Fact Check: Video of Pope’s visit to East Timor falsely linked to rally by AIMIM’s Imtiaz Jaleel

Hyderabad: On September 23, AIMIM’s Imtiaz Jaleel led a Tiranga Rally from Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar to Mumbai, demanding the arrest of BJP MLA Nitesh Rane and Ramgiri Maharaj of the Sakal Hindu Samaj for their alleged inflammatory statements against the Muslim community.

The rally was set to culminate in Mumbai, where Jaleel planned to meet Maharashtra chief minister Eknath Shinde and demand the leaders' arrests.

In this context, a video showing a huge crowd of people moving along a cavalcade of vehicles is circulating on social media with the claim that it shows Jaleel’s rally.

An X user shared the video and wrote, “A protest has been held in Mumbai against the disrespect towards Prophet Muhammad. Led by former MP Imtiaz Jaleel, millions of Muslims have gathered in the city.” (Archive)

A right-wing X account, run by Deepak Sharma, who frequently spreads disinformation, shared the video with a provocative caption: “This is not Pakistan or Bangladesh. This is not Iraq, Iran, or Afghanistan. This is our Mumbai, where Muslims want to display their strength on the streets. Keep sleeping, Hindus.” (Archive)

Fact Check

NewsMeter found that the claim is false. The video is from Pope Francis’s visit to East Timor.

Upon conducting a reverse image search of the video’s keyframe, we found it shared by a Facebook account called Nigerian Catholics on September 12. The caption read: “Pope Francis welcome historic visit to Timoleste, a country with 100% Catholic root.” (Archive)

East Timor, a country in Southeast Asia, is also known as Timor-Leste.

During our search, we found the video has been allegedly used to spread fake news in some countries.

We found two verified Morocco-based X accounts – Morocco News and an account associated with the Moorish Movement – who posted the video on September 16. Both accounts stated that Algerian propaganda pages were falsely claiming that the video depicted a mass exodus from Morocco. In reality, the footage shows the arrival of the Pope in East Timor on September 9, they claimed. (Archive) (Archive)

Further, we analysed the keyframes of the video posted by the Moorish Movement X handle. From the higher resolution of the video, we noticed a poster of the Pope on the wall by the side of the road and also a red flag on a lamp post similar to the national flag of East Timor.

Following this lead, we conducted a keyword search and found an Al Jazeera report from September 10, stating that people clamoured to catch a glimpse of the 87-year-old pontiff. Approximately 6,00,000 persons out of a population of 1.3 million in East Timor attended the holy mass.

Additionally, we discovered a live stream on the Facebook page of the country’s local media outlet, TVET Entertainment, featuring similar scenes of crowds walking along the road during the mass.

During our investigation, we discovered that the video was also going viral with the false claim that it showed a rally for former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte and his family. Rey Marques, a photographer based in the East Timor’s capital Dili, informed AFP that he did not know who filmed the video but recognised the scene as being near the Raikotu General Cemetery in the city.

Using this lead, NewsMeter confirmed the location through Google Street View. Below is a comparison highlighting a house, a tree, and the road that were also found in the viral video.

Hence, we conclude that the video is from East Timor, not India. The claim is false.