A video circulating online shows an unconscious individual and falsely claims that a Muslim youth was killed by members of a Hindu organization or by the police after his identity was revealed, in Madhopur, Roorkee. However, D-Intent Data has found that these claims are untrue.
Sharing the video on X (Formerly Twitter) propaganda account @iamharunkhan wrote, “Roorkee Haridwar, Muslim youth “Basir Qureshi alias Monu” was killed by boys from a Hindu organization at night and thrown into a pond.”
In another post @iamharunkhan wrote, Gym trainer Waseem was returning from his sister’s house after having dinner. The Gau Squad team arrived & caught him, shot him, beat him and threw him in the pond. The team stood around the pond with guns and told Waseem that if he came out, they would shoot him. When the villagers tried to save the youth, the police threatened to shoot them too and chased them away. Finally, injured Waseem drowned in the pond & died.
Founder of Bhim Army and National President of Azad Samaj Party — Kanshi Ram, MP Chandrashekhar Azad has also made a post and wrote, “Policemen asked Wasim’s name when he was returning from his sister’s house in Roorkee, Haridwar, and then beat him so brutally that his teeth broke. When they were not satisfied with this, they threw him in a nearby pond. They did not allow him to come out of the pond and chased away the villagers who came to rescue him by threatening to shoot them, due to which Wasim died. I have just spoken to Wasim’s family. This incident is unimaginable, unbearable and unacceptable.
Several other users, influencers and propagandists including political workers have also made posts with misleading claims. Their posts can be seen here ZakirAliTyagi, barq_zia
The truth behind the claims about Roorkee, Fact Check
As soon as the posts containing the visuals and claims came to our notice, we conducted a thorough investigation into the incident. Our research and analysis revealed that the incident was neither a murder nor a religious hate crime.
To verify the claims made by the users, we performed a relevant keyword search on Google. This led us to the Haridwar police statement and media reports regarding the incident. According to the reports(1, 2), the youth drowned in a pond while attempting to evade a Cattle Protection Squad.
The police said (1, 2, 3) the youth drowned in a pond while attempting to evade a Cattle protection squad. The postmortem report corroborates this, indicating that drowning was the cause of death. According to the postmortem report, the youth died due to drowning. The claims of mob lynching and police involvement are baseless. The police have assured that legal action will be taken against those spreading these false and communal narratives.
Hence, it is evident from D-Intent Data’s Fact Check that the claims about murder and religious hate crimes are false and baseless.
Intent
Social media users, influencers, propagandists and political workers are circulating false claims about the death of a youth in Roorkee, Haridwar to set their narrative based on religion.
Conclusion
Claim– A Muslim youth was killed by members of a Hindu organization or by the police after his identity was revealed, in Madhopur, Roorkee.
Fact – The youth drowned in a pond while attempting to evade a Cattle protection squad. It was neither a murder nor a religious hate crime. The postmortem report also confirmed his death due to drowning.
Related Article: Fact Check: A Hindu man who jumped into a pond in Bangladesh’s Moulvibazar district was stoned to death by extremists? – D-Intent Data (dintentdata.com)
