Amid protests in Assam against the Citizenship Amendment Bill that was passed in both houses of parliament and got a nod from the president of India this week, several unrelated photos are viral on social media.
EastMojo, a website covering the Northeast, reported that two people had died and 4 were injured from police firing in Guwahati. However, some of the images shared on social media are not related to the current violence in Assam.
Two of photos show police in confrontation with female protesters.
While sharing a photo of a policewoman trying to control another woman protester , one Twitter user wrote: "Shame On you Assam Police. @assampolice #AssamAgainstCAB #CountryAgainstBJP"
A Facebook user posted two photos claiming to be from protests in Assam. You can see the post below.
Apart from these two photographs, another photo of a woman bleeding from the head is viral on social media. The caption along with the photo states: "Shame on you Assam Police,This is what Assam government is doing to us;below you can see their brutally,Police are firing rubber bullets,charging lathi while protecting those monstars.This is really a black day for assam.Assam is burning now.Fasicism at it's best...#SaynotoCAB" (Sic)
Fact Check
BOOM ran reverse image search for the images shown in the posts above and found not a single photograph was related to the ongoing protests in Assam.
Photo 1
The above photograph is not from Assam but from a protest against a horrific rape case in Uttar Pradesh's Unnao. In the photo, the UP police are seen trying to overpower a Samajwadi Party worker. A video from the incident shows the woman was trying to leave the protest scene when she was physically restrained by the policewoman.
BOOM was able to trace the video and found that the girl in the video is an SP worker named Puja Yadav.
Several Twitter users have been claiming that she is a part of the NSUI, the student wing of the Congress. We found an article by Freepress Journal on the incident with the same photograph. The story can be read here.
Photo 2
Another photograph from the protest against the Unnao rape is also viral. The woman in pink Sari has been protesting in Lucknow in front of the BJP office. It is not clear if she is affiliated to a political party, but the protest was against the Unnao rape and murder case. An article published by The Indian Express has used a photograph of the same woman from a different angle. The photos of her are viral on social media. The picture was also posted by Youth Congress from its official Twitter handle.
Photo 3
Another old image of a woman badly injured and bleeding from the head is also being passed off as Assam. The picture, however, is from Uttar Pradesh. BOOM found an article published by The Independent on December 23, 2016, stating that she is the victim of a sexual assault. She was reportedly beaten and harassed by men in Mainpuri of Uttar Pradesh. Read more here.
