Viral video of Pakistan sectarian feud over how to pray in mosque

Rating Justification

The iVerify Pakistan team reviewed this content and determined that it is false.

To reach this conclusion, the iVerify Pakistan team conducted a keyword search to source the video and further investigate its origin.

Posts from multiple users on social media platform X since September 22, 2024, shared a video, claiming that it showed a sectarian feud in a Pakistani mosque over how to pray. However, the video is from a mosque in Bangladesh and the fight was between the former and current prayer leaders.

HOW IT STARTED

On September 22, Waqar Khan, the president of PTI’s Maryland branch, shared a video on X showing people fighting inside a mosque.

The post’s caption said: “Three people were killed in Pakistan this week after being accused of blasphemy. Meanwhile, Barelvis and Deobandis in a mosque started throwing shoes and punches at each other, simply over the dispute that prayers should be performed according to their own methods. Is this not blasphemy in the house of God in the presence of Quranic verses?”

This post received more than 244,000 views and was reshared 2,200 times. The post did not provide any other details such as when the alleged incident occurred, its location or which mosque it was.

Another X user shared the post with the same caption, adding pictures of recent blasphemy victims, and garnered more than 4,400 views.

Several other users also widely shared the video with the same caption as can be seen here, here, here and here.

METHODOLOGY

A fact check was initiated to determine the veracity of the claim due to its virality and because some users pointed out that the video was not from Pakistan but Bangladesh.

A keyword search was conducted for “mosque”, “clash”, “Bangladesh” and “fight” to corroborate the matter which yielded a news report from Bangladeshi English-language daily newspaper Dhaka Tribune dated September 20 and titled: “Over 50 hurt as clash breaks out at Baitul Mukarram National Mosque”.

According to the report, the current prayer leader of Dhaka’s Baitul Mukarram National Mosque was delivering the Friday sermon when the former prayer leader arrived at the mosque with his supporters and attempted to seize the microphone, triggering a confrontation between their followers and leading to physical clashes. Several individuals were injured, and many worshippers fled the mosque amid the chaos.

The same was reported by fellow Bangla news outlets bdnews24 and Daily Bangladesh.

A further investigation of the viral video showed that the exact same footage was shown by Indian English language news channel WION in a YouTube video dated September 21 covering the clash in the Dhaka mosque.

FACT-CHECK STATUS: FALSE

The claim regarding a video showing a sectarian feud in a Pakistani mosque simply over how to pray is false.

The video is actually from Bangladesh and shows a clash between the supporters of the former and current prayer leaders at Dhaka’s Baitul Mukarram National Mosque.

Evidence and References

September 20, 2024, Dhaka Tribune news story:
https://www.dhakatribune.com/bangladesh/dhaka/359111/clash-erupts-at-baitul-mukarram-mosque-between

September 20, 2024, bdnews24 report:
https://bdnews24.com/bangladesh/c29d83963b23

September 20, 2024, Daily Bangladesh news story:
https://www.daily-bangladesh.com/english/national/98179

September 21, 2024, WION YouTube video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDTz9ZqPvco