Over past weeks, several pro-Palestine protests have been organised across many big and small cities in India. Against the backdrop, a video showing several policemen dragging protesters sitting on the road has gone viral on social media. Many users claim Police have arrested people supporting Hamas in Hardoi, Uttar Pradesh.
A Facebook user shared this video and wrote, “हमास आतंकवादियों के समर्थन में प्रदर्शन करने पर यूपी पुलिस ने हरदोई में कई कट्टरपंथी इस्लामवादियों को गिरफ्तार किया।” [English translation: UP Police arrested several radical Islamists in Hardoi for protesting in support of Hamas terrorists.]
This Facebook post can be seen here.
It is being widely shared on Facebook and X with a similar claim.
FACT CHECK
NewsMobile fact-checked the viral post, and found it to be false.
Running a Reverse Image Search of the video keyframes, our team found the same visual in a news report on a website, ‘Prokerala’. According to the report, Police detained Jamia Millia Islamia students during a protest outside UP Bhawan against the demolition drive in UP in connection with the violence that broke out in New Delhi on June 13, 2022. The report contains some images of female policemen forcibly holding two girls wearing the same headscarf as seen in the viral video.
Also, a Facebook post of TRT World, dated June 13, 2022, carries similar visuals. The caption of the post reads: “Indian university students demonstrating against the demolition of the homes of Muslim protesters were dragged and lifted into buses by security personnel.”
Al-Jazeera also posted this video on Facebook on June 14, 2022. As per its description, several student groups held demonstrations at the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) and Jamia Millia Islamia (JMI) in support of former JNU student Afreen Fatima, whose house was razed by Uttar Pradesh authorities. The Prayagraj Development Authority (PDA) demolished the house of Javed Ahmad, the alleged mastermind of the June 10 violence in Prayagraj, amid heavy police deployment.
A tweet by Hardoi Police refutes the viral claim, saying, “no such demonstration has taken place in Hardoi district, nor any such arrest has been made by the Hardoi Police.”
जनपद हरदोई (उ0प्र0) में इस प्रकार का कोई प्रदर्शन नहीं हुआ है और न ही हरदोई पुलिस द्वारा इस तरह की कोई गिरफ्तारी की गयी है ।@hardoipolice
इस भ्रामक खबर का खण्डन करती है । pic.twitter.com/qmXyq3J6HO— Hardoi Police (@hardoipolice) October 24, 2023
Thus, it is confirmed that the viral video is from June 2022 when several students of Jamia protested against the demolition drive in Uttar Pradesh. It is NOT related to the ongoing Israel-Hamas war.
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