Video of attempted break-in was filmed in Pakistan, not India

Published on March 17, 2025 at 09:46
3 min read
By Sachin BAGHEL, AFP India

An old video of a mob climbing up an apartment building has been mispresented online as Muslims trying to attack Hindus at their homes in the Indian state of Telangana. The actual footage was filmed in August 2022 in Pakistan.

"This scene is not from Afghanistan or Pakistan but from Telangana. They are forcibly entering the houses of Hindus with slogans like 'cut off their heads'," reads part of the Hindi-language X post shared on March 1, 2025.

It also shares a clip showing several people climbing up a building, while others bang on the front door.

Screengrab of the false post taken on March 1, 2025

The video was shared with similar claims on X and Facebook.

India's Congress party -- accused by supporters of the ruling Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of being more favourable towards the country's 200-million-strong Muslim minority -- came into power in Telangana after state elections in 2023.

Some users appeared to believe the video was taken in the state, and called Muslims "jihadis" -- a pejorative frequently used by hardliners in Hindu-majority India to refer to the community.

"Jihadis have started rioting in Congress-ruled states. Home minister, this is a wake-up call," one user commented, tagging X handles of senior BJP leaders including Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Another user wrote, "Wherever Congress is in power, these jihadis are up to all sorts of anti-Hindu activities."

But a reverse image search of keyframes found a longer version of the video shared in an X post on August 25, 2022 with a caption saying it was filmed in Pakistan (archived link).

"A Hindu sanitation worker #AshokKumar is hounded in Rabia Centre, Sadar, Hyderabad of Pakistan in a false case of Blasphemy," the post reads.

Screengrab comparison of the video in the false post (L) and the clip on X

The US Commission on International Religious Freedom also detailed Kumar's case in its list of religion or belief victims.

Its website says Kumar was accused of burning a Koran and arrested by Hyderabad police in Pakistan on August 21, 2022. A mob then tried to enter his apartment building to get him (archived link).

It links to a video posted on X showing the scene in the false clip taken from another angle (archived link).

Hyderabad police later found him to be innocent and released him, according to a post on the force's Facebook page on August 31, 2022 (archived link).

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