Video from Pakistan shared as recitation of Hanuman Chalisa in support of Nupur Sharma in Jaipur

The video is not from Jaipur but from Lahore in Pakistan. It has no relation with the controversies related to Nupur Sharma.

As reports of protests and violence emerge from different parts of the country over the controversial comments made by former BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma, several videos and images of protests have started popping up on social media platforms.

One such video showing a sea of people standing under a railway overbridge has gone viral on social media. Social media users claim that the video shows thousands of Hindus reciting Hanuman Chalisa in Jaipur in support of Nupur Sharma.

The caption of the video states, “Ram Bhakts recite Hanuman Chalisa on the middle of the road while answering Namaz in Jaipur. My heart is happy to see their numbers. My Hindu community has woken up!

Hindi: जयपुर में नमाज़ का जवाब देते हुए रामभक्तों ने बीच सड़क पर हनुमान चालीसा पढ़ी..इनकी तादाद देखकर दिल ख़ुश हो गया.. मेरा हिन्दू जाग गया है..)

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The Tehran Times, which is an Iran state affiliated media house, had also shared this video stating, “Hundreds and thousands of Muslims stage a rally to condemn the blasphemous remarks about Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) by BJP staff.”

Fact Check-

Upon observing the viral video carefully, we can see a metro passing by from the rail tracks below which the rally is taking place. We identified the metro as the orange metro line in Lahore. We searched for images of this metro line and found several similarities indicating the video to be from Pakistan.

Below you can see a comparison between the screengrab of the viral video and the orange metro line in Lahore.

Next, we ran a reverse image search on the a key frame we extracted with the help of the InVid We Verify tool, which led us to the same video posted on YouTube on 4th January 2021. The location of the video says that it is from Lahore in Pakistan. The headline of the video mentions that the video shows the Chehlum of Allama Khadim Hussain Rizvi Chehlum.

The title of the video mentions, “Allama Khadim Hussain Rizvi Chehlum I TLP Chehlum 2021”. According to Wikipedia, Chehlum is a religious observance in Islam held 40 days after the death of a person.

With another keyword search on Google, we found that Khadim Hussain Rizvi was the chief of a political party Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) who passed away at the age of 54 on 19 November 2020. His chehlum was observed on 3rd January 2021 near the Mosque Rehmatul Lil Alameen at Multan Road’s Battery Stop in Lahore. The venue was decorated from Yateem Khana Chowk to Scheme Morh in Lahore. Several media houses had covered the incident and lakhs of people had gathered to observe his Chehlum.

Conclusion-

Fact Crescendo found the claim made along with the video to be False. The video does not show Hindus coming in support of Nupur Sharma in Jaipur, Rajasthan. The video is from Lahore in Pakistan shot in January 2021 showing a religious observance carried out by the followers of Khadim Hussain Rizvi, 40 days after his death.