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  • 2019-04-08 (xsd:date)
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  • No, this is not a video of armed police intercepting real terrorists at a temple in India (en)
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  • Multiple Facebook posts have shared a video, viewed tens of thousands of times, alongside claims that it shows armed Indian police intercepting two terrorists at Ambaji temple in Gujarat state, detaining one and shooting one dead. The claim is false; the video shows a drill at the temple staged by police in which nobody was killed or arrested. The video has been shared repeatedly on Facebook, for example here on April 3, 2019, with the caption: In Ambaji temple two terrorist infiltrated. One shot killed and other captured alive. This is Modi’s India. Well done Indian security forces. Modi refers to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The video was also shared with a similar claim here on April 1 and here , where it was viewed more than 120,000 times after being posted March 31, but has now been deleted. The March 31 post had a Gujarati-language caption which said, translated to English: Two terrorists entered Ambaji temple, one was killed while another was captured alive. Below is a screenshot of the post: A screenshot of the misleading Facebook post A Google reverse image search using keyframes from the video linked it to multiple Indian news reports about a police drill at the Ambaji temple in Banaskantha district, Gujarat state on March 29, 2019. Gujarati-language news site Divya Bhaskar published this report about the drill on March 30, 2019. The report’s headline translates to English as: Mock drill of terrorist attack at Ambaji temple. One terrorist killed one captured alive. The report’s introduction translates to English as: News of two terrorists entering the famous Ambaji temple in Banaskantha district of Gujarat went viral resulting in high tensions in town. But as soon as police announced it was a mock drill people breathed sigh of relief. District special operations group had organized the drill where the plot was that two terrorists attack the temple and one of them is killed and other is captured alive. Below are screenshots of the video from the misleading posts (l) next to screenshots of the images of the mock drill used in the Divya Bhaskar report (r): A screenshot of the video from the misleading posts (l) next to a screenshot of the image of the drill used in the Divya Bhaskar report (r) A screenshot of the video from the misleading posts (l) next to a screenshot of the images of the drill used in the Divya Bhaskar report (r) Hindi-language news website Dainik Bhaskar also published this article about the drill on March 30, 2019. AFP confirmed the location of the video used in the misleading posts by referencing the Ambaji temple on Google Maps. Below is a screenshot comparison of the video in the misleading posts (l) and a Google user image tagged to the Ambaji temple’s location on Google Maps (r): A screenshot comparison of the video in the misleading posts (l) and a Google user image tagged to the Ambaji temple’s location on Google Maps (r) In a post on the official Facebook page for Ambaji Temple on April 1, 2019, a statement said police had staged a drill at the temple. The Hindi-language post translates to English as: Nothing has happened in Gujarat's biggest Shakti Peeth ‘Ambaji’. The pictures that have been viral on Whatsapp, that two terrorists came inside the temple was from a mock drill carried out by the police. Please don’t speculate things and spread rumours. Ambaji temple is completely safe and send this message to everyone. Banaskantha superintendent of police Pradeep Sejul told AFP: The video of terror attack on Ambaji temple on social media is of the drill conducted last month as part of a routine exercise. He added: It so happened that we do a debriefing to media as part of the drill. Here all the weapons seized and terrorists captured are brought in front of media. Somebody made those pics viral on social media saying that there was a terror attack. Which is not true. We have also issued clarification that the pictures being circulated were of the drill. A similar mock drill has previously been conducted at Ambaji temple. Here is a video showing a past year's exercise, published to YouTube on January 7, 2018. UPDATE: this post was updated 09/04/2019 to clarify the wording of the headline and first paragraph. (en)
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