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A video of protesters being thrashed by the police has gone viral on social media with the claim that the demonstrators are 'Bangladeshi Muslims' in Assam demanding a separate country. It is actually an old video from 2017.
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India Today Fact Check
The video clip is of locals from Assam’s Goalpara district protesting against alleged harassment of Muslims as they were listed as illegal immigrants or doubtful voters in 2017.
A video of a group of protesters getting thrashed by the police is going viral on social media with the claim that the demonstrators are 'Bangladeshi Muslims' in Assam who are demanding a separate country. The claim further says that Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma has taken action against them by getting them beaten up by the police.
Multiple Facebook users have posted this one minute and 30 seconds-long video with a graphic in Hindi superimposed that says, “In Assam, Bangladeshi Muslims have demanded a separate country” with an angry emoji. The caption reads out that “Himanta Biswa Sarma has given a perfect beating to these protesters.”
India Today Anti-Fake News has found that this is a 2017 video of a demonstration carried out by locals in Goalpara district of Assam. These men were protesting against the alleged harassment of Muslims by the state by listing them as illegal migrants, or 'D voters' (doubtful voters).
These viral posts are archived here and here.
Truth behind viral video
Using a combination of reverse image and keyword search, we found a longer version of the same viral video that was uploaded on YouTube on July 2, 2017 by a user called ‘Times of Dhubri’.
The title reads, “GOALPARA INCIDENT- POLICE KILLED A YOUNG PROTESTER IYAQUB ALI". As per the details given by the user, the protesters were “demanding lifting of 'doubtful citizen and voters tag' imposed by the govt. against many genuine Indians” in Assam.
Taking this as the cue with the help of keyword search, we found an article published on Scroll.in on July 3, 2017.
As per this article, a Muslim protester died during police firing in Goalpara on June 30, 2017, after a protest turned violent. The protest was against the "alleged harassment of Muslims by the state by falsely accusing them of being illegal migrants or D voters as they call them in Khutamari.”
Scroll.in quoted a Facebook user, Hussain Ali Madani, who had recorded the video and posted it on the social media site on June 30, 2017.
The caption of the post in Assamese reads, “Tension in Goalpara as one person was killed, and another was injured in a gunfight between the protesters and the police.”
A similar report was published on a news website called Newsclick with the screenshot of the protest poster on July 2, 2017.
The rough translation of the Assamese text written on the protest banner confirms that the protest was about the issue of ‘D voters’ and the demonstrators were demanding that genuine citizens should not be harassed by being listed as D voters. They had called to block National Highway 37 on June 30, 2017 as a mark of protest.
What is a 'D voter' in Assam?
Doubtful voter is a category of voters in Assam who are disenfranchised by the government on account of their alleged lack of proper citizenship credentials. Some cases of persons declared D voters are pending with the foreign tribunals.
As per the Assam government website, D voters can apply for inclusion of their names in the updated NRC. However, a D voter’s name will only be included in NRC after getting clearance from the foreigners' tribunals and on the removal of their names as D voters from the electoral roll.
Hence, it is misleading to say that this viral video is of 'Bangladeshi Muslims' who are demanding a separate country. The incident took place in 2017 when Himanta Biswa Sarma was not the chief minister of Assam.
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