2021 video from Pakistan shared as protests against the Agnipath scheme

The video is not related to the protests related to the Agnipath scheme. The video is from Pakistan shot in January 2021.

Indian Army has come up with a new recruitment scheme known as “Tour of Duty” or Agnipath scheme in which civilians can be inducted into Indian Airforce, Army or Navy for four years. It is a short-term recruitment plan for a period of four years. 

Several parts of the country witnessed violent protests by youths to take back the TOD or Agnipath scheme. Amidst this, a video showing a massive crowd protesting under a bridge is circulating on social media with the claim that the protest took place in Delhi against the Agnipath scheme.

The caption states, “When the agricultural law can be returned, why not TOD? The farmers were also old and uneducated, yet they forced the government to withdraw the law. The youth of the country is well educated and full of enthusiasm, this protest will spread all over the country and TOD will be taken back.”

(Hindi: जबी कृषि कानून वापस हो सकता है तो TOD क्यों नहीं | किसान तो बुज़ुर्ग भी थे और अशिक्षित भी, फिर भी उन्होंने कानून वापस लेने को सरकार को मजबूर किया | देश का युवा पढ़ा लिखा भी है और जोश भरपूर भी ये विरोध पुरे देश में फैलेगा और TOD वापस होगा |)

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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.

The same video was recently shared as recitation of Hanuman Chalisa in support of former BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma in Jaipur. You can read it here.

Conclusion- 

Fact Crescendo found the claim made along with the video to be False. 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. The video is not related to the ongoing protest against the Agnipath scheme. The video is not from Delhi.