A video featuring a temple with a meat store inside is being shared on social media (here, here, and here) with the claim that “In Wayanad, Kerala, Rahul Gandhi, and Priyanka Vadra had registered the occupation of Muslims on Shri Sitaram Temple four years ago. Now the congress Brahmin Kshatriyas must have become happy. Everyone should vote for BJP only.” Let’s verify the claim made in the post.
Claim: Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi helped Muslims encroach Shri Ram temple and establish a meat store within the temple premises in Wayanad, Kerala.
Fact: The video shows ‘Sitaram Temple’ located in Ahmadpur Sial, Pakistan. This temple was built a century ago and is of historical and cultural significance. Locals were outraged after a video of this place went viral showing the conversion of the historic Sitaram Temple in Ahmadpur Sial into a meat store. It has nothing to do with Kerala or India. Hence, the claim made in the post is MISLEADING.
On conducting a reverse image search using the keyframes of the video, we found that a Pakistani news channel shared a video in 2022, calling the building the ‘Sitaram Temple’ in Ahmadpur Sial. They mentioned that the temple, existing before Pakistan’s independence, has decayed due to neglect.
On further search, we found news reports (here, here, and here) featuring the image of the temple. As per these reports, this temple was built a century ago and is of historical and cultural significance. The reports also mentioned that locals were outraged after a video of this place went viral showing the conversion of the historic Sitaram Temple in Ahmadpur Sial into a meat store. They highlighted that the video illustrates the challenges faced by minorities in Pakistan.
Taking clues from these reports, we searched Google Maps for this location and found identical images of the temple. A comparison between the Image on Google Maps and the viral video can be seen below.
To sum up, video of a temple turned into a Meat Store in Pakistan is shared as being from Wayanad, Kerala
