No, This Is Not a Video of Hindus Being Attacked in ‘No-Go Zones’ in West Bengal

It dates back to 2017 and activists from the Gorkhaland Janmukti Morcha attacking BJP MP Dilip Ghosh and his team.

An old video is being shared with the false claim that it shows Hindus being attacked in "no-go zones" in West Bengal.

(Photo: Twitter/Altered by The Quint)

A video showing a group of people beating up a few people wearing scarves with the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) symbol on them – including BJP MP Dilip Ghosh – is being shared on social media platforms.

What is the claim?: The video is being shared to claim that there are "no-go zones" for Hindus in West Bengal, which are areas where only people from the Rohingya and Muslim communities are allowed to enter.

• It claims to show what "Hindus are reduced to" in West Bengal and mentions West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's "vote bank."

• The claim comes days before the state's panchayat polls, which are set to be held on 8 July.

An archive of this tweet can be seen here.

This post by Twitter Blue subscriber '@JIX5A' was viewed over four lakh times at the time of writing this article.

(Archives of more such claims can be seen here, here, here, and here.)

But...?: The video dates back to October 2017, when BJP MP Dilip Ghosh and some party members were attacked by activists from a faction of the Gorkhaland Janmukti Morcha (GJM).

How did we find out?:

• We identified one of the people in the video as BJP MP Dilip Ghosh.

• Taking this as a hint, we used relevant keywords to look for reports of Ghosh being attacked.

• This led us to a video by ABP News, published on 6 October 2017, which carried similar visuals of Ghosh and his team being attacked in West Bengal's Darjeeling.

• It mentioned that they were attacked by "Gorkha supporters."

The same people can be seen standing together in both videos.

We looked for more reports on this incident.

• A BJP delegation, including Dilip Ghosh, the party's state president in 2017, was heckled and assaulted by a faction of the Gorkhaland Janmukti Morcha (GJM), reported The Indian Express.

• We also came across an article by Hindustan Times, which mentioned that GJM's Benoy Tamang supporters had attacked Ghosh and other BJP members a few minutes "after forcing him to cancel a public meeting."

The Quint's WebQoof team has previously debunked this claim twice, in 2019 and 2020, when it was shared with claims questioning the law and order situation in West Bengal and in connection to anti-CAA protests respectively.

Conclusion: The video is old and shows BJP MP Dilip Ghosh and other BJP members being heckled and assaulted by a faction supporting Benoy Tamang, belonging to the Gorkhaland Janmukti Morcha and does not show areas in West Bengal where Hindus cannot enter.

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