A video is being circulated online claiming that several Hindu women and children were raped and murdered by Muslims in Bangladesh. However, fact-checking organization Rumor Scanner has revealed that the video is not from Bangladesh but rather depicts a stampede during a religious festival in India.
In a report published today (Friday), Rumor Scanner stated that the video has been viewed over 500,000 times on X (formerly Twitter).
Recently, many Indian media outlets and social media users have been spreading false, misleading, and fabricated information about events in Bangladesh. Among these is the attempt to pass off an Indian incident as an example of minority persecution in Bangladesh. According to Rumor Scanner’s investigation, the circulated video shows an incident from July in Uttar Pradesh, India, where over a hundred women and children died in a stampede during a religious festival.
During the investigation, a video uploaded on July 3 on a YouTube channel named Avinandan Kumar was discovered. The footage from that video matched the one being circulated. The caption of the video, when translated from Hindi, states that 122 people, mostly women and children, were killed in a stampede while traveling to Hathras in Uttar Pradesh. Further inquiries uncovered another video posted on July 5 from an Instagram account named Chandrashekhar. This account was found to belong to an Indian user, and the video shared there also matched the circulated footage.
Additionally, a report published on July 5 by Indian media outlet India Today confirmed that at least 123 people, mostly women and children, died on July 2 during a stampede at a religious event in Phulrai village, Uttar Pradesh. Similar reports were also published by News18 and Hindustan Times at the time.
Rumor Scanner concluded that the video showing women and children dying in a stampede in India is being falsely presented as an incident of Hindu women and children being raped and murdered in Bangladesh. This claim is entirely false.
