sri Lankan Tamil. The AFP article further mentions that a person in the video could be heard asking people to throw water.

The AFP article further states that the video was shot on Eastern University’s campus, quoting news website puthithu, which had confirmed the details of the video with the university’s students. The website’s report dates back to 24 February and also mentions that some senior male students had thrown water at female students who were freshers at the university.

(With inputs from AFP)

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