Video of Brawl in Pune Viral With False Communal Claim, Linked to Pakistan

The DCP commented that there were no communal links in this incident. No such mention has been noted in the FIR.

As tensions between India and Pakistan escalate following the Pahalgam terror incident, a video of a fight was widely circulated with the claim that a group assaulted a Hindu family in Pune after they criticised Pakistan on social media.

(Archives of similar claims can be found here and here.) We also received a query about this on our WhatsApp tipline.

Is the claim true?: No, the claim is false.

• The video shows a scuffle that broke out between two groups over a road rage incident in Pune. The accused, Shoaib Umar Saiyyad has been arrested with an attempt to murder charge.

• Pune city police denied the communal undertone, as suggested in the claim.

What we found: At first, we divided the video into multiple screenshots and ran a Google reverse image search on some of them.

• We came across a report by Lokmat from 29 April which carried the frames of the video.

• The report noted that a man and his family were brutally attacked over a dispute related to bike honking.

• The fight broke out when the man's younger brother honked while passing through a narrow lane, angering the accused, Shoaib Umar Saiyyad, who had parked his auto-rickshaw on the road. Shoaib allegedly abused and started beating him.

• Later, the brother returned with his sister and grandfather, and Shoaib and his associates attacked the family again. The brother sustained a serious head injury, and the sister and another family member were also injured.

• The police have arrested Shoaib and booked him and his associates for attempt to murder.

• Similarly, Pune Mirror and Pune Pulse also reported about this incident.

Police comments: The Quint spoke to Deputy Commissioner of Police Sandeep Singh Gill of Pune Zone - 1 (where the scuffle broke out), who denied the communal undertone given to this video by several social media users.

• He said that the accused was arrested on an attempt to murder charge because the two groups broke into a fight over a honking disagreement. There was no mention of anything related to Pakistan or the Pahalgam attack in the First Information Report (FIR).

Conclusion: A video of a physical fight between two parties in Pune has gone viral with a false communal claim.

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