PropertyValue
?:author
?:datePublished
  • 2022-01-31 (xsd:date)
?:headline
  • This photo does not show Indian police forced to clean a mosque in West Bengal (en)
?:inLanguage
?:itemReviewed
?:mentions
?:reviewBody
  • Social media posts purport to show a photo of police officers forced to clean a mosque by authorities in West Bengal in India, a Hindu-majority state with a significant Muslim minority whose government has been accused of pro-Muslim bias. The claim is false; the image has circulated in news reports from 2016 about a clean-up operation in the southern Indian state of Telangana. In West Bengal, the Muslim-appeasing government defeated the BJP. Now the Hindus are scared and every Friday the cops are made to clean mosques and other Muslim places as shown in the photo, reads a Hindi-language Facebook post shared on November 14, 2021. The photo shows men in uniform with a hosepipe next to a group of onlookers wearing traditional Islamic dress. Screenshot of a Facebook post sharing the false claim, taken on January 24, 2022 The chief minister of West Bengal, Mamata Banerjee, has been accused by politicians from Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of cosying up to Muslims, who make up just under 30 percent of the state's population, according to the last official census from 2011 . Modi's election in 2014 emboldened hardline groups who see India as a Hindu nation and its 200 million-strong Muslim minority as outsiders. The photo was shared in similar posts here and here on Facebook. However, the photo has been shared in a false context. A reverse image search on Google found similar photos published in 2016 by local media in the southern Indian state of Telangana here and here . On the eve of the Islamic festival of Ramadan, Bhainsa police as part of the cleaning campaign took an initiative at Panjeshah mosque, reads a Facebook post from June 18, 2016 by News Telangana. Bhainsa is a town in the south Indian state of Telangana. Below is a screenshot comparison of the photo in the misleading post (left) and News Telangana's post (right). Screenshot comparison of the image circulating in misleading posts and the photo published by local media in 2016 A sign reading SK Toys is visible in one of the photos posted by News Telangana TV. Screenshot of the photo with SK Toys highlighted by AFP A keyword search on Google found a store called SK Toys World on Google Maps located opposite the Panjeshah mosque in the town of Bhainsa in Telangana. Images of the Panjeshah mosque in Bhainsa on Google Maps show SK Toys World in front of the mosque. Google Maps screenshot of SK Toys World seen in front of the Panjeshah mosque Telangana police undertook cleaning drives at various places in 2016, including temples and mosques, local media reported here and here . The operation was part of India’s national cleaning mission Swachh Bharat . (en)
?:reviewRating
rdf:type
?:url