Old images shared as people killed in Bengaluru police firing during protests against Nupur Sharma’s comments on Prophet Muhammad - FACTLY
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
June 14, 2022
A photo through a post is being widely shared on social media claiming that the images show people who died in police firing in protests in Bengaluru, after Nupur Sharma’s comments on Prophet Muhammad. Let us fact-check the claim made in the post.
Claim: Images showing three Muslims killed in Bengaluru police firing when they were protesting Nupur Sharma’s statements on Prophet Muhammad.
Fact: The images are from a 2020 incident in Bengaluru; and not a recent one. In August 2020, a large Muslim crowd protested an alleged blasphemous Facebook post insulting Prophet Muhammad made by a local politician in Bengaluru. As the mob set fire to vehicles and attacked policemen, the police fired on the crowds; hence killing three and injuring several others. There are no recent reports of police firing in Bengaluru when during protests against Nupur Sharma’s statements. Hence, the claim made in the post is MISLEADING.
When reverse image search is done on the photo with relevant keywords, the same images were found posted on Facebook and Twitter, at least since August 2020. Those posts claim that the three people killed were part of the protests that happened in Bengaluru in August 2020. So, the images are old, and have nothing to do with the recent comments by Nupur Sharma on Prophet Muhammad. Other posts from 2020 carrying the same images can be seen here and here.
When we searched in google with relevant keywords, we found several articles regarding the incident in 2020. A large Muslim crowd protested an alleged blasphemous Facebook post insulting Prophet Muhammad made by a local politician in Bengaluru. As the mob set fire to vehicles and attacked policemen, the police fired on the crowds; hence killing three and injuring several others. The violence started after a huge crowd was amassed outside the politician’s house, as well as a police station in Bengaluru. However, the relatives of the three people killed said that they were just bystanders caught in the crossfire.
To sum it up, old images are shared as people killed in Bengaluru police firing during protests against Nupur Sharma’s comments on Prophet Muhammad.