Fact Check: Video showing a man with skull cap attacking another is not from India and does not have communal angle

A video showing a man wearing a skull cap attacking another man with a rod is in circulation with the claim that he is attacking a man from the Hindu community in India with a narrative that killing Hindus is their goal and their religious scriptures tell them to do it.

The claim viral in Telugu goes as “మీ పక్కనే తురకల ఉంటారు జాగ్రత్త. హిందువులను చంపడమే వారి అంతిమ లక్ష్యం.. వాళ్ళ మత గ్రంధం అలానే చెబుతుంది. వాళ్ళు చేస్తారు. మన హిందువుల ఐక్యత దరిద్రం చూడు ఎలా ఉంది కొట్టిన వాడిని ఎవడు పట్టించుకుంటలేరు కొట్టి దర్జా గా పొతుండ్ ”

When translated, it claims: “Be careful of Muslims in your neighbourhood. Their ultimate goal is to kill Hindus. That's what their religious scriptures preach and they do it. See how poor our Hindu unity is. None is questioning the attacker. He is happily walking away after attacking the Hindu man.”

https://www.facebook.com/100089322637244/videos/751512853127697

https://www.facebook.com/100074412602645/videos/1104342274289806

Fact check:

The claim that the incident took place in India is false. The incident took place in Sri Lanka in 2021.

When observed carefully, we found that the language heard in the video is Sinhalese. When we performed a reverse image search of the key frames extracted from the video, we found that the video was posted on Facebook in Sinhalese language in February 2021. The post states that the incident took place in the Galaha area in Sri Lanka.

https://www.facebook.com/DriveSafely1st/posts/785412689077403

The Sri Lankan police reported that there was no religious dimension to the incident and that the attacker had been arrested and the injured were provided treatment in the hospital.

Hence, the video is not recent and not from India. It took place in Sri Lanka in 2021. The attacker in the video is a mentally ill person and the incident did not have any communal angle to it. The claim is false.