Communal tension has erupted in Nainital after a Muslim man was arrested for allegedly raping a minor girl. Amid this, a video (here, here and here) is going viral on social media, showing a street engulfed in flames with shops on fire and people attempting to evacuate and douse the blaze. It is being claimed that this incident shows Hindus vandalising and setting fire to Muslim-owned shops in Nainital, Uttarakhand. Let’s verify the truth behind this video.
Claim: The viral video shows Hindus setting fire to Muslims shops in Nainital, Uttarakhand.
Fact: The video actually depicts a fire that broke out in Moju Chowdhury’s market in Lakshmipur, Bangladesh, on 11 July 2024, resulting in the destruction of more than 15 shops. This incident is unrelated to the Nainital communal unrest, making the claim MISLEADING.
To verify the truth, we closely examined the video and noticed a shop signboard with the word “পাটওয়ারা” written in Bengali, suggesting the location could be in a Bengali-speaking region.
We then conducted a reverse image search on Google, which led us to the same video posted on Facebook. The caption, written in Bengali, reads: “You must be careful with gas cylinders. See what the situation is! The accident happened in a market in Narayanganj this afternoon. Remember, an accident is a lifetime’s cry.”
For further verification, we searched using relevant keywords on YouTube and found a report by Bangladeshi news channel Jago News, published on 11 July 2024. The video was titled, “Fire breaks out at Moju Chowdhury’s market in Lakshmipur, 15 shops burnt to ashes.” According to the report, the fire broke out at Moju Chowdhury’s Hat in Lakshmipur, Bangladesh, on 11 July 2024, and destroyed around 15 shops.
A side-by-side comparison of the viral video and the news report confirms that both videos show the same fire incident, which occurred in Bangladesh, not in Nainital, Uttarakhand.
Further research led us to reports from several Bangladeshi news outlets (here, here and here), which reported that a fire broke out in a market in Lakshmipur, Bangladesh, on the morning of 11 July 2024, gutting around 15 shops. According to local accounts, the fire started shortly after Fajr prayers. Although the fire service was alerted immediately, residents claimed that a delay in their response allowed the fire to spread rapidly. It reportedly took about an hour to bring the blaze under control. The cause of the fire remains unclear, and an investigation is underway to assess the damage.
Furthermore, Nainital Police also clarified on X that the viral video has no connection with the communal violence in Nainital.
Communal violence (here and here) erupted in Nainital after the arrest of a 75-year-old Muslim man for allegedly raping a minor girl, which led to vandalism of Muslim-owned shops, school closures, and protests. However, the viral video being circulated online has no connection to this incident, as it shows an unrelated fire incident in Bangladesh.
To sum up, a video showing a street engulfed in flames in Bangladesh is being falsely shared as footage from Nainital, Uttarakhand.
