A disturbing video from Karnataka of a man attacking a woman with a machete is viral with a false communal spin that a Hindu girl was attacked by a Muslim boy. BOOM reached out to the Hubbali police, where the incident occured who said that both the accused and the victim are Muslims.
The viral video shows a man attacking a woman repeatedly with a machete in the middle of a street and in broad daylight. One can hear a woman's screams and a person trying to raise an alarm.
The video is being shared with various captions, most claiming that the woman is a Hindu and the man a Muslim. Most posts have included the victim's first name - Asha - claiming she was attacked by Ismail.
Right wing website OpIndia also gave it a communal angle by falsely claiming that the woman is a Hindu, in its Hindi website story. In the English story, the website in its URL said that a Hindu woman was attacked by a Ismail. Both stories did not mention the full name of the victim or that she was a Muslim.
The OpIndia English story titled, 'One Ismail arrested in Karnataka for attacking Asha with a machete: Here is what happened' and the URL said, "karnataka-islmail-attack-hindu-woman-arrested-details-case".
The site also made reference to the recent case in Haryana where a 21-year-old Nikita Tomar was shot dead by an a man named Taufeeq allegedly because she refused to convert to Islam.
The Hindi story made a direct false claim in the strapline and the body text claiming, "कर्नाटक के हुबली में दिल दहला देने वाली घटना। इस्माइल नाम के युवक ने प्रपोजल ठुकराने पर हिंदू लड़की आशा पर दिन दहाड़े तलवार से हमला कर दिया।"
The false claim is also viral on Facebook and Twitter with a similar caption.
VIDEO IS DISTURBING. VIEWERS DISCRETION ADVISED
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Right leaning site OpIndia
The handle Akash RSS who has in the past shared several pieces of fake news, also tweeted the video claiming that after Haryana's Nikita Tomar case, an incident of love jihad has been reported in Hubbali, Karnataka.
BOOM contacted Hubbali police who denied all claims that the incident was communal in nature. SK Holeyannavar, investigating officer of the case said the accused is named Ismail K Kukura and he was in a relationship with a woman named Asha Agasara. "The two of them were in a relationship and recently she ended the same,which upset the accused. After he learnt that she had started dating another man, he became furious and accosted her on the morning of December 21 at Deshpande Nagar and attacked her with the machete," Holeyannavar said.
Talking about the viral claims, Holeyannavar said that while the viral posts get the first names of the accused and the victim right, they are both Muslims and the posts are giving it a communal claim because the girl has a common name used by the Hindu community.
"The victim though named Asha, is a Muslim. Her full name is Asha Dawalsaab Agasara and she is from Moraba village in Dharwad. Asha is a common name in that side of the district and many Muslim families have such a name," he added. The officer called the claim, "totally baseless and false" and added, "The woman has survived. By spreading such news, they are giving a wrong turn to the horrific attack. The police will be looking into such posts"
The incident was reported by several media outlets and The News Minute reported that, the accused Ismail is an auto driver in Rampura in Dharwad district. The report furthersaid that the victim was rushed to a private hospital and was recovering from her injuries. "The girl has survived the attack and we have arrested the accused. The woman used to work for a jewellery store and we are in constant touch with her too," said Holeyannavar.