A two year old video of a mock drill conducted by Jharkhand police is being falsely shared as a crackdown by police in Assam in wake of growing protests in the state against the Citizenship Amendment Bill.
BOOM had debunked the same video when it went viral in August this year with a fake claim that it showed a clampdown on protesters in Kashmir following the abrogation of Article 370.
The 15 second clip, viral on WhatsApp, shows two police personnel armed with rifles take aim at protesters shouting 'hamari maange poori karo' (fulfill our demands). Two shots are fired by the policemen following which two protesters fall to the ground. Security personnel then rush to the scene with a stretcher and appear to take away 'injured' protesters.
The video is being shared in wake of wide scale protests in the Northeast, particularly in Assam over the passing of the Citizenship Amendment Bill in both houses of parliament this week.
At the time of writing this fact-check, at least two protesters were killed in anti-citizenship bill demonstrations in Assam. However, the video (below) going viral is not related to the current protests.
The clip is being shared on closed messaging apps and social media with various captions in Assam.
Check India and Assam. It's burning. social network blocked. Amenities blocked and people are being killed with the passing of the #CABBill2019
— Medhabrata Buragohain (@medhabrata) December 12, 2019
Show the world how the "largest democracy" is treating its democracy as the news channels are barred to spread the issue. pic.twitter.com/FYAyPg18X1
FACT CHECK
Using InVid, a video verification tool, we broke the video into key frames and performed a reverse image search and found a similar video which was uploaded on November 1, 2017 stating that it was a mock drill by Jharkhand's Khunti Police.
The same video has also gone viral in the past with the false claim that it showed Madhya Pradesh police firing at farmers in Mandsaur.
Using similar keywords we found another video titled 'Jharkhand police KHUNTI (part of traning) REHEARSAL' uploaded on November 4, 2017, one can view the training exercise from a different angle and makes it clear that the action is a mock drill.
Full View
Read a detailed debunk of the video here.