A video is being shared on social media claiming that it shows recent visuals of a teacher making Hindu students practise offering namaz in Uttar Pradesh. The post claims that the video is from a school in the Baghpat district of Uttar Pradesh. The video shows a group of uniformed female students kneeling and bowing down their heads in front of the teacher. Let’s verify the claim made in the post.
Claim: Video of a school teacher training her female Hindu students how to recite namaz in Baghpat, Uttar Pradesh.
Fact: The post shares an old video of students rehearsing a play or drama for a cultural event in the Hoshiyari Devi Girls Inter College in Rathoda village of the Baghpat district of Uttar Pradesh. The video shows an edited video clip that was taken while the teacher was preparing students for the cultural program. Baghpat police through a tweet clarified that the video is old and that it shows students rehearsing a play for a cultural program. Baghpat police in the tweet emphasized that the video does not show students reciting namaz. Hence, the claim made in the post is False.
On reverse image search of the screenshots in the video, a photo showing similar visuals was found in an article published by the ‘Amar Ujala’ news website on 30 May 2023. Sharing the picture, the ‘Amar Ujala’ reported that the news of students offering namaz attributed to a viral video on social media is not true. They reported that the viral video shows old visuals of students rehearsing a play for a cultural program at the Hoshiyari Devi Girls Inter College in Rathoda village of the Baghpat district of Uttar Pradesh.
Hoshiyari Devi Girls Inter College Principal Munesh Chowdary spoke to ‘Amar Ujala’ about the viral video and said that the video was shot in October 2022, while their students rehearsing a play ahead of a cultural event in the college. The viral video reportedly shows Hoshiyari Devi Girls College teacher Salma preparing students for the performance at the annual function. Munesh Chowdary confirmed to the media that the namaz recitation portion in the play was later removed and was not allowed to perform in the cultural event. Reporting the same, a few other news websites have also published articles and videos. They can be seen here and here.
On 28 May 2023, Baghpat Police issued a press note regarding the viral video. Baghpat Police clarified that the viral video is old and that the video shows students rehearsing a play for a cultural event in the college. The police also emphasized that the video does not show students reciting namaz and asked people not to spread misleading news that could disturb communal harmony in the region.
To sum it up, an old video of students rehearsing a play for a cultural program in Uttar Pradesh is shared now with a communal narrative.
