A photo collage comparing two images through a post is being widely shared on social media claiming that it shows the spurt in Muslim population as seen in the photos of Nainital from 2010, and 2022. Let us fact-check the claim made in the post.
Claim: Photo collage showing spurt in Muslim population from 2010 to 2022 in Nainital.
Fact: The upper image is from Upper Mall Road in Nainital. The lower image is however from ‘Bishwa Ijtema’, world’s second largest Muslim gathering, that occurs in Bangladesh annually. Therefore, this is an erroneous comparison of images from two different places. Hence, the claim made in the post is FALSE.
When reverse image search is done on the supposed 2010 image from Nainital, the same image was found to be of Upper Mall Road in Nainital. According to the metadata, the image was taken in June 2019.
There is a name plate ‘Alka’ in the viral image. Upon searching on google about Alka in Upper Mall Road, Nainital, Alka hotel was found in that location. The image of a Domino’s Pizza outlet beside the hotel also shows a similar image of ‘Alka’.
Similar reverse image search was done on the supposed 2022 image of Nainital. The same image was found in a 2018 article about a gathering in Bangladesh. The image is from ‘Bishwa Ijtema’, world’s second largest Muslim gathering that occur annually on the banks of Turag River. It is a collective prayer which is performed about 35km from Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh. Hence, the image is not from Nainital.
To sum it up, image from Nainital is erroneously compared with an image from Bangladesh.
