A 2019 anti-CAA protest video from Gorakhpur is falsely shared as a lathi charge on Waqf Bill protesters in March 2025
On 17 March 2025, the All-India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) held a protest against the Waqf (Amendment) Bill 2024 at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi, demanding its withdrawal (here, here, and here). Amidst this, a viral video circulating on social media (here, here, here, and here) claims to show a police lathi charge on people protesting the Waqf Bill in Uttar Pradesh. Let’s verify the claim made in the post through this article.
Claim: The video shows a police lathi charge on people protesting the Waqf Bill in Uttar Pradesh.
Fact: The video dates back to 20 December 2019, when the police clamped down on protesters who threw stones at them during the anti-Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) protests at Nakhass Chowk in Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh. We found no media reports of protests or a lathi charge against Waqf Bill protesters in Uttar Pradesh as of 21 March 2025. Hence, the claim made in the post is MISLEADING.
A Google search found no reports of protests or a lathi charge against Waqf Bill protesters in Uttar Pradesh as of 21 March 2025.
A reverse image search of the keyframes from the viral video led to a Facebook post (archived) from January 2020 featuring the same video in better resolution. This 2020 post claims it shows a police lathi charge during anti-CAA (Citizenship Amendment Act) protests in Uttar Pradesh. A further search led us to a YouTube video from December 2019 with similar visuals linked to police action during anti-CAA protests.
Taking clues from the description in the Facebook post, we conducted a Google keyword search that led us to a news report (archived) published by the Live Hindustan YouTube channel on 20 December 2019, titled “Gorakhpur: Two injured in stone pelting, lathi charge during protest against CAA.” According to the report, police clamped down on protesters who threw stones at them during the anti-CAA protests at Nakhass Chowk in Gorakhpur on 20 December 2019. The video shows the same police lathi charge from a different angle. We also found multiple news reports (here, and here) covering the same incident.
Upon comparing the two videos, we observed similarities in the location featured in the viral video and the news report, which can be seen below.
We confirmed that the location is Nakhass Chowk, Kotwali Road, Miyan Baza, Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh, by verifying it through Google Maps Street View.
Factly had previously debunked the same video when it went viral with different claims. Read the fact-checks here, here.
To sum up, a 2019 anti-CAA protest video from Gorakhpur is falsely shared as a lathi charge on Waqf Bill protesters in March 2025.