An old video report of killings of Hindus in Myanmar is viral claimed to be Kolkata.

July 16, 2021 Shriya Handoo

Spread the truth:

A cropped video of the Zee news report has been viral on social media with the claim that the massacre of Hindu families by Rohingya Muslims in the video has happened in a small village of Kolkata, West Bengal. The video states that several Hindu families have been slaughtered by the Rohingya Muslims. Several reports of post-poll violence started emerging after the Trinamool Congress party won assembly elections on 2nd May. Most of them have been falsely claimed as happened after elections. Later, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) set up a seven-member committee advising them to investigate further into the post-poll violence held at various regions of West Bengal. The Calcutta High court has said that it would hear the case on 22 July.

In spite of that, a short video from a Zee new report have been massively circulated on social media platforms with a caption- “कलकत्ता के एक छोटे गांव से एक हजार हिन्दू आदमी छोटे बच्चे तथा बड़े मिला कर गायब हो गए हैं 45 शव बरामद किए हैं रोहिंग्या मुसलमानों ने हिंदूओं का कत्ल कर दिया जी न्यूज की खबर सुने प्लीज रिट्वीट जरूर जरूर करें जिससे यह खबर शासन प्रशासन तक पहुंचे “

Translation: “One thousand Hindu men have disappeared from a small village in Calcutta, including small children and elders, 45 bodies have been recovered Rohingya Muslims killed Hindus, listen to the news of Zee News, please retweet so that this news reaches the administration. 🙏🙏. The short video has been circulated on various social media platforms with the similar claim that the incident happened in a small village of Kolkata.”

Twitter

The following tweet by Alpana Tomar was retweeted by more than 1000 people

https://twitter.com/alpana_tomar/status/1414245667254374400

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Truth

This video is from Myanmar, not Kolkata and is 4 years old.

While searching for the original video of the report, we searched for the Zee news reports with keywords and found the original video on the Zee news YouTube channel. The title of the video says- ‘DNA analysis on Hindus mass murder in Myanmar’s Rakhine state”. According to the report of Zee news DNA, the massacre happened in 2017 in the Rakhine province of Myanmar by the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA). The viral video is the cropped version of the original video where the name of the place is misheard by the people.

The timestamps between 2 minutes 58 seconds and 5 minutes 15 seconds are the viral video with a false claim. The original report by the Zee news that was uploaded on the youtube channel is below-

DNA analyses on Hindus mass murder in Myanmar’s Rakhine state

In the viral video, Zee news anchor Sudhir Chaudhry is seen talking about the incident and mentions that the incident is from the Maungdaw district of Rakhine wherein Rohingya Muslims slaughtered Hindus living in the district. The reporter of the Zee news is also seen talking to the family members of those who were killed by the Rohingya army belonging to the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA). According to the DNA report the video clip is from 2017.

While searching more about several other reports on the same incident, we came across a BBC article and found the details of the incident. Myanmar Rohingya militants massacred Hindus, says Amnesty. Under the report by BBC, an Amnesty International Investigation had stated that the incident was from August 2017. The members of the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) had ruthlessly slaughtered 99 Hindu civilians in the Maungdaw region in Myanmar.

We also came across another report by the Amnesty International Investigation on the same incident that happened in 2017. Myanmar: New evidence reveals Rohingya armed group massacred scores in Rakhine State.

Reuters also reported on a similar incident in Myanmar- Slaughtered Hindus a testament to the brutality of Myanmar’s conflict.