Two videos showing a Sikh man being brutally thrashed by a mob are being shared on social media platforms with the claim that the Sikh man in the video is being attacked in Pakistan.
In the videos - one taken from a close-up angle, while the other is shot from a further point of view - a young man can be seen thrashing the Sikh man, who is seen profusely bleeding while lying on the ground, as onlookers watch the assault with some others joining in. The youth then started pulling the man's hair, punching him on his face, and then started dragging the man's body on the street.
BOOM found the claims shared with the video to be false; our investigation revealed that the incident captured in the viral videos actually took place in Ludhiana, Punjab, and not Pakistan.
The caption with the video reads, "This is the condition of Sardar in Pakistan, and the Sardar here is dreaming of Khalistan with the Mullahs."
(Original Text in Hindi: पाकिस्तान में सरदार का ये हाल है,और यहाँ का सरदार मुल्लो के साथ खालिस्तान का स्वप्न देख रहा है। PYARA PAKISTAN)
The screenshot of one of the posts can be seen below. We also found the same video being shared on Twitter with the exact same claim.
We have refrained from providing links to the posts due to the graphic nature of the videos.
Here is a screenshot of the other video, shot from a closer angle.
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Fact Check
BOOM ran a few searches with relevant keywords like "Sikh man thrashed brutally" on Twitter, and found several tweets mentioning an assault on a Sikh youth in Ludhiana. The tweet can be seen here.
Taking a cue from this, we performed a keyword search in Punjabi and found a PTC News report published on March 5, 2022, which provided details on the incident, and also carried screenshots from one of the viral videos. The article reported it to be an incident that happened at Tibba Road area of Ludhiana.
We also found a news bulletin from PTC News's official YouTube channel, published on the same date. The bulletin also carried visuals from the viral videos, and confirmed in the caption that the incident is from Ludhiana.
To further confirm the details provided in these reports, BOOM reached out to SHO Nardev Singh of Tibba police station. He confirmed that the incident shown in the viral video did in fact occur in Ludhiana, and not Pakistan.
"The man was being thrashed for stealing mobile. Police arrested the people who assaulted the man and sent them to jail," Singh said.
Singh also refuted that there is no communal angle to the incident.
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