A clip from Chamba, Himachal Pradesh showing a group of people blocking a road with stones is viral with a false claim that they are Muslims in Tehri, Uttarakhand obstructing access to the road.
BOOM spoke to Chamba Police who denied that there was any communal angle to the incident and explained that both groups arguing belonged to the same religion - Muslims and the matter has been resolved.
In the viral clip, a group of people are blocking access to a road by laying stones and someone not seen on camera explains that it is a government road and further alleges that the other group has threatened them several times in the past and if anything happens to his family, they should be held responsible. He then goes on to ask the local administration to step in including the SP Chamba by providing protection for his family.
The clip is being shared with the caption claiming the incident is from Uttarakhand, which translates to, "This video is from Tehri of Devbhoomi Uttarakhand, here peace-loving communities are threatening to cut the village with a sword by closing the village way, smile you are in India."
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(In Hindi - "ये वीडियो देवभूमि उत्तराखण्ड के tehri का है, यहाँ शांतिप्रिय समुदाय गाँव का रास्ता बंद करके गाँव वालों को तलवार से काटने की धमकी दे रहे हैं , मुस्कुराईये आप हिंदुस्तान मे हैं।")
Click here to view, and here for an archive.
Viral on Facebook
On searching with the same caption on Facebook we found that the clip was being shared with the false claim.
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FACT-CHECK
BOOM found that the viral clip is from Chamba, Himachal Pradesh where there was an argument between two groups from the same community over access to a local road.
Taking a cue from the viral clip where the person shooting it asks help from 'Chamba SP' for the protection of his family, we searched for Chamba and found that it is Himachal Pradesh and not Uttrakhand.
We then contacted Assistant sub-inspector (ASI) Pushpender Thakur, Chamba Police who denied that there was any communal angle to the incident and stated that it was a local road dispute between members of the same community.
"This happened about seven to eight days ago and the matter has since been resolved. Both the parties involved are Muslims. There was a new road constructed and in the video is the old road, which was blocked. The road was blocked by people who had donated part of their land for the new road. They had an argument about why is there a need to use the old road when there is a newly constructed one," said Pushpender.
He denied any religious claim to the incident.
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