Did Bhatkal celebrate Pulwama attack?
A fact-check by VarthaBharati
Bhatkal: A video from Bhatkal, wherein people seem to be celebrating something has been doing the rounds on right wing social media groups in coastal Karnataka.
The video has mainly raised eyebrows of many due to the caption attached to the video, which says that the Muslim community of the town celebrated the attack on CRPF soldiers in Pulwama that killed as many as 44 soldiers, on February 14.
When Vartha Bharati came across the video on popular social messaging platform WhatsApp on Tuesday, we decided to fact-check the issue.
Looking at the video, a group of people mostly in two wheelers were going in a procession while honking their horns. They seem to be in a celebratory mood. Vartha Bharati spoke to several people in Bhatkal including the police department, to know the reality of this video.
It was found that the video is of February 15, a day after the dastardly Pulwama attack, and was of a celebration of a local sports club, which won a local major cricket tournament in Manki which is near Bhatkal.
We then contacted Imtiyaz Udyawar, President of Bhatkal Muslim Youth Federation, a body that overlooks all the sports activities of Muslim clubs in Bhatkal, to further confirm the reports.
Imtiyaz confirmed the reports and added “This was not any anti-social or anti-national rally, it is the video of members of a particular sports club celebrating their victory in the cricket tournament that was held on 15th February in Manki ”.
“The players of the team travelled from Manki to Bhatkal (about 25 Kms) without any celebrations, as we (BMYF) had instructed them not to take out rally or celebrate in the wake of Pulwama attack. When they reached their locality, they started celebrating in their area or what we can call their backyard. These kind of celebratory processions in two wheelers are very common in and around Bhatkal after sports tournaments”.
“Few miscreants trying to disturb the peace here shot the video and uploaded it on social media saying that Pulwama attack was celebrated in Bhatkal. Some of them filed complaint against the club too, and Bhatkal police has registered a case in this regard. But the case is of public nuisance only and nothing like anti-national or anti-social activities have been reported in FIR nor any such complaints were filed. But after a couple of days, this rumors started doing rounds” Imtiyaz said.
We then spoke to Bhatkal Circle Inspector, KL Ganesh, who too confirmed all the reports and added that an FIR was filed against the team members, but it was only for causing public nuisance. We have not found any anti-social, anti-national activity nor anything like that was reported to us” Ganesh confirmed.
“All such rumors are fake, these are attempts to disturb peace and harmony in the region, do not believe any such rumors” Inspector Ganesh further said.
After confirming from all the sources including the police department, it is very clear that the video actually is of a sports club celebrating its victory in a cricket tournament and a few opportunist miscreants used it as an opportunity to disturb and disrupt the peace and harmony in the region.
Instead, we also found that Umbrella organisation of local Muslim bodies, Majlis-e-Islah wa Tanzeem Bhatkal, condmned that Pulwama attack and submitted a memorandum to the PM urging him to give 'strong reply' to the perpetrators of the attck, while local Muslim youngsters brought together several local organisations and their members from all communities, for a solidarity candle march on Feb 16, which gathered a huge support from local youngsters from all organisations, in an absolute show of unity when it comes to such matters, which again eleminates any possibility of these youngsters indulging in any anti-national activities or supporting the attack.
It is also to be noted that the sports club in question could have also avoided such celebratory rallies in the wake of the shock that the nation was into after the Pulwama attack killing 44 of our brave soldiers.
We also call on our readers to not believe or forward any such messages, images or videos without verifying and fact-checking the issues. You can also contact us (english@varthabharati.in) with any such contents wherein we as a media house can fact-check the content and inform truth to people.
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Iran says Ayatollah Khamenei “steadfast, actively commanding field"
Tehran: A senior member of the office of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is being quoted by Iranian media amid conflicting reports about his status in the ongoing conflict with Israel and the United States.
According to Iranian media reports, the official said, “Ayatollah Khamenei is steadfast and resolute, and is actively commanding the field.” The remarks were made in response to widespread unverified reports circulated in some foreign media that claimed the supreme leader had been killed in recent US–Israeli strikes on Iran.
The statement counters reports suggesting a change in Iran’s leadership after the military escalation. There has been no independent confirmation of Khamenei’s status.
