A set of photographs of arms seized by the police has been shared on social media. One of the pictures also shows Muslim men standing in a queue behind policemen. It has been claimed that the images are from a madrasa in UP’s Bijnor.
बिजनौर मदरसे से प्राप्त पुस्तकें एवं पीछे खड़े शिक्षकगण । 😐 pic.twitter.com/0NnsvCvIt5
— रंजन गोगई 🇮🇳 (@THEGOGAI) July 24, 2021
बिजनौर मदरसे से प्राप्त पुस्तकें एवं पीछे खड़े शिक्षकगण । 😐 pic.twitter.com/eVg12PW0oH
— Captain Bihar (@Cpt_Atharva) July 23, 2021
The images are also massively widespread on Facebook.
The same set of photos was shared last year with the claim, “Thousands of guns seized from a madrasa in Bijnor, UP. A stockpile of swords and ammunition was also recovered. The director of the madrasa, along with six others was arrested. They were planning a massive conspiracy to riot. They forgot that Bijnor is in UP and the CM is Yogi. Now there are calls to shut down all madrasas. No one will be spared.”
बिजनौर, यूपी के एक मदरसे से बरामद हजारों गन, तलवारों समेत हथियारों का जखीरा। मदरसे के संचालक समेत 6 लोग गिरेफ्तार। बड़े पैमाने पर दंगा कराने की साजिश थी। भूल गए कि बिजनौर यूपी में है और सीएम हैं योगी। अब सभी मदरसों को बंद करने की मांग उठने लगी है। कोई नहीं बचेगा। pic.twitter.com/Bv6DE51tUN
— kuldeep kharb (@kharb34) November 8, 2020
It was also being shared on Twitter.
बिजनौर, यूपी के एक मदरसे से बरामद हजारों गन, तलवारों समेत हथियारों का जखीरा। मदरसे के संचालक समेत 6 लोग गिरेफ्तार। बड़े पैमाने पर दंगा कराने की साजिश थी। भूल गए कि बिजनौर यूपी में है और सीएम हैं योगी। अब सभी मदरसों को बंद करने की मांग उठने लगी है। कोई नहीं बचेगा। pic.twitter.com/vhnFsJENae
— P.N.Rai (@PNRai1) November 8, 2020
They were also shared in 2019. Below is a post from Facebook page I Support Arnab Goswami.
Old incident, unrelated images
The claim that weapons were recovered from a mosque in Bijnor, UP is reportedly true but the incident took place in 2019. According to The Times of India, “Police had raided Madrasa Darul Quran Hameediya on Wednesday (July 10, 2019) after a tip-off and recovered five illegal arms, including a pistol of .32 bore with two magazines with 8 cartridges, one tamancha (country-made pistol) of .32 bore with 16 cartridges and three tamanchas of .315 bore with 16 cartridges and a car from the spot.”
However, out of the four viral pictures, only one pertains to this incident.
According to Bijnor police, the weapons seized were part of an illegal arms racket. Six people were arrested in this case which dates back to July 2019.
थाना शेरकोट @bijnorpolice द्वारा मदरसे में अवैध शस्त्रों की तस्करी करते 06 अभियुक्तगण 01 पिस्टल, 04 तमंचे व भारी मात्रा में कारतूसों सहित गिरफ्तार। #uppolice @Uppolice @adgzonebareilly @digmoradabad @News18India pic.twitter.com/WDj3kkBfIu
— Bijnor Police (@bijnorpolice) July 11, 2019
PHOTO 2
Alt News reverse-searched the above image on Google and found a post on Tumblr with this photograph dated March 2019. Since this image is available on the internet prior to the arrest, it cannot be representative of the arrest.
PHOTO 3
Alt News reverse-searched the above picture and found a tweet by Shamli (UP) police which carried this photograph. According to the tweet, the photograph is representative of arrests which took place after a raid at a madrasa, in which forged documents, along with foreign currency and mobile phones were seized. The incident is of July 2019.
शामली पुलिस ने 04 विदेशियों व तीन विभिन्न मदरसों से संबंधित 03 नफर मोहतमिम/मदरसा संचालक समेंत 07 संदिग्ध किये गिरफ्तार,नाजायज दस्तावेज,देशी-विदेशी मुद्रा समेत कई मोबाईल फोन बरामद। @Uppolice @policenewsup @adgzonemeerut @digsaharanpur pic.twitter.com/BeCYFbbZi3
— Shamli Police (@shamlipolice) July 29, 2019
PHOTO 4
The above photo is from Gujarat’s Rajkot, but these swords were recovered not from a madrasa but from a hotel on the Ahmedabad-Rajkot highway. Alt News’ earlier fact-check on this may be read here.
Alt News was unable to find credible information about one of the images.
Unrelated images were shared with a picture of the accused arrested during a raid in a madrasa by UP police last year. The other photographs of guns and ammunition exaggerate the number of weapons seized.
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