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A video of a huge crowd walking through fields is being shared on the internet with users claiming that it shows tribals escaping from the 'pro-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) militants' attacks in Manipur.
What have users said?: Those sharing the video have posted it with a caption that said, "Pro-BJP militants again heavily bombarded tribal areas. Tribals fled to the jungles to save their lives. Manipur is burning since 60 days, and Modi is trying to strengthen his booth for electoral gains."
The video had recorded more than 28,000 views at the time of writing this report. (More archives of similar claims can be found here, here, and here.)
Are these claims true?: No, the video is not related to Manipur.
It is from Syria's Golan, which is occupied by Israel. The video was reportedly taken during a protest against the construction of the wind turbine project.
What led us to the truth?: Using Google Chrome extension InVID, we divided the video into several keyframes and performed a reverse search on them.
We came across the same video uploaded on the official YouTube channel of Orient TV.
It was uploaded on 21 June and was titled, "For the second day in a row, the Israeli occupation forces attacked the people of Al-Hafayer area in the occupied Syrian Golan."
A keyword search led us to a report published on Al-Jarmaq News which carried similar visuals as the viral video.
Its headline said, "A Syrian farmer from the Golan talks about the huge presence of the occupation forces in agricultural lands."
The report mentioned that landowners in the Golan area are being prevented from picking cherries and other fruits as huge forces of border guards are present in the area.
Melhem Abu Saleh, a farmer, talked to the organisation about how several protestors were injured and arrested in Golan.
Saleh said that the protestors and the police engaged in a negotiation. The police was to withdraw from the lands in exchange for the protestors to stop their demonstration.
Other reports: An Albawaba report talked about how the Israeli forces clashed with the people in Golan for the second consecutive day.
The people are protesting against the wind turbines project, which are planned to be constructed on their land.
The report mentioned that the clash has left several people injured.
What is happening in Golan?: The wind turbine project in Golan aims to install two dozen turbines throughout the lands of Druze, a minority group in the area.
The project has been rejected by the landowners, who believe that it will harm their agricultural output.
The landowners also accused the company behind the project of not consulting them in good faith.
Residents of area recently demonstrated against the project which saw them storming a police station and breaking into violence.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered to halt the project due to the clash.
Conclusion: It is clear that the video is neither shows 'pro-BJP militants' nor is it related to Manipur.
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