A set of social media posts accompanying videos of a mob vandalising buildings, trains, and railway tracks are being widely circulated with a claim that the visuals show Muslims vandalising these properties in Murshidabad, West Bengal as the sound of the train whistle is disturbing their prayers. Through this article let’s fact-check the claim made in the post.
Claim: Visuals of Muslims vandalising public properties in Murshidabad, West Bengal.
Fact: Couple of these visuals are old and do not show any recent incident. These videos were shared back in 2019 as protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA). One of these videos is related to a recent incident of fight between students of two colleges in Chennai. Hence the claim made in the post is FALSE.
Upon careful observation, we can spot ‘Naopara Mahishasur’ written on a wall. Taking a cue from this, a Facebook search with relevant keywords yielded a lengthier version of the same video. This video was posted in December 2019 and the post claims that the visuals show Noapara Mahisashur Railway Station.
Few other visuals related to mob vandalizing the same station can be seen here, here & here. We could not independently verify the time and context related to the video. However, there are reports of protesters vandalising Noapara Mahisashur Railway Station during the anti CAA protests. Also, there are reports of protesters vandalising multiple railway stations in Bengal during these protests (here, here & here)
These visuals are related to a fight that broke out between students of two different colleges in Tamil Nādu. Google search with relevant keywords yielded multiple news reports that reported these visuals (here, here & here). As per these reports, the visuals show the fight between students of Chennai Pachaiyappa College students & Presidency college. Multiple news articles also reported these visuals as a students fight in Chennai.
Further, there are reports of students from these two colleges fighting previously on several occasions. News reports related to these incidents can be read here & here.
These are old visuals and are available on the internet from at least 2019. A local news report shared the same video with the title ‘The railway line was removed at Naopara Mahishasur station’.
Although we could not independently the location and context related to the visuals, the presence of the visuals on the internet proves that these visuals do not show any recent incident.
To sum it up, old & unrelated videos are being shared as a recent incident of Muslim attack on railway properties in West Bengal.
