A video of authorities taking action against unregistered madrasas in Uttarakhand is falsely shared as that of U.P after the passage of Waqf Bill
The Waqf Amendment Bill was recently passed by both houses of India’s Parliament. The Lok Sabha approved the bill on 02 April 2025 after a nearly 12-hour debate, with 288 members voting in favour and 232 against. The Rajya Sabha subsequently passed the bill in the early hours of 04 April 2025 following a 12-hour discussion, with 128 votes in favour and 95 against. And on 05 April 2025, President Droupadi Murmu gave her assent to the Waqf Amendment Bill. Amid this, a video is circulating on social media (here, here, and here) with claims that the authorities have begun action against madrasas in Uttar Pradesh in the wake of the bill’s passage. Let’s verify the claim made in the post through this article.
Claim: The video shows authorities acting against madrasas in Uttar Pradesh following the passage of the Waqf Amendment Bill.
Fact: The video predates the Waqf Amendment Bill and is from Uttarakhand. It shows officials from Bhagwanpur inspecting unregistered madrasas as part of a local administrative drive. The police badge visible in the video belongs to the Uttarakhand Police, not the Uttar Pradesh Police. Multiple news reports confirm that the action was part of an ongoing campaign by the Uttarakhand administration to act against illegally operated madrasas and it has no connection to the Waqf Amendment Bill. Hence, the claim made in the post is MISLEADING.
A reverse image search of the keyframes from the viral video led us to the same video uploaded on 22 March 2025 by a Facebook page named Roorkee Haridwar Samachar. The caption of the video stated, “An investigation was conducted by the Bhagwanpur Tehsil administration into illegally operated madrassas.” This confirms that the viral video predates the passage of the Waqf Amendment Bill.
We also found another video uploaded on the same Facebook page on 22 March 2025, featuring the same officials seen in the viral video.
We noticed that the badge on the police officer’s uniform in the video reads “Uttarakhand Police.”
We also compared the police officer’s badge in the viral video with that of the Uttarakhand Police, which confirmed that the officer in the viral video is not from the Uttar Pradesh Police.
Taking clues from the post, we used relevant keywords and found a news report published by the DD News Uttarakhand YouTube channel on 26 March 2025, titled “Administration’s action against illegal madrasas continues in Haridwar.” At the 1:23 timestamp in the video, the same officials seen in the viral video can be identified.
We also found multiple news reports covering the incident (here, here, and here). According to these reports, the Uttarakhand administration had launched a campaign to seal unregistered madrasas operating in the state. Muslim organisations had also challenged this action in the Supreme Court.
To sum up, the video of authorities taking action against unregistered madrasas in Uttarakhand is falsely shared as that of U.P after the passage of Waqf Amendment Bill.