Video from MP falsely viral as UP police thrash people offering namaz on the road – Alt News

A video of police personnel lathi-charging a group of people is viral on social media. It has been claimed that a new law has been introduced in Uttar Pradesh that forbids Muslims from offering Namaz in public. Twitter user Renuka Jain shared the video with the same claim. (Archive link)

No namaz on roads. We need more yogi in India pic.twitter.com/rWe4JiCpPd

— #RenukaJain (@RenukaJain6) October 25, 2021

Facebook user Srikanth Swamy also posted this video and accompanying claim, which garnered 11,000 views as of this writing. (Archive link)

Several users shared the video as Uttar Pradesh on Facebook and Twitter. We received some requests to verify the visuals on the Alt News mobile application and WhatsApp helpline number.

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Fact-check

A user commented on one of the viral posts that the video is actually from Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh. Alt News performed a keyword search using this information, which led us to an October 19 video report by MP Tak. According to the report, a procession was taken out on the occasion of Milad-un-Nabi in Jabalpur. During this, a scuffle broke out between the police and some participants of the procession. Some of them pelted stones, and the police responded by firing tear gas shells and lathi-charging.

At one point in this video story, we noticed the same shop seen in the viral video.

Further, in the viral video, we saw another shop’s board with ‘S Deen Tailors’ written on it. While searching on Google Maps, we found that a shop of this name exists in Gohalpur, Jabalpur.

Numerous media outlets have covered the incident. (Link 1, Link 2, Link 3, Link 4)

Navbharat Times reported that the original route of the Eid procession was to be from the Fish Market to Subbah Shah Maida. However, as soon as the crowd reached the market, some of the participants tried to remove the police barricades. Meanwhile, others began pelting stones and throwing firecrackers at the police. In response, the police also lathi-charged those gathered there. Several police officers were injured in the violence. There was another incident of violence near Jabalpur’s Raddi Chowki the same day.

Next, we performed a keyword search to verify the claim about a supposed restriction on offering prayers on the streets. In August 2019, the Uttar Pradesh police had banned religious activities like namaz or aarti on the streets. This restriction was imposed in the interest of curbing road traffic.

To sum it up, a video of police lathi-charging locals during a row that broke out during an Eid procession in Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh was falsely shared with the claim that the UP police beat Muslims offering namaz on the road.

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