A video of a man in traditional Islamic attire speaking about RSS, BJP and Marathas is being shared on social media, identifying him as the Chief Secretary of the Taliban. It is being claimed that he said that no country would attack India till the BJP was in power and that the BJP and RSS are the most powerful. Further, it mentions the Taliban Chief to have said that in order to attack India, the BJP should be eliminated. Let’s fact-check this claim through this article.
Claim: The viral video shows the Chief Secretary of the Taliban praising BJP and RSS.
Fact: This video is a small portion of a clip that was recorded on 01 March 2019. The person featured in it is Khalid Mehmood Abbasi. Khalid is an Islamic preacher based in Islamabad, Pakistan. He worked with Tanzeem-e-Islami for 30 years, left Tanzeem-e-Islami in 2018 and founded Shubban-ul-Muslimeen. He is currently working in Shubban-ul-Muslimeen. We have not found any information that these organisations are related to the Taliban. We also did not find any news articles about the Taliban saying that RSS and BJP are the most powerful. Hence, the claim made in the post is False.
A keyword search on the internet to find more about the viral clip led us to a video with the same visuals. This YouTube video was uploaded on 03 August 2021, but the video appears to have been recorded on 01 March 2019. The YouTube video appears clipped at the 0.53 timestamp until 3:31 to create the viral video. The title of the video shows that Khalid Mehmood Abbasi is in the video.
According to Khalid’s official Facebook page, Khalid is an Islamic preacher based in Islamabad, Pakistan. He worked with Tanzeem-e-Islami for 30 years, left Tanzeem-e-Islami in 2018, and was instrumental in founding Shubban-ul-Muslimeen (check the description of this video). He is currently working in Shubban-ul-Muslimeen. We did not find any information online that proves these organisations are related to the Taliban.
In this video, it is seen that the ideas, policies, and power capabilities of RSS and other close organisations (Sangh Parivar) in India are mentioned. Contrary to the viral claim, Abbasi does not say that no country would attack India while the BJP is in power. He said that Congress is a secular government. But nowhere in the video does he say that in order to attack India, the BJP must first be removed from power.
Additionally, we also found that Abbasi spoke to “The Quint” in this regard in September 2021, where he denied any alliance with the Taliban. The Quint quoted him as “This is a completely false statement, that I am the chief secretary of Taliban. The Taliban has come to power in Afghanistan now, but part of the clip has been taken out from the video which is about 1.5 years old. I have no links with the Taliban or any political party.”
Finally, a video made by a Pakistani Islamic preacher in 2019 is being shared as Taliban’s comments on RSS and BJP.
