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This Viral Collage Shows Muslim Overpopulation In Nainital? No, Old Images Viral With False Communal Spin
Uttarakhand, 26 May 2022 11:50 AM GMT
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The first photo of the viral collage is of Mall Road in Nainital, Uttarakhand while the second photo is of Ijtima which was held in Dhaka, Bangladesh in 2018.
A collage of two photos, showing past and present population situations in Nanital is making rounds on social media these days. In the first photo, some people are seen walking on the road adjacent to Naini Lake of Nainital, Uttarakhand and captioned as "Nainital 2010". In the second photo, a crowd offering Namaaz can be seen with text "Nainital 2022". Through this collage, those sharing it are trying to show how the Muslim population of Nainital boomed in the last 12 years.
A Twitter user shared this image and wrote a caption which reads, "From a peaceful city to the city of peaceful."
Another user wrote, "Those who know they know." This tweet has got more than 5k likes and 1.8K+ retweets.
Another user wrote, "How are there so many do these people moving in where they never existed? This is demographic invasion."
It is being widely shared by Twitter and Facebook users with a similar claim.
Claim:
Viral collage shows Muslim population growth in Nainital from 2010 to 2022.
Fact Check:
The Logical Indian fact check team verified the viral claim and found it to be false. The second image is from Bangladesh which is presented out of context.
First Image
To know the truth of the viral post, we did a google reverse image search and found this image on Wikimedia page. According to detail mentioned this image is from Upper Mall road, Nanital. Its Exif data suggests that the viral image was uploaded on 16 June 2019.
We found the same image on a travel blog page as well. According to the blog, the viral image is from Nanital. We also notice signboard of "Dominos pizza" and "Alka". We then searched 'Dominos' outlets in Nainital on Google Maps and found an image which shows the same location of Domino's shop besides Hotel Alka as seen in the viral image. Below you can see the comparison.
Second Image
We conducted a reverse image search and found this image in a report of Al Jazeera dated January 2018. The title of the report reads, "Millions attend world's second-largest Muslim gathering." According to the report the viral image is from Bangladesh. The viral image was taken during the annual Biswa Ijtema, where a large number of Muslims offered prayers on the banks of the Turag River which was about 35km from the Bangladeshi capital, Dhaka. More than two million Muslims from over 130 countries visited this Ijtema. The image credit was given to journalist Mahmud Hossain Opu.
We also tried to compare the Muslim population growth of Nanital in the last 12 years. According to the 2011 census data, the Muslim population of the Nainital region stands for 12.65% of the total population while Hindus covered the major population percentage which is 84.82%. According to the India Census.net, the estimated Muslim population increase in population will be around 20,000. It clearly suggests that there is no significant rise in the Muslim population percentage between 2010 to 2022 as claimed in the viral posts.
Our investigation shows that the viral image used in the collage to show the increased Muslim population in Nanital is presented out of context. The first photo of the viral collage is of Mall Road in Nainital, Uttarakhand while the second photo is of Ijtima which was held in Dhaka, Bangladesh in 2018. Hence, the viral claim is false.
If you have any news that you believe needs to be fact-checked, please email us at factcheck@thelogicalindian.com or WhatsApp at 6364000343.
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