Video shows accident in Pakistan, not bus crash involving Indian pilgrims going to Hindu mega-festival

Published on February 13, 2025 at 10:56
3 min read
By Devesh MISHRA, AFP India

Indian media have reported deadly bus crashes involving Kumbh Mela pilgrims, but footage shared on social media of an upturned bus partially submerged in water is unrelated to the Hindu mega-festival in India's northern Prayagraj city. The clip has circulated since November 2024 in posts about a bus accident in the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore that according to local police had no fatalities.

"A bus going to the great Kumbh Mela fell into a ditch, 10 children and other people died," reads Hindi-language text on a Facebook video shared on February 1, 2025.

The video, which has been viewed more than 3,000 times, shows a bus upside down and partially submerged in a water-filled ditch by the side of a road. People can be seen wading through the water and peering through the bus's windows as a large crowd looks on from the shore.

It surfaced as Hindus from across India travelled to attend the great or "Maha" Kumbh Mela -- a six-week-long Hindu celebration of prayer and bathing held every 12 years in Prayagraj (archived link).

India's government says more than 420 million pilgrims have ritually bathed at the world's largest religious festival, estimates organising authorities say are calculated using artificial intelligence and surveillance cameras (archived link).

Screenshot of the false Facebook post, captured on February 11, 2025

The footage was also shared alongside similar claims elsewhere on Facebook and Instagram.

Indian media has reported several bus accidents involving pilgrims on their way to the Kumbh Mela, but the clip circulating on social media in fact shows an accident that occurred in Pakistan in 2024 (archived here, here and here).

Lahore accident

A reverse image search on Google using keyframes from the falsely shared video led to similar clips posted on the verified YouTube channels of Pakistani media outlets HUM News and Aaj TV on November 3, 2024 (archived here and here).

According to the reports, the bus, which was carrying about 75 Muslim pilgrims returning from Tablighi Ijtema, fell into a ditch at the side of a road in Lahore.

The annual Tablighi Ijtema, one of Pakistan's biggest religious gatherings, sees hundreds of thousands of people descend on a tented village outside Lahore for several days to sleep, pray and eat together. The Pakistan Today newspaper reported that the first phase of the 2024 gathering in Lahore concluded on November 3, 2024 (archived link).

Subsequent keyword searches found the same video used in the false posts was shared on YouTube on November 4, 2024 where it was described as showing an accident in the suburb of Raiwind in Lahore (archived link).

Screenshot comparison of the falsely shared video (left) and the same footage shared on YouTube in November 2024 (right)

Traffic police in Lahore posted an update on the situation on their verified Facebook page on November 3, 2024, saying that a timely rescue operation ensured no one was killed in the accident (archived link).

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