India train disaster breeds false communal claim of 'nearby mosque' at crash site
- This article is more than one year old.
- Published on June 7, 2023 at 03:23
- 3 min read
- By Devesh MISHRA, AFP India
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The photo was shared on a Facebook page with over 39,000 followers on June 4.
It shows an aerial view of the triple train crash that killed nearly 300 people in Balasore town in Odisha, with a white building circled in green.
"What's the Friday connection of the Balasore train accident? It's being said that there's a mosque-like structure near the accident site. This angle should be probed?" the Hindi-language post reads in part.
"What happened in Balasore, is that an accident or a terrorist conspiracy? The accident happened on a Friday, this angle should also be probed."
Friday is a sacred day of worship in Islam.
Similar posts linking Muslims to the disaster have also been shared more than 2,000 times in a now-deleted tweet and elsewhere on Twitter, as well as on Facebook here and here.
But Ashwini Vaishnaw, India's railway minister, has suggested the crash happened due to the "change that occurred during electronic interlocking", AFP reported on June 5 (archived link).
That refers to a complex signal system designed to stop trains from colliding by arranging their movement on the tracks.
"We have identified the cause of the accident and the people responsible for it," Vaishnaw said, but added it was "not appropriate" to give details before a final investigation report was completed.
Local media have quoted a preliminary investigation report, with the Times of India saying a "human error in signalling may have caused the collision between three trains".
Hare Krishna temple
Moreover, the white building circled in the photo circulating online is not a mosque as the posts claim.
An AFP journalist covering the train crash at Balasore found it is actually a temple belonging to the Hindu religious sect called the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), more commonly known as the Hare Krishna movement (archived link).
Below are images of the temple at Bahanaga district in Balasore and the view from its terrace taken by AFP:
Brij Sharan Das, the temple's priest, told AFP the crash occurred nearby on June 2.
"This is a very sad accident but even more sad is that some people are sharing the picture of the ISKCON temple on social media as a mosque with a communal claim which is absolutely wrong," he said.
The Bahanaga ISKCON temple can be seen on Google Maps here (archived link).
Below is a screenshot comparison of the image in one of the false posts (left) and Google Maps satellite imagery of the temple and nearby rail road (right) with corresponding features marked by AFP:
Odisha police also rubbished the claim on Twitter on June 4 and said legal action would be taken against people who shared it.
The English-language tweet reads: "It has come to notice that some social media handles are mischievously giving communal colour to the tragic train accident at Balasore. This is highly unfortunate. The investigation by the GRP, Odisha into the cause and all other aspects of the accident is going on.
"We appeal to all concerned to desist from circulating such false and ill-motivated posts. Severe legal action will be initiated against those who are trying to create communal disharmony by spreading rumours."
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