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| - A video which appears to show several people pelting things at each other is being circulated on social media platforms as recent visuals from the ongoing 2025 Maha Kumbh Mela.
What did the viral post say?: Those sharing the clip have uploaded it with a caption that said, "Prime Minister Narendra Modi had once said during an election rally, "You can identify têπorists by their clothes..." That's what I have to say (sic)."
What are the facts?: The claims are false. The video could be traced back to at least August 2024 and shows people celebrating the Bagwal festival in Uttarakhand.
What led us to the truth?: We divided the video into several keyframes using the help of video verification tool named 'InVID' and conducted a reverse image search on them.
A Google search directed us to the same visuals posted on an unverified YouTube channel called 'Mustakeem Ahmed'.
The video was posted on 20 December 2024 and the text in it said "Bagwal".
On performing another round of reverse image search, we found an older version of the clip posted on an Instagram handle.
It was posted on 21 August 2024 with the user identifying the event as Bagwal.
News reports: An Amar Ujala report mentioned Bagwal was played twice for the first time on the occasion of Rakshabandhan at the Varahi Dham Devidhura in Uttarakhand.
It said that Bagwal is played by local people, where one group defends themselves and throw back the fruits, flowers, or stones thrown by the other group.
The report further said that Bagwal lasted for around 11 minutes and also led to around 212 people being injured. However, all of them were discharged after receiving first aid.
It said that Bagwal was earlier played using stones, however, now it is played with fruits and flowers.
A report in Dainik Jagran carried several visuals from the festival, which carried several similarities to the viral clip.
Conclusion: It is evident that the video is old and unrelated to the ongoing 2025 Maha Kumbh.
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