The Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, which was passed in the Lok Sabha on 9 December and in the Rajya Sabha on 11 December, has led to widespread protests across the country.
At least two people died due to bullet injuries on Thursday, 12 December, after police opened fire on protesters in Assam's Guwahati. Amid the flare up between police and protesters in different parts of the country, a lot of misinformation is doing the rounds on social media.
CLAIM
Multiple images on the internet are being shared with a claim that it shows Assam Police beating the protesters. Its caption says, “Assam is burning. Protesters protesting against Citizenship (Amendment) Bill are being physically molested and female protesters are being beaten up by male police personnel without any valid reason (sic),” the claim reads.
The images are also being shared on Twitter with a similar claim.
TRUE OR FALSE?
The Quint could confirm that the images were being circulated with a misleading claim. They do not show cops beating the protesters in Assam.
On conducting a reverse image search of all the pictures, we found out that the pictures are from Uttar Pradesh.
Let's take a look at them one by one.
IMAGE 1
On conducting a reverse image search using the Yandex search engine we found a report by Free Press Journal which carried this image with a headline saying, “Watch: UP Police gets active, thrashes Cong youth workers protesting Unnao rape.”
Several users on Twitter had shared the incident calling out the UP Police for lathicharge on protesters as they gathered outside the BJP office in Lucknow.
IMAGE 2
This image is of a married women brutally beaten in the market of Mainpuri in Uttar Pradesh. The incident dates back to December, 2016. The Quint had earlier debunked this story.
Clearly, a bunch of unrelated pictures have been used to claim that they are of the protest in Assam against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, but the truth is, they are not.
PROTESTS AGAINST CITIZENSHIP BILL IN ASSAM
Amid unrest over Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, at least two people died due to bullet injuries on Thursday, 12 December, after police opened fire on protesters in Assam's Guwahati.
Indefinite curfew has been imposed and mobile internet services have been suspended in various parts of the state as protesters took to streets after the Bill was passed in both the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha.
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