Recently, a video has been circulated on social media with the claim, “An extremist burst all the balloons of a Muslim child for selling balloons wearing a skullcap in India! The helpless child had nothing to do but cry and plead!! The net world is crying over this heart-wrenching incident!”
See the post circulated on Facebook with this claim here (Archive).
See the Instagram post with the same claim here (Archive).
Fact Check
The Rumor Scanner team’s investigation reveals that the circulated video is not from India. In reality, it is a staged or scripted video from Bangladesh. The video was created for entertainment purposes and published on social media, which later spread with a different and false claim.
Investigating this matter, a video published on January 12 with the title ‘Business closed for one day but why..??’ was found on a Facebook page named ‘The Dhaka-Raju Bhai’. The first 10 seconds of this video match the video circulated with the discussed claim.
From the comment section of the said video, it is known that the video is pre-planned.
Subsequently, searching the channel that circulated the video, it was seen that another video was published there on January 13. In that video, the balloon seller and the person who burst the balloons in the discussed incident appear and are seen explaining that it is a planned content video. In the video, it is stated that the child’s name is Arman.
Additionally, observing the page that circulated the video, it is known that it is a content creation channel. The said person creates various types of entertainment videos (1, 2, 3).
Therefore, a scripted or staged video from Bangladesh has been circulated with the claim of a scene of child torture in India for being Muslim; which is false.
Sources
- The Dhaka-Raju Bhai –Facebook Post