schema:text
| - Fact Check: Video of Khalistan supporter threatening Gujarati is NOT from Canada
India Today found that the incident is from the London suburb Southall and took place in March — thus unrelated to the ongoing row.
Listen to Story
India Today Fact Check
This video is six months old and not from Canada. This incident took place in Southall in the UK in March 2023.
Amid rising diplomatic tensions between India and Canada, a video allegedly showing a Sikh Khalistan supporter in Canada intimidating and threatening a Gujarati man on the road has been widely shared.
On Facebook, one person shared the video and wrote, "Open threat to Gujaratis in Canada. Narendra Modi ji and Dr S Jaishankar ji, it's an ardent request from a voter that kindly take some bold actions against these fringe Khalistani elements." An archived version of this can be seen here.
India Today found that the video is not from Canada but from London and is unrelated to the ongoing crisis.
OUR PROBE
Upon reverse-searching keyframes from the viral video, we found a news report in “Desh Gujarat”. Published on March 2023, this report featured a screengrab from the viral video, and the headline mentioned that the incident took place in the United Kingdom.
Further refined searches led us to reports in Times Of India, OneIndia News, and Free Press Journal. Per these reports, the incident occurred in Southall, a suburb of London, in March 2023 against the backdrop of protests that were sparked by the Punjab Government's crackdown on the fugitive Khalistani leader Amritpal Singh.
Reportedly, a Khalistan supporter confronted and threatened an individual believed to be of Gujarati descent on a Southall street, as captured in the video. It's noteworthy that this is the same time when the Indian High Commission in the UK came under attack by Khalistani extremists.
The fact that this video was shared in March 2023 makes it clear that it could not have been related to the recent diplomatic tensions between India and Canada. These tensions were sparked by Canada’s allegations of a potential link between the Indian government and the killing of the Sikh separatist leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar on Canadian soil in June.
Please share it on our at 73 7000 7000
You can also send us an email at factcheck@intoday.com
|