Fact check: Image from 2018 from Australia shared as recent Ramlila fight in Punjab

Hyderabad: Amid Dussehra celebrations, a photo claiming to be of an attack on Ramlila actors in Punjab has gone viral. It shows a room with broken furniture and materials scattered on the floor.

A Twitter user wrote, "In Punjab too, due to the Congress government, the Ramlila event of Hindus was attacked and the venue was corrupted! Perhaps Congress wants to completely destroy Hindus (translated)."

Click here to view the archive and here to view a similar claim on Facebook.

FACT CHECK

The claim that the viral image is connected to the Ramlila fight in Punjab is FALSE.

Although it is true that in Kothe Manwal (village of Punjab), a fight took place during a Ramlila programme (read here), the viral picture is not related to this event.

NewsMeter performed a reverse image search and found the same image in an article by CRIKEY (an Australian magazine) from October 2018. It stated that vandals attacked a Hindu temple in a south western Sydney suburb of the Regent’s Park and destroyed statues and musical instruments, and set fire to parts of the temple, and wrote ‘Jesus’ on a wall.

Another article by SBS HINDI also claimed the same. "More than 30 statues of Hindu gods at the temple in Sydney's Regents Park were destroyed. Carpets were burnt and the place was in ruin when devotees arrived for Sunday evening prayers," the report read.

The same picture and claim was also found in reports by The Indian Down Under, the Hindu Post, and the Opinion India.

Therefore, the picture of an attack on a Hindu temple in Australia from 2018 is being wrongly circulated as damage from a recent ruckus at a Ramlila programme in Punjab.