An old video of three children removing nuts and bolts from a railway track in Karachi, Pakistan, is being shared on social media with the false and communal claim that it shows Muslim children in India vandalising railway tracks.
BOOM found that the viral video is not from India but from Karachi, Pakistan. In December 2023, Karachi Police arrested three children for stealing nuts and bolts from a railway track. They were later released and handed over to their parents after warning them.
The video was posted on X by the handle Rakesh Krishnan Simha (@ByRakeshSimha) with the caption, "Children of a particular cult removing railway fishplates with the aim of the mass slaughter of innocents."
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The same video is being shared in Hindi with several captions peddling a communal spin. A user shared the video on YouTube and wrote, 'Children of religious people causing train accidents in India.'
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FACT-CHECK
BOOM found that the viral video of three children stealing nuts and bolts from the railway track is from Karachi, Pakistan, and not from India as being claimed in social media posts.
We ran a reverse image search on some of the key frames from the viral video on Google. The search results showed the same video uploaded previously on Facebook and YouTube stating the incident is from Boat Basin Chowki in Karachi, Pakistan. Boat Basin Chowki is a police checkpoint located in Clifton area of Karachi.
The same video was posted on the Facebook page of a Karachi local news outlet - The Karachi Exposer on December 6, 2023.
The caption of the post when translated from Urdu to English reads, "Near Sir Taj Khan railway gate at Boat Basin Chowki, children open fish plates (joint bars) of railway tracks and sell them to scrap dealers, this is illegal. Children are opening nuts and bolts of railway tracks and filling them in bags, while there is a big mafia behind them who buys these old items. Pakistan government should take immediate action on this."
We also found the same video posted by another Facebook page named Momentique News with the same information.
The Urdu caption of the post when translated reads, "Valuable items from the railway line are being stolen for several days near the Sir Taj Khan railway gate in the Boat Basin Chowki area. Boat Basin Police Station has been requested to take action on this."
BOOM then reached out to journalist Edwin Maher who runs Momentique News. "This is a case of theft of nuts and bolts of the railway track near Sir Taj Khan railway gate in Vote Basin Chowki area. This incident is of December 2023," Maher told BOOM.
Karachi Police's clarification on the viral video
Pakistan's Karachi South Zone Police Media Cell had posted the same video on December 5, 2023, on its Facebook page stating, "When a case of theft of track nuts and bolts from the railway line near Sir Taj Khan gate came to light, on the instructions of DIG South, the Vot Basan police station in-charge took action and caught the children and later handed them over to their parents after warning them."