CLAIM
A video is being shared with the claim that it shows Hindus in Pakistan being persecuted by police personnel. The viral video, uploaded by a user called Ashish Awasthi, who has since deleted it, had over 450K views and 39K shares.
The video was shared with the caption: पाकिस्तान में अल्पसंख्यक #हिंदुओं पर अत्याचार करते पाकिस्तानी सुरक्षाकर्मी। (Translation: Pakistani security personnel persecuting minority #Hindus in Pakistan.)
The video has been shared by many others with the same claim since September 2019.
Police personnel can be seen beating up an elderly couple in the video.
The Quint found many posts of the same video with a similar caption.
We also found some people sharing the video on Twitter with the same narrative.
TRUE OR FALSE?
While the incident took place, the claim with which the video is being shared is completely false. The video doesn’t show police brutality against minority Hindus, but police beating up a couple who were protesting against development authority officials in Multan.
WHAT’S THE TRUTH?
On looking at the video, The Quint saw that there was a ‘T’ on the top right of the video. Recognising it as the logo of Pakistani news outlet The Express Tribune, we ran a keyword search with the words ‘elderly couple beaten by police the tribune’, we came across a news article by The Express Tribune which carried photos of the same incident and provided the details of the incident.
According to the report, the incident had taken place in November 2017 in Multan, when an elderly couple – 75-year-old Naseem Bibi and her husband – who were protesting against the Multan Development Authority (MDA) were thrashed by the Chehlak police.
According to the report, the couple were protesting against MDA officials in the Chehlak area who had allegedly threatened them to leave their land. At that time, the police arrived and started beating the couple up.
The Express Tribune further said that the police dragged the elderly couple through the street while taking them to their van.
Another news report by Geo News, which identified the couple as Muhammad Idrees and Naseem Bibi, further said that the couple had sought justice for being roughed up by the police.
The report added that the-then Chief Minister of Punjab Shehbaz Sharif took notice of the police action against the couple and suspended the Deputy Superintendent of Police DSP and Station House Officer.
Therefore, it is clear that the claim with the video that Hindus are being beaten up by police in Pakistan is misleading and the incident is completely unrelated.
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