Fact-Check: Vandalism of New Delhi Mosque From 2020 Shared as Recent Incident

The incident in question took place in New Delhi's Ashok Nagar area in February 2020 and is not recent.

Fact-Check: While the incident did take place in New Delhi, the video is not recent and was taken around six years ago.

(Photo: Altered by The Quint) 

A video is going viral claiming to show a recent incident from New Delhi where a few men climbed atop a mosque and attempted to plant a saffron flag on its minaret.

What did the post say?: The post, uploaded by X (formerly Twitter) user 'AaishaaSoomro' on 24 May, was shared with the caption, "Dear world, this is how minorities are treated in Modi's India. Location Delhi."

An archived version of this claim can be found here. 

(Source: X/Screenshot) 

The post has garnered over 2 lakh views after it was uploaded on 24 May.

(You can view other archives of similar claims here, here, and here.)

What are the facts?: The claim is misleading. While the incident did take place in New Delhi, the video is not recent and was taken around six years ago.

How did we find out the truth?: A reverse image search of the video's keyframes led us to several videos of the incident from February 2020.

• The video of the incident was uploaded by journalist Rana Ayyub on X on 25 February 2020 with the caption, "Re-posting this video after verifying its authenticity. It is from Delhi. Men marching on top of a mosque, vandalising it and placing a saffron flag over it."

An X post by Rana Ayyub from 25 February 2020. 

(Source: X/Screenshot) 

• You can find other posts on social media containing the same video from February 2020 here and here.

• WebQoof had published a fact-check video on 26 February 2020, a day after the incident, busting fake news that had been circulating at the time that the vandalism did not take place in New Delhi. The video, shot in New Delhi's Ashok Nagar, shows the same mosque—Badi Masjid—in the background. You can watch the video here.

• A simple Google search with keywords 'Delhi mosque vandalism February 2020' led us to several other news reports on the incident.

• "A mosque in Ashok Nagar was set on fire late on Tuesday afternoon. A mob shouting 'Jai Shri Ram' and 'Hinduon ka Hindustan' paraded around the burning mosque, Badi Masjid, and a Hanuman flag was placed on the minaret of the masjid," stated a report by The Wire on 25 February 2020.

• You can view other news reports on the incident here, here, and here.

Conclusion: While the video is indeed from New Delhi, the incident occurred on 25 February 2020 and not recently as is being claimed on social media.

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