Fact Check: Did Hindu Terrorists attack Muslims with bow and arrows in Bihar’s Kishanganj…?

Narrative on Social Media

Archived Link

A Facebook post in Malayalam with a caption that reads “Hindu terror attack on an Eidgah in Bihar. The attack with bows and arrows injured a lot of people,” is being shared since June 6 2019. The post also contains an image of a group of Muslim youth carrying a youth injured with an arrow. The post has been published from a Facebook profile named Sharafudeen Abu and it by far it has received over 500 shares. The publisher has provided no source of information in the post. The only piece of evidence is the image provided in the post. Is the claim that Hindu terrorists attacked Muslims in Eidgah and left many injured true? Or this is just a mischievous post trying to give a communal angle to a completely different incident? Let’s find out the truth behind this incident.

Our Fact Check

We searched on Google using keywords such as Muslims attacked in Bihar. We got a lot of news articles as well as fact checks done on the issue by various prominent media websites. Media websites like Hindustan Times, News Click and the Lallantop have covered this issue and published their reports. Whereas fact checking initiative of the Quint, Webqoof has published a fact report of a viral post on social media with a false narrative. Another fact checking website Altnews have also published a fact check on a similar post on social media.

After examining the reports published by these media websites and fact checking websites we have found the following facts:

1. The incident took place in Dhulabari village in Bihar’s Kishanganj district on Wednesday, 5^th June 2019.
2. Muslims were attacked with bow and arrows by tribals and not Hindu Terrorists as claimed in the viral Malayalam post.
3. The tribals had encroached a tea estate and had constructed their huts on it. This tea estate belonged to two Muslim brothers and due to this there was a dispute between the tribals and the owners since last 40 days.
4. Police was trying to solve this dispute between the two parties amicably.
5. However on Wednesday, some unknown person had hoisted a flag bearing the image of Lord Rama some 100 meters aloof from the tea garden encroached by the tribals, near the Eidgah.
6. As reported by the Quint,  the Kishanganj SP Kumar Ashish told that there were around 2000-4000 Muslims who asked the tribals, who were a group 70-80 people to evacuate the place immediately.
7. The Kishanganj SP adds that, they asked both the groups to not to take law in their hands but the Muslims started pelting stones and in retaliation the tribals shot arrows on them.

8. Altnews reports that Police evicted the tribals from the tea estate. The tribals were misguided by some people who told them that the land belongs to Bihar government. The landless tribals were instigated to capture the land.

References:

The Lallantop	Archived Link
Altnews	Archived Link
the Quint	Archived Link

Conclusion

The claim that ‘Muslims were attacked by Hindu terrorists in an Eidgah in Bihar’ is false. The incident took place in Bihar’s Kishanganj between tribals and Muslims who had come to offer prayers at the Eidgah on the occasion of Eid.