By Hazel Gandhi
An old video showing Muslims rallying on the streets is viral online with the false claims that the Muslim community in Jaipur was protesting over the recent shooting of three Muslim men by a Hindu man, Railway Police Force (RPF) officer Chetan Singh. BOOM found that the claims are false and the video is at least as old as June this year and is likely from Bangladesh.
In the early hours of July 31, RPF Officer Chetan Singh opened fire in the Jaipur-Mumbai Central Superfast Express when it was near Palghar, killing his senior and three other Muslim men. Videos of the incident on social media also showed Singh hailing PM Modi and UP CM Yogi Adityanath. Singh was arrested the same day, and has also been sacked from the RPF following this incident.
This video of the protests on the streets is being shared in this context. One caption on Facebook reads, "In the case of the Jaipur-Mumbai Express train murder in Sikar, Rajasthan, the entire society, including Muslim society, organized an outrageous rally and registered their protest. This rally was taken out from Idgah Chowk to District Collectorate. During this time, the protesters demanded strict punishment for the accused. Several demands were put up including connecting streams under UAPA on the criminal involved in murders in the Jaipur-Mumbai Express train, compensating the family of the deceased, giving a government job to a person of the family and curbing the growing communal forces in the country."
(Original text in Hindi: "राजस्थान के सीकर में जयपुर-मुंबई एक्सप्रेस ट्रेन में हुए हत्याकांड मामले में मुस्लिम समाज सहित सर्व समाज ने आक्रोश रैली निकालकर विरोध दर्ज कराया. ये रैली ईदगाह चौक से जिला कलेक्ट्रेट तक निकाली गई. इस दौरान प्रदर्शनकारियों ने आरोपी को सख्त से सख्त सजा देने की मांग उठाई. जयपुर-मुंबई एक्सप्रेस ट्रेन में हुई हत्याओं के मामले में शामिल अपराधी पर यूएपीए के तहत धाराएं जोड़े जाने, मृतकों के परिवार को मुआवजा देने, परिवार के एक शख्स को सरकारी नौकरी देने और देश में बढ़ रही सांप्रदायिक ताकतों पर अंकुश लगाने सहित कई मांगों को रखा गया.")
Click here to view the post.
Click here to view the tweet and here for an archive.
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FACT-CHECK
BOOM found that the video is at least as old as June this year, before the shooting in the Jaipur Express train took place.
A reverse image search of some key visuals from the video on Google led us to a tweet from June 11, 2023 that carried the same visuals. According to this tweet, the video taken at a gathering organised by the Jamaat-e-Islami in Bangladesh.
Click here to view the tweet and here for an archive.
This Facebook post from June 11 also mentions that the video shows a Jamaat-e-Islami rally. The caption loosely translates to, 'Alhamdulillah, After many years, Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islam march was allowed.'
Click here to view the post.
The Jamaat-e-Islami, a right wing political party in Bangladesh held a rally in Dhaka in June 2023 for the first time in a decade, after getting a verbal confirmation from the Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP). The Jamaat's registration was revoked by a high court in 2013, and its last rally took place in February that year. The demands of the recent rally included freedom for its imprisoned members, including party chief Shafiqur Rahman, and control on inflation and price hike of essential goods.
Thousands of Muslims have taken to the streets of Jaipur, Rajasthan, to protest the train killings. Protestors have issued a 7-day ultimatum for the government to respond to their demands, which include Rs 1 crore compensation and a home for the family of one of the victims, Ali Asgar, and a government job. Read here and here. However, this video is not from those protests.
BOOM could not independently verify the time and location of the video, but it is most likely taken in June in Dhaka and is unrelated to the protest in Rajasthan.
(With inputs from BOOM Bangladesh)
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