A video of a man dressed in a burqa caught by the police is being circulated on social media with varied claims. Some users claimed the men were throwing stones at police. Some others claimed they were BJP supporters. Examples can be found here, here and here.
Viral Last Year As Well
The video was widely shared in 2022 as well with a different claim. Naveen Kumar Jindal, the then media head of BJP Delhi, Prashant Umrao, spokesperson of BJP Uttar Pradesh, and Suchitra Pathak Kakkar, state social media chief of BJP Mahila Morcha UP, shared it among others. Kakkar claimed that the man was one of the protesters of the hijab ban caught in Karnataka.
The video is viral amidst the Hijab ban controversy that started at a PU college in Karanataka and has spread across the nation with various Hindu outfits demanding a ban on hijab within the campuses of educational institutions.
बुर्के का एक सच ये भी है… pic.twitter.com/OQcr2QorzQ
— Naveen Kumar Jindal 🇮🇳 (@naveenjindalbjp) February 20, 2022
हिजाब वह जादुई यंत्र है जो लड़की को लड़का बना देता है! pic.twitter.com/A15BMVowOa
— Prashant Umrao (@ippatel) February 20, 2022
ये तो अब्बा जब्बा डब्बा हो गया…
इधर बुर्का उतारोगे उधर लड़का निकलेगा…😆🤭
कर्नाटक में हिजाब के लिए प्रदर्शन करने वालों की गिरफ्तारी शुरू…#हिजाब_जिहाद pic.twitter.com/oGgSBgQXGp— Suchitra Pathak Kakkar (@suchitrakakkar_) February 20, 2022
On WhatsApp, the video is viral with a caption that suggests that those protesting against the hijab ban in Karnataka are mostly men. Alt News has received multiple requests on its official WhatsApp helpline number (+91 76000 11160) and on its official mobile application (Android, iOS) to verify the authenticity of the video.
Journalist Rakesh Krishnan Simha tweeted the video with the same claim as the one viral on WhatsApp.
When Karnataka Police started arresting burqa agitators, 40% turned out to be men. This festering problem needs to be ended by banning the hijab, niqab, burqa and other clothes that are used to hide one’s identity. And these cheats must be punished so such acts are not repeated. pic.twitter.com/bGgw5AB3oj
— Rakesh Krishnan Simha (@ByRakeshSimha) February 20, 2022
The video has also been shared on WhatsApp with another claim that says that male “terror groups” wearing burqa have been arrested in Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana for throwing stones at the police. It is also viral on Facebook with the same caption as the one shared by Prashant Umrao.
Old Video From Andhra Pradesh
We took the captions/claims on WhatsApp as a clue and performed a keyword search on Google. We found that the viral video is from 2020 when Andhra Pradesh police had arrested a few people including this burqa-clad man for smuggling alcohol.
A video report of this arrest can be found on the YouTube channel of ETV Andhra Pradesh. The description of the video reads that several people were arrested in Kurnool District for transferring illegal liquor under burqas.
The claim that 40% of the burqa-clad protestors arrested turned out to be men is also incorrect. We checked for various news reports but there were none talking about such arrests.
Alt News had previously debunked the video when it was viral with the claim that an RSS worker was caught dressed in a burqa and waving the Pakistani flag.
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