Following the tragic train accident in Odisha’s Balasore district leading to the deaths of more than 288 people, an image is going viral across social media showing a structure near the crash site. The image is being shared with the claim that it shows a mosque near the accident site implying that persons from the Muslim community caused the tragedy.
Claim:
The image shows an aerial shot of the tragedy. A white structure can be seen highlighted in the image. Social media users shared the image with the claim, “Just Saying Yesterday Was Friday”, indicating that people from the Muslim community were responsible for the tragedy. In the comment section, he has put section, he put links to several accidents and accused of them who were Muslims.
Fact Check:
We conducted a keyword search for more images of the accident site and came across a report by Reuters published on June 3, 2023. The caption of the image reads, “A drone view shows derailed coaches after two passenger trains collided in Balasore district in the eastern state of Odisha, India, June 3, 2023.” On closer examination, the structure looked like a temple with the traditional spire on top of the building.
We then conducted a search across Google Maps and came across the structure on Google and found it next to the railway track. The structure appears to be the Bahanaga ISKCON temple and not a mosque.
Taking the image showing the accident and the Google Maps aerial view as cues, we searched for videos of the temple and came across one while it was under construction five months ago in December 2022. The temple structure is white in colour and was under construction at that time as well.
We also came across a tweet by fact-checker Mohammed Zubair who shared images of the train mishap site in Odisha and images of the ISKCON temple.
“Sharing a photo of the train mishap site in Odisha, some users pointed at a white structure near the tracks & claimed it was a mosque. They inferred that Muslims had a role to play in the tragedy. The building is actually an ISKCON temple,” the tweet read.
In our Fact Check, we also came across tweets by Odisha police posted on June 4, 2023. The tweet reads, “It has come to notice that some social media handles are mischievously giving communal colour to the tragic train accident at Balasore. This is highly unfortunate. Investigation by the GRP, Odisha into the cause and all other aspects of the accident is going on. We appeal to all concerned to desist from circulating such false and ill-motivated posts. Severe legal action will be initiated against those who are trying to create communal disharmony by spreading rumours.”
Conclusion:
We found that the viral image has been circulated with a false communal claim. The image shows the ISKCON temple in the vicinity of the rail accident. The white structure is not a mosque as claimed by social media users.
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Fact Check
2023-06-05 10:30:13.0
Does This Image Show A Mosque Near The Odisha Train Accident Site? No, Viral Image Is Shared With False Communal Angle
