Video of Mumbai slum demolition falsely linked to deadly religious clashes in north India state
- Published on February 23, 2024 at 06:46
- 3 min read
- By Devesh MISHRA, AFP India
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"CM Dhami has turned the stone-pelters' home into Gaza," reads a Facebook post that shared the video, referring to Pushkar Singh Dhami, chief minister of India's northern Uttarakhand state.
Dhami said the government would punish anyone found to have participated in deadly clashes following the demolition of a madrassa on February 8 in Uttarakhand's Haldwani district.
Five people were killed in the violence, officials said, which broke out after authorities tore down the Islamic school and an adjoining prayer site, claiming they had been built without permission.
Police said Muslim protesters threw stones at them, prompting them to fire tear gas in response.
The demolition of Muslim religious structures is a sensitive issue in India, where Hindu nationalist groups have been emboldened since Prime Minister Narendra Modi took office a decade ago.
The Facebook account sharing the video -- a supporter of Modi's ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party -- said it showed "terrorist hideouts" being bulldozed in Haldwani.
The video was shared in similar posts on Facebook here and here and on social media platform X.
Slum demolition
However, the video was actually filmed in Govandi, a surbub of Mumbai in the western state of Maharashtra -- more than 1,500 kilometres (900 miles) from Haldwani.
A reverse image search and keyword search on Google found the footage in a news report from Metro Mumbai which said it showed a Govandi slum bulldozed on February 6. Authorities said residents were living there illegally (archived link).
Below is a screenshot comparison of the video in Facebook posts falsely linking it to violence in Haldwani (left) and Metro Mumbai's report on the Govandi slum demolition (right):
AFP confirmed the location of the footage as Govandi, thanks to a photo of the slum published by The Hindustan Times, which is taken from a similar angle to the video shared on Facebook (archived link).
The Hindustan Times' photo (below left) shows the same buildings in the background as the Facebook video (below right):
The Hindustan Times and Indian Express reported that local activist group Jan Haq Sangharsh Samiti (JHSS) was supporting Govandi residents who protested against the demolition (archived links here and here).
JHSS spokesperson Sanjana Krishnan told AFP the video showed Govandi.
"This video is of slum demolition in Govandi and I personally know the people seen in it," she said.
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