This video shows a police drill in the Indian state of Jharkhand in 2017
- This article is more than one year old.
- Published on March 12, 2020 at 09:15
- 3 min read
- By AFP Indonesia
Copyright © AFP 2017-2025. Any commercial use of this content requires a subscription. Click here to find out more.
The 25-second clip was published here on Facebook on March 6, 2020. It has been watched more than 148,000 times and shared more than 3,300 times.
Translated from Indonesian-language to English, the caption reads: “*INDIAN MUSLIMS SHOT ON THE SPOT* This news was spread in WhatsApp Group, allegedly about the Indian government’s crime against Indian Muslims…
#shameonyouindia”.
Below is a screenshot of the misleading post:
At least 50 people have been killed after sectarian violence broke out in the Indian capital of Delhi between February 24 and February 25 this year. The clashes were triggered by the amendment of India’s citizenship law, which critics claim discriminates against Muslims, AFP reported here.
The video has been viewed more than 4,500 times after it appeared with a similar claim on Facebook here, here, here and here; on Instagram here and here; on Twitter here; as well as on YouTube here.
The claim is false; the clip previously circulated online about a police drill in Khunti, a town in the eastern Indian state of Jharkhand, in 2017.
A Google keyword search found this one-minute video uploaded on YouTube on November 1, 2017, titled: “Moke Dreal [Mock Drill] of Khunti Police”.
Khunti is a town in the Indian state of Jharkhand.
At the end of the video a police officer can be heard making an announcement in Hindi which translates to English as: “This was just a demo to show that the Khunti police is prepared to act against any untoward situation”.
A two-minute, 35-second clip of the event taken from a different angle was uploaded here on YouTube on November 3, 2017, titled: “Jharkhand police KHUNTI (part of traning) REHEARSAL”.
The clip’s caption reads: “In khunti rehearsal for police how we all police take charging and controlling on crowds at towns and other places. ( it's only and only rehearsal)”.
Local freelance journalist Anand Dutta told AFP that the drill was conducted near the main square of Khunti town around the same time as celebrations for the Hindu festival of Diwali in 2017.
"The location seen in the video is near the main square of Khunti town," he told AFP by WhatsApp.
Dutta also sent photos of the street where the drill was conducted via WhatsApp. Below is a collage of photos sent by the journalist (L) and screenshots taken from the video posted in the misleading Facebook post (R), with similar elements highlighted in green:
A red shopfront of Jagdamba Steel which can be seen at the four-second mark of the misleading video can also be seen here in a Google user image tagged at the location on Google Maps.
Below is the screenshot of the shopfront in Google:
Below is a screenshot comparison between a scene in the first YouTube video (L) and the Google user image (R) with corresponding features circled in red by AFP:
The video of the police drill also previously appeared in misleading social media posts that claimed it shows Indian police shooting Kashmiris. AFP Fact Check debunked the claim here.
Is there content that you would like AFP to fact-check? Get in touch.
Contact us
