Photo of a mob with sticks in hand is doing rounds on social media claiming that it is of a mob attack in Kerala. Let’s fact-check the claim made in the post.
Claim: Mob protesting with sticks in the streets of Kerala.
Fact: The photo was taken in 2013 during a protest in Dhaka demanding new blasphemy law. So the photo has nothing to do with any incident in Kerala. Hence the claim made in the post is FALSE.
When we subjected the photo to reverse image search technique, a tweet with that photo was found. The tweet was made by ‘Taslima Nasreen’ and she mentioned that the photo belonged to Bangladesh.
Taking it as a clue, when we searched using keywords, a similar photo of a mob holding sticks in their hands was found. As per the description, the photo is of a protest in Dhaka in 2013 demanding a new blasphemy law. When we looked for news reports about the protest, an article of ‘Daily Mail’ was found. In the article, it is mentioned that thousands of Islamists had taken to streets in Dhaka demanding new blasphemy law in the country. It was also reported that activists of ‘Hefajat-e-Islam’ group have blocked several roads in Dhaka during the protests.
With the above information, when we searched with keywords on ‘Alamy’ photo stock, a similar photo the one posted but taken from a different angle was found. Another similar photo taken from a different angle can be seen here.
‘The Quint’ has also debunked this claim earlier which can be read here.
To sum it up, photo captured during a protest in Bangladesh in 2013 is shared as the one from Kerala.
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