“BJP/RSS workers celeberating their victory by attacking a Church in Manglore, Police arrested them all. Media is present but not showing on News Channels Immediate (sic).”
A video, with the aforementioned quote, is going viral on social media. In it, the police can be seen beating up people inside a church. It is being claimed that this video is an instance of the BJP/RSS cadre attacking a church in Mangaluru after BJP emerged as the single-largest party in the 2018 Karnataka Assembly elections.
A longer version of the video with a similar claim was shared on a page called “Muslim-Pro” and has been viewed over 44,000 times.
This video is going viral on various social media platforms, including Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp. The screenshot below illustrates how widely it is being shared on Facebook.
An attack on a church involving as much police as can be seen in the video above will be reported by at least some sections of the media, if not all.
When we looked for reports of any such incident, we could not find anything in recent past. Therefore, the claim didn’t add up. When we looked for similar incidents on YouTube, we stumbled upon a 2008 report by Al Jazeera, which includes the viral video being shared presently.
As mentioned in the Al Jazeera report, the incident happened at the St Sebastian Church in Permannur in Mangalore. The Al Jazeera report is dated 5 October 2008.
Daijiworld.com which focuses on news from coastal Karnataka reported this incident on 15 September 2008. Later, witnesses blamed Bajrang Dal for the attack on the church in their testimonies before Justice BK Somasekhara Commission of Inquiry.
A video of an incident from 2008 is being shared as an event which took place recently to create an impression that members of the Sangh Parivar, who in the past have attacked religious institutions of the minority community, have gained additional courage because of BJP emerging as the single-largest party in Karnataka.
(This article was originally published on AltNews. It has been republished with permission.)
(The Quint is now on WhatsApp. To receive handpicked stories on topics you care about, subscribe to our WhatsApp services. Just go to TheQuint.com/WhatsApp and hit Send.)
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)