New Delhi: A video has gone viral on Twitter, wrongly claiming that a Dalit man was dragged inside a mosque and brutally thrashed.
In the video, which has also been shared on Facebook, a group of people could be seen thrashing a person.
“Uttar Pradesh mein ek Dalit ko masjid k andar kheech kar le gaye aur maar maar kar adhmara kar diya (In Uttar Pradesh, a Dalit man was dragged inside a mosque and was almost beaten to death),” read the text accompanying the video, which was shared by a Twitter user named Shailendra Pratap, who describes himself as a Ram bhakt in his bio.
उत्तर प्रदेश में एक दलित को मस्जिद के अंदर खींच कर ले गए और मार-मार कर अधमरा कर दिया।#MobLynching @SudarshanNewsTV @SureshChavhanke @ZeeNewsHindi @sardanarohit @madhukishwar @abpnewstv pic.twitter.com/OrKc7WmD4L
— Shailendra शैलेन्द्र प्रताप ?? (@shailen_pratap) July 11, 2019
Activist Madhu Kishwar, news anchor Rohit Sardana, ABP News and Zee News were tagged in the tweet.
The video had over 17,000 views, more than 1,900 retweets and over 1,300 likes at the time of writing this report.
Delhi-based defence analyst Abhijit Iyer-Mitra is one of those who have shared the video on Twitter.
“There has been a steady stream of Muslim on Dalit violence for two years running. Why no coverage of this?” he posted.
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Fact check
The video was actually shot on 29 May in Hapur, Uttar Pradesh. The incident is from Karimpura area where an Urdu teacher of a madrasa, Sameer, was beaten up by a group of people when he had gone to offer namaz at the local mosque.
According to a police report filed by the victim’s younger brother, some people from Bulandshahr, who were also present in the mosque, had caught Sameer on the suspicion of stealing a mobile phone.
The report said Sameer was locked up in a room of the mosque and thrashed for over an hour. Yashveer Singh, Hapur’s Superintendent of Police, had said investigation would be carried out against the accused persons.
In collaboration with SM Hoaxslayer.
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There is a certain ease of doing business on display now when it comes to thrashing a young Muslim male. It is as if his rights as a citizen and a human being have been abridged, liberties can be taken with no fear of consequences. Muslims have been turning out in large numbers all over the country, not just in Malegaon, sending out a quiet, peaceful, entirely constitutional message. It would be wonderful if these cries of anger and anguish are heard and acted upon with a full sense of responsibility. The alternative is not worth thinking about.
‘Ashok’ or whatever is your real name, if you cared to read this selective story, it clearly indicated that victim (or thief) was beaten by people present in the mosque!