A video is being shared on social media with a claim that it shows Karnataka Police arresting burqa-clad pro-hijab protestors and surprisingly finding that 40 percent of them are boys in women’s attire. Let’s fact-check the claim made in the post.
Claim: Video of Karnataka Police arresting burqa-clad pro-hijab protestors and finding that 40 percent of them are boys in women’s attire.
Fact: The posted video is not related to the current hijab row in Karnataka. It is an old video. The visuals are related to an old protest by students against the National Education Policy. Also, the Karnataka Police has denied the viral claim. Hence the claim made in the post is FALSE.
When the screenshots of the video were run through Google Reverse Image Search, a news report with similar visuals was found in the search results. The video was posted in September 2021 with the title – “Bengaluru: Police resort to lathi-charge on students protesting against National Education Policy”. So, the video is not related to the current hijab row in Karnataka.
On searching with the keywords, many news reports regarding the incident in the video were found in the search results. Some of those news articles can be read here and here. In the ‘The Times of India’ article, the following has been reported – “Police resorted to mild lathi-charge after students protesting against National Education Policy (NEP) tried to break the barricade at Mysore bank circle and march towards Vidhana Soudha on Tuesday”. None of them reported that the Police found boys in women’s attire participating in the protest.
As the video went viral with a false claim, DGP Karnataka has tweeted that it is a ‘fake item’. Also, the ‘Bengaluru City Police’ has shared a fact-check debunking another video with a similar claim.
When the same video was shared previously as a video from Bengal, FACTLY has debunked it and written a fact-check article, which can be read here.
To sum it up, an old unrelated video is falsely shared as Karnataka Police arresting burqa-clad pro-hijab protestors and finding that 40 percent of them are boys in women’s attire.
