A video is currently circulating on social media that allegedly shows farmers attacking police officers with swords during the Delhi Chalo protest of 2024. Let’s fact-check this claim through this article.
Claim: The video shows farmers attacking police officers with swords during the Delhi Chalo farmers’ protest of 2024.
Fact: The video in question predates the Delhi Chalo farmers’ protest that commenced on 13 February 2024. The visuals are from a clash that occurred at a Gurudwara due to the removal of a portrait of Khalistani leader Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale. Hence, the claim made in the post is False.
To verify the claim, we performed a reverse image search on several keyframes from the video. This led us to a clearer version of the same video that was posted on Instagram (here and here) on 31 January 2024 (here and here). This reveals that the video is older than the 2024 Delhi Chalo farmers’ protest, which didn’t begin until 13 February 2024.
To dig deeper into the incident represented in the viral video, we sifted through the comments below the posts. We found a user’s comment, through which they identified this incident as a dispute in Taran Taran District. Using this information, we carried out a keyword search online, which led us to multiple news reports (here, here and here) about an event that occurred in Gurudwara Janam Asthan Baba Deep Singh, located in Pahuwind village in Tarn Taran district.
We verified that the visuals in these reports matched with the video in question. The following collage shows a side-by-side comparison of screen grabs from the viral video and a video we found in one of these news reports. You can see that the trunk of the car is open in both images; the attacker has long hair, and a man wearing a red turban can be seen pulling the attacker away from the car.
The reports indicated that a clash ensued after the Gurudwara’s managing committee president, Col Harsimran Singh (retd), removed a portrait of Khalistani leader Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale. After a video of Col Harsimran Singh (retd) removing Bhindranwale’s portrait went viral on social media, Sikh organisation leaders, led by Shiromani Akali Dal Amritsar’s Harpal Singh Bler, rushed to the Gurudwara. This eventually led to a clash between the supporters of the Retired Colonel and a few Sikh youths who attacked his car with sticks and swords.
To sum up, the claim that the viral video shows farmers attacking police officers with swords at the 2024 Delhi Chalo protest is false. The video predates the protest and represents a clash at a Gurudwara over the removal of a Khalistani leader’s portrait.
