Hijab Row: Video from Karnataka viral as police crackdown on pro-hijab protestors in West Bengal.

The video has no relation with the recent hijab controversy. The video is from Bengaluru showing students protesting against the National Education Policy in 2021. 

A video showing Muslim women sitting on the road and protesting is widely circulating on social media amid the raging hijab controversy in parts of Karnataka. The video shows police personnel dragging boys and hijab-clad masked female students who can be seen sitting on the street. Social media users claim that the video is from Murshidabad in West Bengal where college students are protesting against the hijab and burqa ban who were beaten by Bengal police. 

Recently, violence erupted in Suti, Murshidabad district in West Bengal after allegedly school headmaster asked students to wear a uniform instead of the hijab. Later, police managed to rescue the teachers and headmaster who were locked up inside the school.

The caption of the post mentions, ‘This video is from Murshidabad district of Bengal. If you do not see the day, Owaisi Saheb was contesting in Bengal. Open the eyes see those who vote for Mamata Ji. First girls were prevented from going to college in hijab and burqa. When Girls protested against these norms, they are brutally treated by police. #hijab #hijabrow #hijabisourright #Bangal #murshidabad”

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Fact Check-

We started our investigation by breaking the video into key frames using the InVid tool and ran a Google reverse image search on the same. The results led us to the same video posted on 15 September 2021 by Sahil Online TV News on YouTube. The caption of the video states ‘Bengaluru: Police resort to lathi-charge on students protesting against National Education Policy.’ We can see the portion in the viral video from the 2-minute mark in the YouTube video.

We can see that the posters used by the protestors sitting against the National Education Policy in Bengaluru are written in Kannada language and not Bengali.

TV9 Kannada also posted visuals of this protest in Bengaluru on their YouTube channel on September 2021. The report mentions that the police took action on students who were protesting against the National Education Policy.

According to the Deccan Herald, hundreds of students and activists were baton-charged by police when they tried to enter the Vidhana Soudha to protest against the National Education Policy. Police justified the crackdown, saying the protest was “illegal” as the organizers had not taken permission beforehand and also cited the prohibitory orders for the ongoing legislative session.

Conclusion-

Fact Crescendo found the claim shared along with the viral image on social media to be False. The video has no relation with the ongoing hijab controversy in the country. The video is not from Bengal. It shows an incident in Karnataka where student protested against the National Education Policy in 2021.

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