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| - Fact Check: Interrupted Namaz did not cause mob to destroy railway station, this 2019 video shows violent anti-CAA protestors
A video of a mob vandalising a railway station went viral on social media, with the claim that the mob did so because a train horn allegedly disturbed their prayers. India Today's Anti Fake News War Room (AFWA) has found the video to be misleading.
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India Today Fact Check
This December 2019 video from the Naopara Mahishasura railway station in the Murshidabad district of West Bengal showed anti-CAA protestors getting violent and destroying the station. It was not related to prayers getting interrupted.
A video of a bunch of men vandalising a railway station went viral on social media. People claimed that the mob vandalised the station because a train horn allegedly disturbed their prayers.
One Twitter user shared the video and claimed, “Mahishashur railway station in Murshidabad, Bengal being destroyed. Reason: The sound of the train whistle is disturbing their Namaaz. We can see the future of India.”
The archived version of a similar post can be seen here.
The India Today Anti Fake News War Room (AFWA) found that the claim along with the video was misleading. This is a 2019 video that showed anti-CAA anti-NRC protestors vandalising the railway station.
AFWA probe
First, we did not find any recent reports of Muslim mobs vandalising railway stations in West Bengal, specifically in Murshidabad. In the viral video, “Naopara Mahishasur” was clearly visible on the wall.
Naopara Mahishasur railway station in the Murshidabad district of West Bengal falls under the Malda railway division of the Eastern Railway zone.
We searched for the incident on Facebook and Twitter and found the same video and several other videos of the same incident shared by people in December 2019. Some of these posts claimed that the video was from an Anti-Citizenship (Amendment) Act and anti-National Register of Citizens protest.
In a different video capturing the same incident, someone in the mob could be heard saying, “Koi NRC nahi chalega Dekho kitna log hai. Sab log aa jayega to kya karega Modi jee,” or “NRC won’t happen Look at the number of people here. Modi jee will be helpless in front of the masses.”
@AmitShah Station: Naopara Mahishasur
District: Murshidabad
State: You guessed it
Action: Expression of freedom
By: You got it pic.twitter.com/TRQ4FArHNC — GS SRIDHAR (@JaiBharatgss) December 17, 2019
To verify what happened, we reached out to the Divisional Railway Manager (DRM) of Malda, Yatendra Kumar, who refuted the viral claim and said, “This video was from an anti-CAA protest that took place in December 2019. It has no connection with train horns or Namaz.” He also said that no such incident had occurred in the Mahishasur railway station in the recent past.
Aboni Pramanik, the general secretary of the Railway Passengers Association of Azimganj-Nalhati Section, under which the Naopara Mahishasur railway station falls, also confirmed that the video showed anti-CAA protestors, who allegedly vandalised several railway stations in Murshidabad at that time.
We also found a Bartaman Patrika report from December 15, 2019, that mentions the vandalism at Naopara Mahishasur railway station by anti-CAA protestors. As per this report, on December 14, 2019, different parts of Mushirabad witnessed ranging protests against the CAA and the NRC.
The report cited police sources who said that protesters gathered at Nimtita, Poradanga, and Naopara Mahishasur stations and began vandalising them that morning.
Violent protests also broke out in different districts of West Bengal on December 14, with protestors torching buses, trains, railway stations, and destroying public property.
It is hence clear that the video in question showed anti-CAA and anti-NRC protestors destroying the railway station. It had nothing to do with train horns interrupting Namaz.
(With inputs from Gopal Thakur in Murshidabad )
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