Fact Check: Mosque set on fire in India? No, viral video is from Indonesia

Hyderabad: A video reportedly showing a mosque engulfed in fire has been circulating on social media, with the claim that the religious place of Muslims was set on fire in India.

A Facebook user shared the video with the Bangla caption, claiming, “A mosque has been set on fire in India..!” (Archive)

Another Facebook user shared the video with a Bangla caption: “We protect your temples! And you set fire to our mosques?” (Archive)

Fact Check

NewsMeter found that the claim is false, as the video is from Indonesia.

Upon a reverse image search of the video’s keyframes, we discovered images of the same mosque on fire, posted by a Facebook account on December 8. The post, written in Indonesian, stated that a fire had broken out at the Central Market in Luwuk, Banggai in Indonesia, on December 8, 2024. (Archive)

We also found an Indonesian report published by The Tribun Palu on December 8, featuring images of the mosque engulfed in flames. According to the report, the fire started in a trader’s stall and quickly spread to the mosque at Luwuk Central Market in Banggai Regency, Central Sulawesi, Indonesia. Nearly all the buildings in the market were reported to have been destroyed. After several hours of effort, the fire was extinguished.

The Tribun Palu also published a video report on December 9, providing details of the entire incident and stating that the fire was allegedly caused by an electrical short circuit.

Using Google Street View, we could geolocate the mosque in Central Sulawesi, which further confirmed that the video is from Indonesia.

Therefore, we conclude that the video is from Indonesia and the claim that a mosque was set on fire in India is false.