A video of a huge gathering is being shared on social media with a claim that it allegedly shows a protest held by Muslims in Rajasthan. This is being shared in the context of the protests held by the Muslim community in Jaipur against the killing of Asgar Abbas Ali, who lost his life in the Jaipur Express train killings. Let’s verify this claim through this post.
Claim: This video shows a recent protest held by Muslims in Rajasthan.
Fact: This video has existed on the internet atleast since June 2023, before the recent (August 2023) protests in Jaipur, Rajasthan. Hence the claim made in the post is False.
We performed a reverse image search on some of the viral video’s keyframes to learn more about it. This search led us to a tweet from 11 June 2023 made by a user named Asaad Fakharuddin. The post’s description in Urdu translates to ‘…Today, after 10 years, Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh got permission for Open Gathering. …It seems that the whole of Dhaka has come alive today. 🩶 This is not just a video but scenes after decades of sacrifices Allahu Akbar.’
A quick Google search revealed that Jamaat-e-Islami is a Bangladeshi political party that was banned from contesting in elections in 2013. Reportedly, the party held a rally in Dakha (also said in Asaad Fakharuddin’s tweet) after taking permission from Dakha Metropolitan Police(DMP).
None of the news reports (here and here) that covered this contains the viral video, which is being claimed as a video that shows a recent protest (here and here) held in Rajasthan against the death of Asgar Abbas Ali in the Mumbai-Jaipur Superfast Express train. The killing incident took place on 31 July 2023, and the protests were held this month, i.e. August 2023.
Though we could not independently verify the location and the context behind the viral video, since it has existed on the Internet at least since June 2023, it can be concluded that the viral video is not related to these protests.
To sum up, this video is being misquoted on social media as the visuals of the recent Rajasthan protests.
