Incorrect report about Hyderabad blast near mosque shared alongside false 'terrorism' claim

The Hindi-language claim was shared here on Twitter June 13.

The post features a screenshot of a Hindi-language tweet published by Indian media outlet Aaj Tak that states: "A chemical blast took place inside Gowliguda Gol mosque in Afzalganj police station area, Hyderabad."

The screenshot includes a link to an article on the Aaj Tak website that makes a similar claim.

The post's caption translates as: "What does a mosque need chemicals for? Why was so much of it collected that it exploded? What kind of explosive chemical was this? #IslamicTerrorismInIndia."

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A screenshot of the misleading post, captured on June 24, 2022

The screenshot was also shared alongside a similar claim here and here on Facebook; and here on Twitter.

But the explosion did not happen inside Gowliguda Gol mosque and was not terrorism-related, Inspector Ravinder Reddy at Afzalganj police told AFP.

He said the owners of a chemical shop in the area were cleaning an outdated chemical when it became "solid crystal" and exploded.

"We are investigating the type of chemical that exploded," he said.

"[The owners] were working in front of their shop, nothing happened inside the mosque."

Erroneous news report

The tweet from Aaj Tak featured in the false posts is no longer visible on the channel's Twitter account, but an archive of the original report can be seen here.

Its headline originally read: "Hyderabad: Chemical blast inside Gowliguda Gol mosque, 2 persons severely injured".

The headline was updated to state: "Hyderabad: Chemical blast in Afzalganj, merchant dies on the spot, 2 others injured."

According to the report, the blast occurred when the owners of a chemical business -- a father and son -- were disposing of waste. It states the explosion killed the son and severely injured the father and one other person.

Panini Anand, executive editor of Aaj Tak Digital, told AFP that its first report about the explosion was a "blunder".

"The first information about the blast was given by the police. Later, a release from the police department clarified that the blast took place at a scrap shop which is behind the mosque and it was not within the mosque campus," he said. 

The channel later tweeted an updated version of the report with a corrected headline.

It also corrected its Bengali-language report about the incident -- originally published here.

News agency ANI and Hindi daily Jansatta also reported on the blast. Neither report stated the blast happened inside the mosque.

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