A video of Muslim gathering has been falsely portrayed as the one that took place during the ongoing holy month of Ramadan.
It has been viewed thousands of times on Facebook and Twitter with the claim that the gathering took place in Hyderabad, the capital city of Telangana in South India, recently amidst the surge in Covid-19 cases across the country. Health experts warn that large gatherings act as super spreaders of the infection.
According to AFP Fact-Check, the video was shared on Facebook page on April 18 and it was viewed 13,000 times.
The video says that Muslims gathered for Iftaar outside a mosque to break day’s fast. “The people should also see this Iftar feast if they are done with spreading knowledge over Kumbh,” reads the caption with video.
Kumbh is a Hindu festival currently underway in Haridwar, a north Indian city, where tens of thousands gathered to take holy dip in river Ganga. The Modi government has come under heavy criticism for allowing Hindus to gather for the festival while the country is battling with brutal second wave of the virus that has consumed thousands of lives and pushed the health care system to limits.
AFP fact-check revealed that the video was shared repeatedly on Facebook and Twitter but with wrong context.
Research using digital tools by AFP found that the video was previously shared with different but factually correct claim that the gathering was funeral of a Muslim cleric who died in the city of Sambhal in Uttar Pradesh. The video has been shot near a seminary. The buildings seen in the video match that of seminary as found on google maps.