Claim
An old video of a Pakistani Islamic scholar speaking about Rashtriya Swayam Sevak Sangh (RSS), has resurfaced with captions misidentifying him as the chief-secretary of the Taliban militia. The Facebook post has been shared with Hindi captions read as, “Taliban accepted that RSS and BJP are more powerful in India when BJP will be in India no country can attack if India is to be attacked then first remove BJP. Watch this video what Taliban chief secretary said. Proud of RSS. Must listen to the full video.” Original texts in Hindi: “#तालिबान ने यह स्वीकार किया कि #आरएसएस और बीजेपी ज्यादा ताकतवर है जब भारत में बीजेपी रहेगी कोई देश हमला नहीं कर सकता अगर भारत पर हमला करना है तो बीजेपी हटाओ। इस वीडियो को देखिए कि #तालिबान के #मुख्यसचिव ने क्या कहा गर्व होता है #आरएसएस पर पूरा वीडियो जरूर सु।”)
Fact
The same video was earlier viral in September, 2021; BOOM had then spoken to the person seen in the video, whom we were able to identify as Islamabad based Islamic scholar Khalid Mehmood Abbasi. Abbasi had denied any connection with the Taliban militia. We ran a reverse image search on the keyframes of the video which led us to a YouTube channel “Khalid Mehmood Abbasi Official”. The viral video is part of an extended video of 17 minutes which was uploaded on August 3, 2021. The title of the video reads, "Hindustan Mae Bigarte Halat - Khalid Mehmood Abbasi." Starting from 51 second mark to 1 minute 23 second mark, Abbasi can be heard speaking about the connection between the BJP and RSS. The speech from the viral video was delivered in February 2019 at Rawalpindi, days after the Balakot airstrike by India; the same was confirmed by Abbasi.