Old video from Pak falsely viral as Taliban chief secy praising BJP, RSS

A video of a Muslim man commenting on Maratha rulers, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and Indian politics is viral with the claim that the video shows the Taliban admitting BJP and RSS are more powerful than them. In the video, we hear the man praising Maratha rules.

Twitter user @mini_razdan10 shared this video in the form of a tweet thread. Multiple Twitter users have shared this video.

Taliban explaining what RSS is. Very Intersting video.

1/N pic.twitter.com/LCrOBx5zwJ

— Mini Razdan (@mini_razdan10) September 12, 2021

Similarly, a longer version of the video was shared on Facebook by many users including the FB page ‘Zee news fans club‘ that gained over one lakh views. The page claimed that the man is the Taliban chief secretary.

It’s been widely circulated on WhatsApp and Alt News has received several requests to fact-check this claim on our WhatsApp helpline number (+91 76000 11160). The viral video is shared with English and Hindi texts on WhatsApp. The English message also claims that the man is the chief secretary of the Taliban.

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[Hindi text: तालिबान ने यह स्वीकार किया कि भारत में RSS और BJP ज्यादा ताकतवर है जब भारत में BJP रहेगी कोई देश हमला नही कर सकता अगर भारत पर हमला करना हैं तौ पहले Bjp हटाओ इस विडियो को देखिए कि तालिबान के मुख्य सचिव ने क्या कहा… गर्व होता हैं RSS पर……… पूरा विडिओ सूने जरूर..।।।]

FACT-CHECK

The video has a logo on the top right that says Nwaa Studio. Alt News performed a keyword search and found the viral video on the YouTube channel Nwaa Studios. It was uploaded on August 6, 2020. However, the date stamp on the video says 2019.

As per the title, the man in the video is Pakistan-based scholar Khalid Mehmood Abbasi. Abbasi also has his YouTube channel.

Alt News watched the entire video and Abbasi hasn’t mentioned the Taliban let alone admitting India is stronger under RSS and BJP. Social media users have uploaded segments from this video selectively to make it appear that Abbasi is praising India. However that is not the case, at the 4:40 mark, Abbasi called RSS semi-militant and at the 7:45 mark, he said that Narendra Modi is a declared terrorist.

Speaking to The Quint, Abbasi confirmed, “This is a completely false statement, that I am the chief secretary of Taliban. The Taliban has come to power in Afghanistan now, but part of the clip has been taken out from the video which is about 1.5 years old. I have no links with the Taliban or any political party.”

At least a one-year-old video uploaded by a Pakistan-based YouTube channel was shared with the false claim that the Taliban chief secretary praised RSS and BJP.