Following the violence in Haldwani, Uttarakhand, where five were killed and over 300 were injured, a video of Muslim men running amidst chaos was widely shared on social media. Allegedly, the footage showed Rohingya refugees and Bangladeshi migrants attacking police officers in Haldwani.
India Today found that the video shows agitated followers of Tauqir Raza Khan, the chief of Ittehad-e-Millat Council, in Bareilly. It’s not from Haldwani.
Our Probe
Upon closely observing the viral video, we noted a signboard bearing the name “Sahu Gopinath” in Hindi, which led us to identify the location as Gangapur, Bareilly, using Google Maps. Street View on Google Maps matched the visuals of the viral video. A comparison of the two can be seen below.
With this clue, we conducted further search and came across several news reports of communal tension and stone-pelting in Bareilly on February 9 following a protest call by Tauqeer Raza Khan. His detention by the police for advocating a protest over the Gyanvapi case led to demonstrations by his followers, resulting in minor clashes and stray incidents of stone-pelting.
On February 8, Khan, the founder of the Ittehad-e-Millat Council, a political party based in Uttar Pradesh, called for a protest against Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath’s statements regarding mosques in Varanasi and Mathura.
So, it’s clear that while tensions persist in both Haldwani and Bareilly, the viral video circulating does not show Haldwani violence.