A video of a few men hammering blows to the minarets of a structure that looks like a Mosque is being shared on social media alleging that the people of Karachi damaged a mosque for iron and bricks, so that they can sell the same for money. The recent economic crisis in Pakistan is being claimed as the reason behind people taking such extreme steps. Let’s verify the claim being made in the post.
Claim: Visuals of the people of Pakistan vandalising a mosque in Karachi for its iron and bricks.
Fact: The visuals of the viral post are from an incident that took place in Karachi, Pakistan. A few suspected members of the Pakistani group Tehreek-e-Labbaik vandalised an Ahmadi mosque in Saddar, Karachi. The mosque belongs to the Ahmadiyya community in Pakistan, who are considered heretics. Hence the claim made in the post is False.
To learn more about the viral video, we performed a keyword search on the internet, which led us to a few recent news articles (here, here and here) that contained the same visuals as the viral video. These news articles reported that a few suspected members of the Pakistani group Tehreek-e-Labbaik vandalised a Mosque in Karachi’s Saddar.
The mosques belong to a religious sect known as Ahmadiyyas, who face persecution in Pakistan. Reportedly, the community is considered heretics by the ‘hardline Muslim clerics.‘ Indian Express reported that there are around 2-5 Million Ahmadis in Pakistan. The viral post concocts a fake story around the video attributing the economic crisis of Pakistan as the cause for people vandalising the mosque.
To sum up, visuals of Pakistan’s Ahmadiyya mosques being vandalised are shared as Pakistanis destroying mosques for iron and bricks in the midst of an economic crisis.
