Fact Check: Did police mistreat hijab supporters in West Bengal? Here's the truth
A video reportedly showing the police mistreating hijab supporters in the Murshidabad district of West Bengal is doing the rounds of social media.
By Newsmeter Network Published on 20 Feb 2022 2:06 PM GMT
Hyderabad: A video reportedly showing the police mistreating hijab supporters in the Murshidabad district of West Bengal is doing the rounds of social media.
The video is going viral amid the Karnataka hijab row.
Fact Check:
NewsMeter noticed the word 'NEP' on one of the posters along with a text in Kannada.
Taking this as a hint, the fact-checking team searched online for reports on NEP protestors attacked by the Karnataka police. We found a similar photo on the website Sahil Online from 15 September 2021. The headline reads, "Bengaluru: Police resort to mild lathi-charge on students protesting against NEP". Sahil Online had also posted a video of the incident on its YouTube channel.
According to Times of India, Deccan Herald, and Bangalore News Today the "police resorted to mild lathi-charge after students protesting against National Education Policy (NEP) tried to break the barricade at Mysore bank circle and march towards Vidhana Soudha." Around 300 students from the Campus Front of India gathered at Mysore bank circle and condemned the Central government for the NEP policy. While Attaulla Khan, state leader from the Campus Front of India said police unnecessarily used force, senior cops justified their actions saying that protesters had not taken any permission and that the trouble began when some of them sat in the middle of the road, causing a traffic jam and when some pushed the barricades to walk towards Vidhana Soudha and attacked cops who tried to stop them.
Click here to watch a video report about the incident by TV9 Kannada.
Clearly, an old video of a NEP protest in Karnataka is being falsely linked to the hijab row. The video does not show the police mistreating protestors in West Bengal.
