India train adorned for annual religious festival, not turned to 'Muslim Express'

This article is more than one year old.
Published on August 16, 2023 at 11:54
3 min read
By Devesh MISHRA, AFP India

A video of a train decorated with a cutout shaped like the dome of a mosque has been repeatedly shared in posts that falsely say Muslims forcibly converted it into a "Muslim Express". A spokesperson from Indian Railways told AFP one of its divisions runs these special trains for Muslim pilgrims every year.

"Jihadis converted the Hyderabad-West Bengal trains into a Muslim Express," reads the Hindi-language caption to the video posted on August 5, 2023 on X, formerly known as Twitter.

"Jihadi", meaning a Muslim holy warrior is often used as a derogative term for Muslims in India.

The video shows a train adorned with a cutout of a mosque dome and minarets -- and a banner with Urdu-language text that says "Urs Mubarak".

"The guard did not want to but the jihadis forced them to run the train with such decorations," the post goes on to say.

"No news channels are broadcasting this news. Please share it far and wide so the central government takes cognizance and strict action against such fools."

Screenshot of the false post, taken on August 10, 2023.

The video was also shared with a similar false claim on X and Facebook here and here.

Special pilgrimage train

A reverse image search on Google, along with keyword searches found a longer video with similar visuals posted on YouTube by Indian news outlet Gohash on August 2 (archived link).

The video's description reads: "46th Urs of Yemeni Chishti, Hazrat Khwaja Syed Mohammad Badshah Quadeer at Halkatta Sharif, Karnataka."

This corresponds in part to Urdu-language text on the banner attached on the train which says "Urs-E-Quadeer Mubarak".

Hazrat Khwaja Syed Mohammad Badshah Quadeer is a Sufi Muslim saint.

His followers mark the anniversary of his death by traveling to a shrine in Halkatta Sharif in India's Karnataka state during an annual festival called "Urs" (archived link).

Visuals at the video's nine-second mark show the same train seen in the clip shared in false posts.

Below is a screenshot comparison of the video in one of the false posts (left) and the YouTube video from Gohash (right) with similarities highlighted by AFP:

Screenshot comparison of the video in one of the false posts (left) and the YouTube video from Gohash (right)

The South Central Railway, a division of Indian Railways announced in a press release on July 27 that special trains would be run for the Urs celebration (archived link).

"In order to clear the extra rush of pilgrims attending the 46th Anniversary Celebrations of Urs-e-Shareef of Great Saint Hazrath Khwaja Syed Mohammed Badesha Quadri Chisthy Yamani on 1st August 2023 at Halkatta Shareef near Wadi junction four special trains will be run," it said.

"It is absolutely wrong that people of any community have forcibly put up religious banners on the train and threatened the driver or the guard," CH. Rakesh, chief public relations officer for South Central Railway told AFP on August 9.

"South Central Railway runs this special train every year for the pilgrims of Urs, which is decorated only with the permission of the railway."

He also refuted the claim that such trains run from Hyderabad in central India to the state of West Bengal in the country's northeast.

"This year we ran this train from Hyderabad to Wadi Junction in Karnataka between August 1-3," he said.

AFP also found other videos of the Urs here, here and here which show similar footage of the train (archived links here, here and here).

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