Fact Check: Old video of Milad-Un-Nabi procession in Hyderabad passed off as unrest under Congress government

Hyderabad: A video showing heavy traffic jams in Hyderabad reportedly due to a procession of people carrying green flags is doing rounds on social media.

Sharing the video on X a user wrote, “Karnataka Congress leader said: Pakistan enemy country for BJP; not for us Slogans of Pakistan Zindabad were raised. And now in Hyderabad: Pakistan supporters wave flags What flags are these ??? Vote wisely; VOTE VERY WISELY.” (Archive)

The video was also posted by BJP Telangana spokesperson Dr BL Sreenivas Solanky. According to the Asianet Newsable (Archive) report of April 8, Solanky shared the video claiming the consequences of Congress coming to power in Telangana. He had captioned the video, “Unsettling scenes in Hyderabad as Pakistani supporters wave flags, a stark reminder of the consequences of Congress coming to power in Telangana. Let's heed this warning and consider the implications of our vote.”

“Law and Order In Hyderabad, under congress rule,” wrote an X user @uttamKBRS while sharing the post of Solanky. At the time of writing this article, Solanky deleted the post. Here is the archived version of the post by @uttamKBRS.

Fact Check

NewsMeter found that the video is neither recent nor depicts a procession taken out during the current Congress government in Telangana.

The official handle of Hyderabad City police (Archive) responded to @uttamKBRS's post, stating that the video depicts the Milad-Un-Nabi procession from 2023. They urged the user to delete the post and cautioned that sharing misinformation could lead to legal action against them.

Upon a reverse image search of the video’s keyframe, we found it on YouTube, uploaded by the channel Hyderabad Deccan News (Archive) on October 2, 2023. According to the channel, youngsters had taken out a bike procession on the occasion of Milad-Un-Nabi which caused traffic jams and inconvenience to people on Tank Bund Road in Hyderabad.

Milad-Un-Nabi in India was celebrated on September 28 last year and Revanth Reddy was sworn in as the first Congress Chief Minister of Telangana on December 7, 2023. It is hence clear that the video is not of a procession taken out during the Congress government in Telangana.

What about the flags seen in the video?

On closely examining the video, we noticed that the procession not only had green flags but it also had religious flags with other shades. Also, we compared the green religious flag with Pakistan’s national flag. Pakistan’s flag has a white strip and the crescent and star face on the opposite side while the flag in the viral video has no white strip and crescent and star face towards the flag post.

Hence, we conclude that the video showing the procession was not taken during the Congress government in Telangana with Pakistan’s flag. The video is of Milad-Un-Nabi’s from last year and the claim is false.