A video (here, here, and here) allegedly showing Uttar Pradesh police officers attacking people protesting on a road is doing the rounds on social media. The visuals depict a crowd being confronted by security forces, accompanied by explosions and smoke. We fact-check this claim through this article.
Claim: The viral video shows UP police crackdown on protestors in Uttar Pradesh.
Fact: The viral video is from a mock drill held in Bokaro, Jharkhand, not related to any real protest in Uttar Pradesh. Hence, the claim made in the post is False.
While verifying the veracity of the viral claim, we found a comment made by a user on ‘X’ in response to a post stating that the video shows a mock drill held in Bokaro, Jharkhand. We can hear people raise slogans related to Jharkhand in the viral video at around the 7-second timestamp.
To verify this further, we first ran a keyword search on the internet. This led us to a YouTube video uploaded on 28 September 2025, showing the same location, security personnel, and participants. This video labels itself as a police mock drill conducted in Bokaro’s Ritudih (Reditih) area.
The visuals seen in the viral video, where police personnel are seen throwing smoke bombs or tear gas at people, can be seen from the 1-minute mark. During this search, we found social media posts featuring similar videos (here, here, and here), which described it as a mock drill event held in Bokaro, Jharkhand.
Furthermore, we conducted a keyword search and found a few news reports (here, here, and here) from September 2025 on a mock drill reportedly conducted by the Bokaro city police prior to the Durga Puja.
Additionally, we located the site where the viral video was shot using Google Maps. It was filmed on NH 320, in front of ‘Sri Sri Sarwajanik Durga Mandir’ located in Ritudih, Sonatad, Bokaro, Jharkhand. This makes it clear that this video has nothing to do with Uttar Pradesh.
Furthermore, we also found a post on the official X account of the Bokaro Police, dated 27 September 2025, about the mock drill conducted in the Parade Ground and Ritudih zones ahead of Dussehra. The visuals in that post match the viral clip.
To sum up, a video of a mock drill in Jharkhand is falsely shared as a police crackdown on protestors in Uttar Pradesh.
