A video showing people fleeing from a scene of violence in Tripura has surfaced on social media with false claims that it shows Hindi speaking migrants being attacked in Tamil Nadu.
BOOM found that the video is from Tripura's Dhalai district and shows a political clash between BJP and Tipra Motha Party supporters after the announcement of the Tripura Assembly election results this year.
A spate of unrelated violent videos went viral over the past few weeks fueling rumours of attacks on North Indian migrant labourers in Tamil Nadu. Tamil Nadu police took to social media to quell the rumours.
The video is being shared with a Hindi caption that translates to, "Tamil Nadu Tripura Hindi speaking people are chased away and killed . Share this video . Like this video . Comment What should happen".
(Original Text in Hindi: तमिल नाडु त्रिपुरा हिंदी वासियों को भगा भगा कर मार रहा हूं इस वीडियो को शेयर कीजिए वीडियो को लाइक कीजिए कमेंट कीजिए क्या होनी चाहिए)
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Fact Check
BOOM performed a reverse image search on one of the keyframes and found the video was uploaded on a YouTube channel on March 5, 2023.
The description with the video claims that the visuals show a clash between BJP and Tipra Motha Party supporters in Chailengta, Tripura.
We also found the video was uploaded on a Facebook page named 'Changma Raw' on March 2, 2023.
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Taking a cue, we reached out to Chailengta police Officer-in-Charge (OC) Alamgir Hossain for further details about the video. Hossain confirmed that the video is from a political clash which happened in Chailengta, Dhalai district, on March 2, 2023, and sent us multiple pictures from the location.
Speaking to BOOM, Hossain said, "This is an incident of clash between the BJP and the Tipra Motha party supporters. The incident happened at Chailengta, in front of the CLT English medium school near the SDM LTV and Fishery office."
Here is the comparison between a scene from the viral video and the picture sent by Chailengta OC Alamgir Hossain.
A report published by The Indian Express on March 3, 2023, states that Tripura witnessed at least 50 incidents of post-poll violence in the state. As per the report, "A day after the Tripura Assembly election results gave a clear mandate to the BJP, scattered incidents of violence rocked different parts of the state, including the suburbs of the state’s capital, Agartala city."
The report further mentioned that the incidents of violence were also reported in the Dhalai district right from the counting hours.
The article quoted a statement from the Dhalai police saying, "On March 2, an incident of clash among BJP and TIPRA Motha supporters occurred during the ongoing process of vote counting to the Assembly election at SDM office Longtrai valley. The unruly mob turned violent attacking each other. Owing to timely intervention of police and other security forces the situation was brought under control. A specific case has been registered in this connection and investigation is in progress.”