A video of policemen rounding up people and thrashing them with batons inside what looks like premises of a prison is viral on social media. The accompanying claim suggests that this is a detention camp in Assam where Muslim are being assaulted.
Muslims are in gulags (detention camps) in Assam. May Allah protect all of them – Ameen Ya Rab. 🤲
Posted by Rayanna Banu Mersiha on Saturday, 28 December 2019
The clip is doing the rounds with the same narrative on Twitter and YouTube as well.
Alt News has received multiple verification requests on its official mobile application.
FACT-CHECK: SRI LANKAN PRISON
The video features a logo on the top right corner which says ‘Lanka Truth.com’.
A keyword search ‘Sri lanka prison assault’ on YouTube led us to the same video uploaded on January 17, 2019, by the channel Asia Times.
Asia Times had also carried a report which said, “Leaked video footage of a group of unarmed inmates being beaten with batons by prison officials has surfaced, renewing the debate about violations of prisoners’ rights in Sri Lanka.”
The incident was also reported by several Sri Lanka media outlets including dailymirror.lk, colombotelegraph.com and sundayobserver.lk.
According to Daily Mirror, Committee for Protecting Rights of Prisoners (CPRP) Secretary Sudesh Nandimal Silva said the prisoners were beaten “for staging a protest on October 21, 2018 against the deployment of Police STF personnel for internal searches in prison.” The incident took place at Agunakolapelessa Prison.
Colombo Telegraph reported that human rights commission of Sri Lanka intervened to ensure justice for the prisoners and issued a statement in this regard.
A November 2018 CCTV footage of inmates assaulted by Sri Lankan policemen inside a prison is being circulated on social media as visuals of a detention centre in Assam where Muslims are mistreated.
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