Old Video of People Attacking Police Falsely Linked To Ongoing Farmers Protests

We found that the video has been available online 2021 and is unrelated to the ongoing farmers' protests.

Fact-Check | The video is old and is being falsely shared as a recent one.

(Photo: Altered by The Quint)

A video showing several people attacking police personnel on the streets is being shared as recent visuals from the ongoing farmers' protests around Delhi borders.

What have users said?: Those sharing the video have said, "Think about how much the police can tolerate when alleged farmers launch a life-threatening attack with swords. #farmersprotests2024 #FarmerProtestinDelhi."

You can view an archive of the post here.

(Source: X/(formerly Twitter)/Screenshot)

The video had garnered over 65 thousand views on the platform, when this report was being written. Archives of similar claims can be found here, here, and here.

Are these claims true?: Neither is the incident recent nor is related to the ongoing farmers' protests. We found that the video has been available online 2021.

What led us to the truth?: Using the help of InVID, we divided the video into several keyframes and performed a reverse image search on them.

• This directed us to the same video shared on the official X handle of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) national spokesperson, Gaurav Bhatia.

• The video was uploaded on 2 February 2021 and its caption when translated to English said, "Farmer or miscreant? #Farmer."

News reports: Another reverse image search led us to the same video shared in a bulletin on the official YouTube channel of News18 Punjab/Haryana/Himachal.

• The video was shared on 27 January 2021 and its title said, "Another video of Delhi violence surfaced, more than 300 policemen injured in the attack."

• The visuals were reportedly from the then farmers protest against the three farm bills introduced by the central government.

• According to reports, Nihang Sikhs joined the tractor rally organised by farmers on the occasion of Republic Day against the government's three farm laws. Nihang Sikhs are armed warriors clad in blue robe, as seen in the viral video.

Conclusion: While we could not independently verify the location or context of the video, it is the clear that the incident is unrelated to the ongoing farmers' protest.

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