Video from Pakistan shared to falsely depict Indian police brutality on Kashmiris

A video where masked men wearing black coloured t-shirts that says ‘police’ are charging at women is viral on Facebook with the claim that these were Bajrang Dal, RSS, VHP and Shiv Sena goons disguised as army men and assaulting Kashmiris.

The complete message shared the video reads, “फौजी वर्दी मे बजरंग दल और आर ऐस ऐस के भघवा गुन्‍डे जो कशमीर की बेटियो की ईज्‍जत लुटने गये थे आज मारेगये 170 भघवा गुन्‍डो की लासे मीली है । 3 लाख भघवा गुन्‍डो को नरेन्द्र मोदी ने कशमीर भेजा है जीसमे शिव सेना । बजरंग दल । आर ऐस ऐस । वी ऐच पी । के गुन्‍डे सामील है.” It has been widely circulated on Facebook.

The same video is also making rounds on Twitter, however, with a slightly changed narrative. One Zarina Bano has tweeted the video with an accompanying caption which asks, “who are these policemen in Kashmir who’ve masked their faces and are beating women and children?”

कश्मीर में ये कौन सी पुलिस है, जो चेहरों को छुपा कर बच्चे और औरतों को मार रही है ?
क्या देश आज इतना क्रूर हो गया है ?

मुस्लिमों से नफरत के चक्कर में इतना भी न गिरो देशवासियों… कि इंसानियत को शर्मसार होना पड़े।

सरकार तो अपने पूंजीपति दोस्तों के लिऐ ऐसा घिनौना पाप कर रही है। pic.twitter.com/mKlGZq3Evw

— Zarina Bano (@ZarinaBano_) August 25, 2019

This is the entire text of her tweet in Hindi – “कश्मीर में ये कौन सी पुलिस है, जो चेहरों को छुपा कर बच्चे और औरतों को मार रही है ? क्या देश आज इतना क्रूर हो गया है ? मुस्लिमों से नफरत के चक्कर में इतना भी न गिरो देशवासियों… कि इंसानियत को शर्मसार होना पड़े। सरकार तो अपने पूंजीपति दोस्तों के लिऐ ऐसा घिनौना पाप कर रही है।”

Old video from Sindh, Pakistan

Several clues in the video raise doubts about social media claims. First, the purported policemen are not dressed in Indian army fatigue. Second, it is unusual that the police have masked their faces. Third, the men, although carrying lathis, are not hitting the women and children. There is some light pushing on both sides and a lot of wailing by the women. However, there is no real violence in the video.

Suspecting that the clip is from Pakistan, Alt News began looking for it with names of different provinces of the country. Subsequently, we found a tweet by Sindh police which carried a news broadcast according to which, the video represents a group of people imitating the Sindh police by pretend-terrorising people. The tweet is from May 11, 2019.

Few Days back a video was made viral on Social media in which People in police uniform were shown torturing women while raiding a house.This video proved fake and it was designed to malign Sindh Police in general and Jamshoro Police in particular.#Sindhpolicedmc pic.twitter.com/QbQAY2CqKF

— Sindh Police (@sindhpolicedmc) May 11, 2019

The news broadcast further said that the police termed the video a “drama” and arrested five people, including four police personnel, for maligning Sindh and Jamshoro Police.

The case was also reported by Pakistani newspaper Dawn according to which, “The SSP said that in the investigation into the matter, four of the uniformed suspects turned out to be policemen and the other four impersonators.”

Sindh police had made another tweet which reiterated that the video was “fake.”

سوشل میڈیا پر پولیس کے خواتین پر تشدد کی وڈیو وائرل ہونے کا معاملہ۔
ایس ایس پی جامشورو توقیرمحمد نعیم نے معاملے کی تردید کردی۔
جامشورو پولیس کے خلاف غلط افواہیں پہلائی جارہی ہیں, ضلع جامشورو کی پولیس ایسا کوئی عمل نہیں کرسکتی۔ ایس ایس پی جامشورو
1/2#Sindhpolicedmc #Notice

— Sindh Police (@sindhpolicedmc) May 6, 2019

A video from Pakistan is being shared to falsely depict Indian police brutality in Kashmir. Several such videos and images have been shared online to portray atrocities on the people of J&K. Alt News’s video debunking the many instances can be watched below.