Did Lawyers In Pakistan Assault A Hindu Woman? A FactCheck

A disturbing video from Pakistan showing a woman ruthlessly thrashed by lawyers, is being shared on Indian social media with a fake claim that the woman is a Hindu and was attacked for her religion.

The clip, over just a minute long, shows the woman shoved and kicked as she tries to retaliate using a sandal.

The caption with the video states: "This is how women are being treated in Pakistan. इस लड़की का गुनाह सिर्फ इतना है की ये हिन्दू है और वो भी शान्तिधूर्तो के देश पाकिस्तान में।

(This girl's only fault is that she is a Hindu, that too in peace-loving Pakistan)

Although the video was posted on December 1st, it is going viral in the backdrop of the Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB) passed in both houses of parliament this week. The bill allows citizenship to six non-Muslim religious groups from Pakist an, Afganistan, and Bangladesh in order to escape religious persecution

The post has been shared over 40,000 times. Several Facebook users posted the video. You can see several posts below and archived versions can be seen here and here.

Fact Check

BOOM fragmented the video into keyframes and ran a reverse image search. This led us to several articles published by the mainstream media in Pakistan, India, and globally on the incident. According to a report by Geo TV, the incident was confirmed by an official of Shakargarh police, occurred after a brawl between the lawyers and Amrat, the woman who had come for an appearance at the court hearing. Amrat, a resident of Shahpur Bhanguk, claimed that the lawyers misbehaved with her whereas the advocates alleged that she attacked them.

We were able to trace the name and whereabouts of the victim in the video. She is not a Hindu girl as claimed, but a Muslim resident of Shahpur Bhanguk in Pakistan's Punjab province.

We also found an FIR posted by a BBC Urdu correspondent from Pakistan naming the woman as Amrat Shahzadi. The FIR states that three lawyers - including Yasir Khan, Wasim Lateef, and Asif Sultan - dragged Amrat Shahzadi, D/O, Mohammed Sulaiman zaat (caste) Ansari in the court compound and attacked her and her cousin Abdul Qayyum. This makes it clear that the woman is a Muslim and was not beaten up because of her religion.

It is not entirely clear what led to the brawl but a local report on the incident can be read here.