Claim
A disturbing old video from Pakistan has resurfaced online, showing a woman ruthlessly thrashed by lawyers, with a false communal claim that the woman is Hindu and was attacked because of her religion. The video is being peddled with a caption, "Dear World, Raise your voice against Hindu persecutions in Bangladesh and Pakistan. This heart-wrenching video is from Pakistan in which a Muslim lawyer is kicking and punching a Hindu girl who is trying to enter the Pakistani court, So as to draw attention towards the fact that Pakistani police are not registering a case against the kidnappers and rapists of her minor sister." Click here to view the post and here for an archive.
Fact
BOOM debunked the same video in 2019 when it went viral with a similar false claim. We ran a reverse image search using keyframes from the video and found several articles about the incident published by mainstream media outlets in Pakistan, India, and globally. A report by Geo TV confirmed the incident through an official from Shakargarh police. The altercation reportedly took place after a dispute between lawyers and Amrat, the woman who had come to attend a court hearing. Amrat, a resident of Shahpur Bhanguk, alleged that the lawyers misbehaved with her, while the lawyers claimed she attacked them. An FIR shared by a BBC Urdu correspondent from Pakistan identified the woman as Amrat Shahzadi. According to the FIR, three lawyers—Yasir Khan, Wasim Lateef, and Asif Sultan—dragged Amrat Shahzadi, daughter of Mohammed Sulaiman, of the Ansari caste, in the court compound and assaulted her and her cousin Abdul Qayyum. While the exact cause of the brawl remains unclear, a local report on the incident can be read here.