A video from India TV has gone viral on social media, showing a report about a mosque in Lucknow that is allegedly “training” Muslims to apply for arms licences. Many users claim that it is a recent clip.
A Facebook post reads: “Lucknow: Mosques are openly telling Muslims to get guns and they are training them to file for licences. Meanwhile, Hindus, wow Rahul Gandhi said he will give me 1L khatakat so I will vote for him.”
The above post can be seen here. (Archive)
FACT CHECK
NewsMobile fact-checked the claim, and found it to be misleading.
With a keyword search on YouTube using terms like ‘Lucknow mosque arms licence.’ The top results revealed an India TV report that was published on June 27, 2019.
As per the description, lawyer Mehmood Pracha conducted “a training camp” at a mosque in Lucknow to help people fill out gun licence forms.
We found another report by The Hindustan Times, dated July 27, 2019, stating that after Friday prayers, Mehmood Pracha spoke to people at Lucknow’s Tile Wali Mosque.
Prominent cleric Maulana Jawad had initially requested Pracha to hold the camp at the Bada Imambara mosque but deferred the plan after meeting with Union Home Minister Amit Shah, who assured him that Centre would soon enact a law to combat mob lynching and hate crimes. Despite this, Pracha proceeded with the camp, explaining that he informed people about their constitutional right to life and self-defence. He expressed that “Muslims and SC/STs have been left with no option” but to defend themselves, claiming that the authorities had “failed in their duty to protect them”, the report adds.
We also found a tweet by Times Now in which Lucknow Police took cognisance of the video and initiated a probe against Pracha, as seen in a reply to a video of the incident.
Therefore, an old video of lawyer Mehmood Pracha discussing arms licence applications with people is falsely circulated as a recent event.
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