A video of several men vandalising statues and a building is being shared on social media platforms with a claim that it shows recent visuals from the protests that broke out in Ladakh.
What have users said?: An Instagram handle called '@bantykkhan_jmm' had uploaded the clip with a caption in Hindi that loosely translated to, "This is not Nepal, this is Ladakh sir......No more slogans.. Every hand needs work sir........"
What is the truth?: The visuals are actually from the Gen-Z protests in Nepal and are not connected to Ladakh. This means that the viral claim is false.
Hints in the viral video: On closely looking at the video, we spotted the national flag of Nepal next to the statue that was being vandalised.
The board further said "जिल्ला प्रशासन कार्यालय चितवन" (Translation: District Administration Office Chitwan). For the unversed, Chitwan is a district located in Nepal.
These findings pointed towards the fact that the video could be from Nepal and not have any relation with Ladakh.
Finding an older version: Next, we conducted a Google Lens search on the keyframes of the viral video and found the same visuals uploaded on an Instagram handle named 'shokib_035'.
It was shared on 13 September, which predated the protests in Ladakh.
The user had identified the location as Nepal.
News sources: A post shared by The Kathmandu Post on 10 September, on its X handle, said that protesters in Chitwan district had torched the District Administration Office and the election office near to it.
It further said, "The district court, land revenue and government attorney’s offices were set on fire, destroying documents. Municipal and ward offices in Bharatpur and other areas were also attacked."
Geolocating the place: We searched for District Administration Office Chitwan on Google Maps and found the 'street view' option for the location.
The visual appeared to be similar to the viral video.
Comparing visuals: Team WebQoof compared a keyframe from the viral video to the visuals available on Google Maps, which showed that the clip was indeed from Nepal's Chitwan.
Conclusion: Evidently, the video is from Nepal and not from the recent protests in Ladakh.
(Not convinced of a post or information you came across online and want it verified? Send us the details on WhatsApp at 9540511818 , or e-mail it to us at webqoof@thequint.com and we'll fact-check it for you. You can also read all our fact-checked stories here.)