A 40-second video is viral across social media platforms with the claim that it shows Muslim children purposefully sabotaging train tracks in a bid to cause railway accidents in India. Some users on X have tagged this as an instance of 'Rail Jihad.' In the video, three children, dressed in kurtas, appear to be tampering with the railway tracks. One of them can be seen loosening the bolts of a fish plate with a large spanner, while another child can be seen collecting the bolts in a sack.
@SureshChavhanke, the editor-in-chief of propaganda outlet Sudarshan News, tweeted the video and urged the Railway Minister to give orders to RPF to shoot people indulging in such acts. (Archive)
X-verified user @XSecular_ posted the video, using expletives to refer to Muslim children, and urging the railway minister to take action against Muslim slum dwellers near railway tracks. At the time of this article being written, the post has managed to accumulate more than 6 Lakh views and has been re-shared more than 9,500 times. (Archive)
X-verified user @TheSquind, with its long history of peddling disinformation and Islamophobic content on social media, tweeted the video, alluding to the Muslim children as being instrumental in railway accidents. (Archive)
X-verified users @ByRakeshSimha and @VinodGupta139, too, posted the viral video.
The video is also viral on Facebook with the same claim.
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Fact Check
We ran a reverse image search on one of the key frames from the viral video, and came across a Facebook video uploaded by a profile named 'Pakistani Trains' on December 5, 2023. Therefore, it is evident that the Facebook video is at least eight-month old. Further, the caption of the video, when translated from Urdu to English, reads: "Near Sartaj Khan Phatak, Boat Basin Chowki, the valuable goods of railway line are being stolen a lot. P.S. Boat Basin is requested to take this action." Further, the bio of the profile attributes its administration to a certain Fahad Asif, whose YouTube channel is also linked in the page. On examining the channel, we found several videos on Pakistani railways.
https://www.facebook.com/100064718617673/videos/1271682480173267
Taking a cue from the translated caption of the video linked above, we ran another relevant keyword search on Facebook, and came across this Facebook post by the Media Cell - DIG South Zone, from December 5, 2023. The caption, which is in Urdu, reports on a case of theft of track nut bolts from the Sartaj Khan Phatak railway line, near Boat Basin Chowki. In the latter part of the video, starting from the 29-second mark, three children are interrogated as to their participation in the theft. On account of all three of them being juveniles, one of the children's father also appears in the video and takes accountability of the theft in which his son had participated. They can be seen admitting that they had stolen bolts and screws from between train tracks from a location they disclose as 'Shireen Jinnah'.
https://www.facebook.com/mediacelldigsouthzone/videos/1467597247143547
Shireen Jinnah is a colony in the Boat Basin area in Karachi, Pakistan.
Further, we came across another YouTube video which presents a concise report on the theft. The voice-over narration adds that the three children had been taken into police custody by the Boat Basin police, where they were questioned by the officer in-charge, named in the video as 'Shahzad'.
To sum up, the video which is viral with the claim that Muslim children are purposefully sabotaging railway tracks in order to cause accidents in India is actually a clip from December 2023. On investigating, Alt News found that this video is from Karachi, Pakistan, and depicts three children stealing nuts and bolts from railway tracks.
Prantik Ali is an intern at Alt News.
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