A video of a man violently hitting children with a stick is spreading on social media. The video is accompanied by communal claims that it is from DPS School in Valsad, Gujarat and that the man shown in the video, identified as Shakeel Ahmed Ansari, is a teacher who is beating the children (here & here). Through this article let’s fact-check the claim made in the post.
Claim: Video depicting a Muslim teacher in Gujarat hitting children.
Fact: The incident depicted in the video occurred in Egypt in 2014. The man shown is the head of an orphanage who repeatedly abused the children. His wife recorded the abuse and posted it online. As a result, he was later sentenced to prison by a court. Hence the claim made in the post is FALSE.
The video does show a real incident of a man assaulting children, but it is an old event and is not related to India. A reverse image search of screenshots from the viral video revealed several news reports from 2014 that shared the same footage.
According to these reports, the incident took place in Cairo, Egypt. The man in the video has been identified as Osama Mohammed Othman, the head of an orphanage called Dar Mecca Al-Mokarama. The footage of the abuse at the Mecca Orphanage in Giza was recorded by Othman’s estranged wife, who shared it online. She stated, ‘He used to beat the children, so I filmed him and posted it online to expose him.’
After the video went viral, it provoked such a strong reaction that Egypt’s President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi intervened and ordered action against the man. As a result, Othman was arrested and charged with assault, forced child labour, and violating child protection laws.
As a result, a court in Egypt has sentenced Othman to three years in prison for assaulting seven children in his care and putting their lives at risk. Additional news reports on the incident can be found here and here. These reports confirm that the event depicted in the viral video is not related to India.
To sum up, a video of child abuse at an orphanage in Egypt is being circulated with misleading communal claims.
