A four-year-old video of a pro-khalistan rally by Sikh groups in Amritsar, Punjab has been revived with claims that they are farmers participating in the ongoing protests' happening in Delhi.
The video is one of the many fake claims being shared about the farmers protests happening in Delhi. Thousands of farmers, mainly from Punjab have camped at the borders of Delhi with some entering the capital to protest against the three new farm bills passed by the Bharatiya Janata Party led central government. Leaders of various farmer unions have held repeated meetings with Narendra Tomar, the Agriculture minister and other leaders. The farmer unions, after repeated failed talks with the government, had on Tuesday called for an all India bandh.
In the 45-seconds clip, Sikh protesters can be heard chanting pro-khalistan slogans with the caption falsely claiming the video shows protesting farmers. The caption translates to, "This is the poor farmer of India, please fulfill their demands ...Confused face Now some people will say it is not from Delhi, some will say it is not a farmer. And some will say Ankur is spreading hatred. So that we can divert attention from the original crisis"
Click here to view, and here for an archive.
Click here to view, and here for an archive.
BOOM also received the viral clip on our WhatsApp helpline number (7700906111) inquiring about it.
Also Read: 2018 Video Of Pro-Khalistan Rally In US Falsely Linked To Farmers Stir
FACT-CHECK
BOOM found that the viral clip is from May 2016 from a rally orgainised by some Sikh groups at Beas bridge in Amritsar district. The march was organised as a reply to Shiv Sena's announcement to hold a pro-Hindu rally called 'Lalkar rally', which was later cancelled.
We broke the clip into keyframes and a reverse image search using Yandex, led us to results with the same clip uploaded on YouTube in May 2016, with the caption, "Live From Beas (Shiv Sena not Come to Amritsar)".
The original clip which is 2.16 minutes long was uploaded on May 25, 2016, by the YouTube channel 'Khalsa Gatka Group'.
We can see the same set of events take place and pro-Khalistan slogans being raised as in the viral clip
On searching with the keywords 'Shiv sena', 'Amritsar' and 'Beas', we found news reports on the incident stating that Sikh hardliner groups had organised an 'Anakh rally' as a show of reply to Shiv Sena's announcement to hold a pro-Hindu 'Lalkar rally' on May 25, 2016. The reports said that though the Lalkar rally was cancelled, Sikh groups went ahead with their protest.
Hindustan Times reported that on May 26, 2016, radical Sikh groups gathered on Beas bridge at NH-1 near Amritsar in protest.
One can watch local news report on the incident below
BOOM has previously debunked misinformation around the farmers' protests with protesters being targeted with fake news and old Pro-Khalistan photos and videos being shared as recent.
Also Read: Pro-Khalistan Slogans From Cricket World Cup Peddled As Farmers' Protest
