Manipur's Old Video of Cow Slaughter on BJP Flag Falsely Portrayed as Muslims Celebrating Congress' Victory in Karnataka Elections - FACTLY
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
May 17, 2023
A video depicting a group of individuals slaughtering a cow atop a BJP flag is circulating widely on social media, with a claim that it shows the visuals of Muslims celebrating the Congress party’s victory in the 2023 Karnataka assembly elections. Let’s verify the claim made in the post.
Claim: Video of Muslims celebrating the Congress party’s victory in the 2023 Karnataka assembly elections by slaughtering a cow on a BJP flag.
Fact: The incident captured in the video actually occurred in the Lilong area of Manipur state on 30 January 2022. This event was provoked when certain local leaders were denied BJP tickets for the 2022 Manipur assembly elections. Their followers, in response, initiated protests and acts of violence. This included the act of slaughtering a cow on a BJP flag and hurling abusive remarks towards the Chief Minister of Manipur and the state’s BJP president. In response to these actions, the police registered a case and arrested the three individuals responsible. Hence, the claim associated with the video is FALSE.
A reverse image search of the keyframes extracted from the viral video revealed that this video has been in circulation since January 2022 (Archived Link).
For more comprehensive information about this incident, we conducted an internet search and found related news articles from well known sources such as The Times of India, The Hindu, and the Imphal Free Press.
These reports confirm that during the candidate selection process for the 2022 Manipur Assembly elections, certain leaders and their followers resorted to agitation and violence when they were denied tickets by BJP. During this period, on 30 January 2022, in the Lilong area of Thoubal district, some individuals slaughtered a cow on a BJP flag and verbally abused the Chief Minister of Manipur N. Biren Singh and the BJP state president A. Sharda Devi. The individuals responsible, identified as Nazbul Hussain, Abdul Rashid, and Arif Khan, were subsequently apprehended by the police and charged under the relevant sections of the law. The FIR pertaining to this incident can be accessed here, and the current status of the court case can be viewed here (CNR No: MNTB020000542022).
Considering that the polling and declaration of results for the Karnataka assembly elections took place in May 2023, there is no direct correlation between the content of the viral video and the recent developments in Karnataka.
To sum it up, a video from January 2022, which documents an incident in Manipur, is being inaccurately depicted as a recent event following the Congress party’s victory in Karnataka.