Old video shows violent protest in western India in 2019, not sectarian riots near Delhi in 2023

This article is more than one year old.
Published on August 11, 2023 at 10:16
4 min read
By Devesh MISHRA, AFP India

An old video of a mob attacking a bus has been viewed thousands of times in social media posts that falsely link it to recent sectarian riots that began near India's capital New Delhi in late July 2023. The clip was in fact taken during a rally in western India against the lynching of Muslims that turned violent in July 2019.

The one-minute, 53-second video was shared on Facebook here on August 3, 2023, and has since been viewed more than 3,000 times.

The clip shows a mob surrounding a bus and pelting it with rocks.

The caption includes the hashtags "#haryana #Gurugramnews #Gurugramcity #nuh #delhi #Nangloi #delhigram #Gurgaon" -- appearing to suggest the clip had been taken during sectarian clashes that broke out in the predominantly Muslim district of Nuh in Haryana state, around 75 kilometres (45 miles) south of New Delhi.

AFP reported that at least six people were killed in the unrest, which began when mobs hurled stones at a Hindu religious procession and set cars alight on July 31.

Arson and vandalism attacks broke out the following evening in nearby Gurugram, a satellite city of the capital and a key business centre where Nokia, Samsung and other multinationals have their Indian headquarters.

Screenshot of the false Facebook post, captured on August 4, 2023

The same video was also shared alongside similar claims on Facebook here and here, as well as on X, formerly known as Twitter, here.

But the video was filmed four years earlier in western India and unrelated to the violence in Haryana.

Gujarat video

A reverse image search on Google using keyframes from the video led to similar footage used in news reports about violence in Surat, a city in the western state of Gujarat, in July 2019 (archived link).

One report using similar footage -- titled "Rally against mob lynching incidents turns violent in Surat, police force deployed" -- was posted on the official YouTube channel of TV9 Gujarati, a news channel based in Gujarat, on July 5, 2019 (archived link).

A blue bus, which appears similar to the one shown in the falsely shared video, can be seen between the report's 3:58 mark and 6:00 mark.

Below is a screenshot comparison of the bus in the falsely shared video (left) and in the TV9 Gujarati video (right):

Screenshot comparison of the falsely shared video (left) and the TV9 Gujarati video (right)

The rally had been in protest of increasing incidents of lynching in India, with furious demonstrators vandalising city buses and clashing with police.

It came after a Muslim man was lynched in the eastern state of Jharkhand the previous month, with rights groups saying Hindu mobs had been emboldened under the rule of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party, which came to power in 2014 (archived link).

A closer analysis of the bus seen in the falsely shared video also indicates the incident took place in Surat in Gujarat -- not Nuh in Haryana.

The word "Sitilink", which can be seen on the side of the bus at the falsely shared video's 20-second mark, refers to a public transport system in Surat.

At the video's 55-second mark, the bus's licence plate is briefly visible. It reads "GJ 05", which is the registration number for vehicles in Surat (archived link).

Below are screenshots of the bus service name (left) and the licence plate (right) seen in the falsely shared video:

Screenshots of the bus service name (left) and the licence plate (right) seen in the falsely shared video

Subsequent keyword searches led to local media reports here, here and here that said the protests were held at Vivekanand Circle in Nanpura town of Surat (archived links here, here and here).

Features in the falsely shared video can also be seen in Google Street View imagery of the location (archived link).

Below is a screenshot comparison of the matching features visible in the falsely shared video (left) and on Google Street View (right), with the similarities highlighted by AFP:

Screenshot comparison of the features in the falsely shared video (left) and matching features visible on Google Street View (right)

AFP previously debunked another false claim the video showed Muslims attacking public transport in Mumbai.

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