Viral video of armed civilians chasing a buffalo is from Pakistan

A video of a group of people chasing a buffalo with advanced weapons like rifles, and pistols is gaining a lot of traction on social media. In the video, it can be seen that people are firing several rounds at the animal.

The video is viral with the claim that it is from India. It is further insinuated that the people attacking the buffalo are Muslims. Some users have also urged the Hindu community to purchase arms. They are cautioning people that if Muslims can bring out so many weapons just for one animal, a battle over religion will be even more violent.

Facebook page Gomata Gau Seva Trust shared the video and wrote, “If so many weapons are brought out for a single animal, imagine what will happen when the battle is over religion. Forget your mobile phone and definitely keep one weapon in the house. No matter where this video was taken, these people are Shantidoots (a pejorative term for Muslims). Just think, if Hindus do not unite after watching this video, then this condition is not too far away. Declare India a Hindu Rashtra soon.”

A user named Pawan Saxena tweeted the video with the same message.

एक जानवर को मारने के लिए इतने हथियार निकले हैं सोचो…

इसलिए मोबाइल फोन को छोड़ कर के घर में अपनी सुरक्षा के कुछ जरूर रखें 🇮🇳🙋‍♂ pic.twitter.com/bOcoaqFJuS

— 𝑷𝒂𝒘𝒂𝒏 𝑺𝒂𝒙𝒆𝒏𝒂 (@RealPawanSaxena) July 25, 2021

One Uma Shankar Rajput also amplified the clip on Twitter. (Archived link)

Twitter user Sunil Singh also promoted the video. (Archived link)

This footage is widely circulating on Twitter and Facebook.

Fact-check

In the video, people can be heard speaking Hindi/ Urdu. We suspected the video is from Pakistan because civilian ownership of firearms is regulated in India, and some people in the video also seem to be carrying semi-automatic guns which is improbable for the general population in India to own.

Alt News performed a keyword search and found a July 22 report by Gulf News. It included the same viral video. According to this report, the incident occurred near the Karachi University Housing Society.

A buffalo was brought to be slaughtered on the occasion of Eid. However, it fled and went on a rampage. Subsequently, those present at the scene began firing at the animal. As per the report, the Karachi Police took cognisance of the incident and filed a case under “Prevention of cruelty to animals Act-1890”.

We performed another search using relevant keywords and came across reports by Pakistani media outlets Dawn and Sama TV. According to these reports, a local court granted bail to the eight accused in the case on a surety bond of Rs 10,000.

To sum it up, Indian social media users circulated a video of animal cruelty from Pakistan’s Karachi with a misleading claim. The video was shared using provocative captions against the Muslim community in India.