Following the passage of the Waqf (Amendment) Act, 2025 in the first week of April, Muslims have been protesting against the newly enacted law across the country, including in West Bengal (here, here, and here). According to news reports (here, here), on 11 April 2025, these protests turned violent in Murshidabad district, West Bengal, resulting in Violence and riots. Reports (here, here, and here) indicate that three people lost their lives in the violence: two Hindus, Chandan Das and Hargobind Das, were killed in a mob attack, while a Muslim man died in police firing. According to reports, hundreds of people (mostly Hindus) affected by the violence in Murshidabad district crossed the Bhagirathi River and sought refuge in the adjoining Malda district (here, here, and here). On 12 April 2025, the Calcutta High Court ordered the deployment of central forces to restore peace and order in the district (here, here). Amidst this unrest, a video (here, here, and here) showing a large number of Muslim men travelling in trucks has gone viral on social media platforms. The accompanying claims allege that these individuals had arrived from other areas in trucks to participate in the communal violence in Murshidabad. In this article, let us fact-check the claims made in these posts.
Claim: Video shows Muslims arriving in trucks to participate in the communal violence in Murshidabad, West Bengal.
Fact: This viral video has no connection to the recent violence in Murshidabad. It is actually from Bhopal and shows Muslims heading to an Islamic congregation held from 29 November to 2 December 2024 at Ghasipura, about 14 km from Bhopal in Madhya Pradesh. Reports state that during the violence in Murshidabad, two Hindus, Chandan Das and Hargobind Das, were killed in a mob attack, while a Muslim man died in police firing. According to reports, hundreds of people, mostly Hindus, affected by the violence in Murshidabad district crossed the Bhagirathi River and sought refuge in the neighbouring Malda district. Hence the claim made in the post is MISLEADING.
To gather more details about this viral video, we conducted a Google reverse image search using frames from the video. This search led us to a video uploaded on YouTube on 26 December 2024. In this video, we can clearly see a watermark of an Instagram account named ‘@Abid.sheik.315’. From this, it is evident that the video is not related to the recent communal violence in Murshidabad, West Bengal, which took place in April 2025, as the video has been on social media since at least 26 December 2024.
Following this lead, we discovered that the same video (archived) had been posted on the Instagram page ‘@Abid.sheik.315’ on 3 December 2024.
We then reviewed this Instagram account and found several other similar videos featuring large numbers of people wearing skull caps, travelling in trucks. One (archived) of these videos mentions that it is from Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, and features the numbers 29, 30, 1, 2, 2024 (possibly indicating dates).
Based on this, we conducted a relevant keyword search and discovered that the 77th Aalmi Tablighi Ijtema, an Islamic congregation organised by the Tablighi Jamaat, was held at Ghasipura, which is about 14 km from Bhopal, the capital of Madhya Pradesh, from 29 November 2024 to 2 December 2024 (here, here).
We also geolocated the location shown in the viral video using Google Maps. The location in the video is near Ganesh Mandir, Chola Naka, JP Nagar, Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh. A comparison between the viral video and the location on Google Maps is shown below.
Based on all this information, we can conclude that the viral video depicts a large number of Muslims in trucks heading to the 77th Aalmi Tablighi Ijtema, an Islamic congregation held by the Tablighi Jamaat in Bhopal from 29 November 2024 to 2 December 2024.
To sum it up, a video from Bhopal is being shared, linking it to the recent violence in Murshidabad.
