“Condition of Hindu girls in Pakistan’s Punjab province. See what happened when they reported…” is a message widely circulating on social media along with a video that shows a man brutally thrashing two women. Twitter user @shukla28 who describes himself as a BJP supporter was among those who shared the clip drawing 50,000 views. Another user who identifies as a PM Modi supporter retweeted @shukla28‘s tweet. Both tweets now stand deleted. However, several other users have shared it.
पाकिस्तान के सिंध प्रांत की इन हिन्दू लड़कियों की सिर्फ इतनी सी गलती है की इन्होंने अपने ऊपर हुए अत्याचार की पुलिस में रिपोर्ट लिखवा दी..!
किया यह video pakistan ki hai.. @aajtak @sardanarohit @PushpendraKul pic.twitter.com/I6kN6zjLc6— Sandeep singh Gurjar #indiasupportcaa (@ghurai_singh) February 11, 2020
Several people have used to video to make a case in favour of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA). The complete message reads, “In Pakistan’s Punjab, Muslim youth is torturing Hindu sister. You will be shocked that her only fault was that the Hindu sister went to the police station to report the torture. Modi ji is bringing in CAA for the safety of these sisters.”
[Translated from: #पाकिस्तान के पंजाब में हिन्दू बहन के साथ किस तरह अत्याचार कर रहें मुस्लिम युवक, आप देख कर हिल जाएंगे गलती शिर्फ इतनी सी हैं,#हिंदू बहन ने अपने ऊपर हो रहे अत्याचार की रिपोर्ट थाने क्यों की,#CAA मोदीजी इन जैसे बहनों की सुरक्षा के लिए ही लेकर आए हैं]
The video is viral on Facebook and Twitter.
VIDEO FROM JAMMU AND KASHMIR
Alt News broke the video into multiple keyframes and reverse-searched one of these on Yandex. This led us to a report by Gujarati media outlet Divya Bhaskar published on August 30, 2018. According to the article, the video was shot in Rajouri, Jammu and Kashmir. Based on these clues, we performed a keyword search on YouTube and were redirected to a June 21, 2018 video report by HW News. The broadcast includes a statement by Rajouri SSP Yugam Manhas who said that a mother-daughter duo was thrashed by a neighbour for an old dispute. The accused was a driver by profession and fled after the alleged crime. The police however, caught him in a village in Kathua.
J&K police had tweeted about the incident on June 21, 2018, and provided information of the arrest.
J&K Police of Rajouri district managed to arrest main accused wanted in the case of merciless beating of mother – daughter duo, a video of which is also viral on social media from a hideout in Kathua in Mahreen tehsil of Police Station Raj Bagh during the mid- night of today . pic.twitter.com/pFgiF5B1lT
— Police Media Centre Jammu (@ZPHQJammu) June 21, 2018
Therefore, a nearly two-year-old video of women thrashed in Jammu and Kashmir is viral with the false claim that it depicts mistreatment of Hindus in Pakistan. The video is circulating in the backdrop of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) that seeks to provide Indian citizenship to non-Muslim minorities from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan.
[This article was updated on February 13, 2020, to include the latest tweets. The title of the report has also been rectified from Kashmir to ‘J&K’.]
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