Image Credit: Twitter
India
Did A Group Of Starving Pakistanis Attack And Vandalize A Mosque? Know The Viral Truth Here!
|A video has gone viral, claiming that people in Pakistan are attacking and vandalizing mosques in order to sell the bricks and iron material and profit from it.
The price of essential items and fuels has skyrocketed, and Pakistan is facing a huge problem in dealing with the rampant increase in prices of commodities. Political unrest and historic floods last summer exacerbated the situation. According to the reports, only 3.7 billion in foreign exchange is left in the public exchequer of Pakistan, which is enough to cover only three weeks of imports.
Against this backdrop, a video of a group of men vandalizing a mosque is widely shared on social media, claiming that people in Pakistan are now breaking down mosques and selling rubble, stones, and iron from them to make money.
A Twitter user shared this viral video with the caption," पाकिस्तान मे ऐसी भुखमरी सवार कि अब वहाँ के ज़ेहादी मस्जिद तोड़ ईंट, लोहा बेच पेट भर रहे हैं। विनाश काल विपरीत बुद्धि,, कराची में एक महीने के भीतर तीसरी मस्जिद तोड़ी। शाहीनबाग़ की बिरयानी वहाँ क्यूँ नही पहुँच रही..."
[English Translation: There is such hunger in Pakistan that the Jihadis are now breaking mosques and selling iron and bricks to fill their stomachs. As (one’s) doom approaches, (the person’s) intellect works against them, and the third mosque was demolished in Karachi within a month. Why Shaheen Bagh's Biryani is not reaching there.]
It is being widely shared on Facebook and Twitter with a similar claim.
Claim
Viral video shows Pakistani people vandalising mosques to sell bricks and iron material to make a profit from it.
Fact Check
The Logical Indian fact-check team verified the viral claim and found it to be false. The viral video is from February 2023, where TLP(Tehreek-i-Labbaik) workers attacked the mosque of Ahmadiyya Muslims.
We used InVid’s Keyframe Analysis tool to break down the keyframes of the viral video and conducted a reverse image search on the keyframes. This led us to a tweet by a freelance Pakistani journalist, "Zia Ur Rehman"; according to the tweet, the video is from Karachi, where a group of people vandalised the minarets of an Ahmadiyya Mosque.
Taking a cue from this tweet, we conducted an open keyword search and came across a news report published by "Dawn" on February 3rd, 2023. According to the report, five people were arrested for allegedly vandalizing Ahmadiyya Muslims' places of worship. According to the report, an FIR was also filed in response to a member of the Ahmadiyya community complaint.
The FIR mentioned that around 3:35 PM on Thursday, 10-15 people attacked the Ahmadiyya place of worship by climbing the front of the building and destroying it, which was said to be 78 years old. The FIR also stated that one police officer was injured while attempting to keep the mob from climbing the structure.
On searching further, we came across a news report by WOWNEWS.IN dated February 3, 2023, which mentioned that the attackers attacked and vandalized the Qadiani Masjid in Karachi for the second time in a month. The hardline religious party, Tehreek-e-Labbaik, which also supported former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan, has claimed responsibility for the incident. Further, the report also mentions why there are frequent attacks on the Ahmadiyya community in Pakistan. According to the report, in 1974, the then-government of Pakistan declared this community non-Muslim. Violence against the Ahmadiyya community has been a frequent occurrence since then.
Who are Ahmadiyya Muslims?
The main reason for Ahmadiyya Muslims' persecution in Pakistan is their religious faith. Ahmadiyya is a religious movement that began in India in the late 1800s and was founded by Mirza Ghulam Ahmad. The Ahmadiyya movement considers Ghulam Ahmad (1835-1908) to be another prophet (messenger) after Prophet Muhammad, whereas Islam considers Muhammad the final prophet sent by God. Ahmadiyya is a Muslim sect that has split from Islam. This community is referred to as Kafir by Muslims. Their Population is also a major factor. In Pakistan, Ahmadiyya Muslims are in the minority, with a population of only 0.09 per cent. The Election Commission of Pakistan stated in 2018 that there are 1.67 lakh Ahmadiyya voters in Pakistan. At the same time, there are over one million Ahmadiyya Muslims in India.
According to the report, the former Prime Minister of Pakistan, Imran Khan, took a hard line against Ahmadiyya Muslims. Shahbaaz's party PPP-Nawaz stands in support of Ahmadiyyas, and due to the current economic crisis, the Shahbaaz's government has remained silent on the issue.
Conclusion:
We found that the viral video was widely shared with the false claim that Pakistani people are vandalizing mosques to sell bricks and iron material and profit from it. The video is from 2nd February 2023, when TLP(Tehreek-i-Labbaik) workers attacked the mosque of Ahmadiyya Muslims. Hence, the viral claim is false.
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