The image of the bleeding man is from last year, when he was reportedly attacked by his wife and her lover.
New Delhi: A combination of images is being shared across social media platforms alleging attacks on a group of Hindu pilgrims by Muslims in Bhagalpur, Bihar. The images are accompanied by allegations of stone pelting and arson.
Several such posts on social media have received hundreds of shares on Twitter and Facebook.
बिहार के भागलपुर में शिवभक्तो पर #जिहादियो का जानलेवा हमला वहा के पिशाचो ने किया 50-60 लोग बुरी तरह जख्मी,शायद कुछ लोग मरे भी है
अब यह Political Game हैं, या जो भी
अब वही होगा जो होना चाहिए काल भैरव को बली चढाओ
पिछले साल मध्यप्रदेश और 2002 में जो गुजरात में इनके साथ किया वही करो pic.twitter.com/eUhlqZg26G— गीता हिंदुस्तानी ?? (@GeetaHindustani) August 1, 2018
On Facebook, the photos are being accompanied by videos of the assaults too. In one of the videos, a man, clearly recording the video, is also shouting “Allah hu Akbar”. The other video features sounds of “maar maar maar (beat him up)”. The post has been shared over 6,500 times.
बिहार के भागलपूर मे मुसलमानों ने #कावड़ शोभायात्रा पर पत्थर फेके और आग लगा दिया।
जिसमें कई शिव भक्त जिसमें घायल हुए#सेकुलर मीडिया पर खबर नहीं दिखा रहा है।?
न ही यह घटना #Mob_Lynching कहलाएगी..!!@sardanarohit @sudhirchaudhary @BDUTT @ravishndtv @timesofindia@abpnewstv pic.twitter.com/8KkaSSwo5R— शाखा परिवार (@sakhaparivar) July 31, 2018
However, all these snippets, both photos and video, are old and have been floating online for a long time. No incident of violence has been reported from Bhagalpur so far. The forwards are in no way connected to any incident of assault in the city.
https://twitter.com/sanjugupta1987/status/1024916577559273472
The photo of the man pictured here is from an old article first published in news daily ‘Royal Bulletin’ published in September 2017. He was reportedly attacked by his wife and her lover.
The photo of the bleeding woman was shared on Google+ in a post from April this year. Further, the photos of people lying crushed on the roads are from an accident in May, shows an Amar Ujala report.
Keeping in with the trend of fake forwards, all the tweets are actually from separate instances reported over time in different places.
However, with several reported cases of mob lynchings across the country in the past few months, these fake viral forwards run the risk of fueling further violence.
This article is written in collaboration with SM Hoaxslayer.