Mock drill video shared as visuals of Maharashtra police arresting terrorists in Amaravati - FACTLY
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
October 29, 2021
A video is being shared on social media claiming it as the visuals of police arresting two terrorists in Amaravati, Maharashtra. This post claims that two terrorists were carrying a bomb in a bus and police conducted a special operation to arrest them. Let’s verify the claim made in the post.
Claim: Video of police arresting two terrorists in Amaravati, Maharashtra.
Fact: This video shows a mock drill conducted at the Paratwada bus stand in Amaravati, Maharashtra. Maharashtra QRT squad and Bomb disposal squad conducted this mock drill on how to apprehend terrorists if they hijacked a bus. Hence, the claim made in the post is FALSE
On reverse image search of the screenshots in the video, similar visuals were found in a video published by a YouTube channel on 14 October 2021. This video reported it as the visuals of Maharashtra police administration and bomb disposal squads jointly demonstrating a mock drill at the Paratwada bus stand in Amaravati, Maharashtra. Sharing the same video, several YouTube channels reported it as the mock drill conducted by the Maharashtra QRT team in the Paratwada bus depot. They can be seen here and here.
The ‘Vidarbh Prabhat’ news channel had published an extended version of this video on 14 October 2021. This mock drill was reportedly conducted to understand how to apprehend terrorists if they hijack a passenger bus moving from Paratwada to Amaravati. SHO Sandanand Mankar and the QRT squad conducted this mock drill at the Paratwada bus stand in Amaravati district, Maharashtra. Reporting the same, the Amaravati City News YouTube channel had published the same video on 15 October 2021. In July 2021, the QRT, Anti-terrorist, and Bomb squads have conducted a similar mock drill at the Amaravati bus stand.
When ‘The Quint’ contacted SHO Sadanand Mankar for more details regarding this mock drill, Sadanand Mankar clarified that the video shows a mock drill conducted on 14 October 2021. Sadanand Mankar said, “We told bystanders about it and later we went around the town in our police vehicle announcing the same. We do it every once in a while to spread awareness about how people should behave in such scenarios”.
To sum it up, a mock drill video falsely shared as the visuals of police arresting two terrorists in Amaravati