This video shows police apprehending a Sikh man during a protest by veterinarians in 2011

  • This article is more than one year old.
  • Published on December 8, 2020 at 02:30
  • 2 min read
  • By AFP India
Footage of police detaining a man and removing his turban has been shared in multiple Facebook and Twitter posts alongside a claim that it shows a Muslim man disguised as a Sikh who was arrested in the ongoing farmers’ protest in India. The claim is false; the video actually shows police apprehending a Sikh man during a protest by veterinary pharmacists in 2011.

The 13-second video was published on Facebook here on November 30, 2020.

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Screenshot of the misleading Facebook post

The post’s caption reads: “Sri Nazir Mohammed, an SDPI worker, dressed as a Sardarji in the farmers’ protest in Haryana is arrested this morning.”

SDPI is an acronym for the Social Democratic Party of India, a newly formed political party that describes itself as a “political platform of marginalised and minority communities in India”.

The post circulated as thousands of farmers, mainly from the Sikh-dominated northern states of Punjab and Haryana, protested against agricultural reforms introduced by the Indian government, as AFP reported here.

The video was also shared alongside identical claims on Facebook here, here, here and here and on Twitter here, here, here and here.

The claim is false.

A Google keyword search found the incident was reported here by SikhNet, a global Sikh community news platform, on March 31, 2011, almost one decade before the ongoing farmers’ protest.

“United Sikhs Files Criminal Complaint Against Punjab Police For Removal of Sikh's Turban,” the article’s headline reads.

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Screenshot of media report

A longer version of the video was also published on YouTube here on March 31, 2011.

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