A video of a bike rally is circulating on social media amid the 2024 Haryana Assembly elections, showing people holding Islamic flags. The video is being falsely claimed to be from a Congress rally in Mewat, Haryana.
BOOM found this claim to be false. The video is actually from a Milad-un-Nabi celebration in Latur, Maharashtra, and has no connection to the Haryana elections.
Legislative Assembly elections in Haryana are scheduled for October 5, where 90 seats will be contested. The results are expected to be announced on October 8.
Sharing this video on X, right-wing user Jitendra Pratap Singh wrote, 'This procession is not of any Islamic country but is an election campaign procession of Congress in Mewat, a Muslim area of Haryana. In this procession, you will see the flag of Saudi Arabia with Kalma written on it, the flag of Palestine, the Islamic flag of Khalifa, but in the procession of Congress party, you will not see any flag of Hinduism, Sikhism or Jainism or Parsi religion.'
Archive link to the post.
This video is also viral on Facebook with the claim that it is a Congress rally in Haryana.
Apart from this, the video was also received on BOOM's tipline number.
Fact Check: The viral video is from Latur
Upon closely examining the video, we found several clues indicating that the viral video is from Maharashtra. First, the police van in the video bears the Maharashtra Police logo. Additionally, a nearby shop's sign board has "Latur.." written on it.
Further investigation revealed an ambulance in the video displaying "S.M. Sana Multispeciality Hospital" and a phone number, confirming that the hospital is located in Latur, Maharashtra.
Further, on doing a reverse image search of the key frames of the video, we found the same video uploaded by some users , where it was claimed to be of a procession taken out on the occasion of Milad-un-Nabi in Latur.
Taking a cue from this, we searched for related keywords on YouTube and found other videos of this rally on local news channels named ' Latur News Official ' and ' Bharatsatta '.
We have compared the visuals of the Latur News video and the viral video below:
This rally was taken out on the occasion of Milad-un-Nabi
For confirmation, we reached out to Hamid Sheikh, editor of 'Bharat Satta'. Speaking to BOOM, he confirmed that the video is indeed from Latur. The rally took place on September 19 in Latur city to mark the occasion of Milad-un-Nabi.
The rally started from the Sufia Mosque and passed through key locations such as Ganj Golai, Gandhi Chowk, and Shivaji Maharaj Chowk. Sheikh identified the video’s location as the Gandhi Chowk area, pointing out the board of 'Latur Ati Dakshata Hospital' and the BSNL office tower in the background.He also confirmed that the flags carried in the rally were Islamic flags and provided BOOM with pictures of the location for verification.
The street view of the area can be seen below.
Sheikh said that such a rally is organised every year in Latur city on the occasion of Milad-un-Nabi. The rally was organised on September 19, two days after the Ganpati immersion, to avoid a date clash between the two events.
A comparison can be seen between the original location and the viral video below.
BOOM also reached out to the Latur City Police who confirmed that the video is from the Milad-un-Nabi rally.
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