Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei died on 28 February during the Israel-American attack. After which, people in several states of India took to the streets to protest for Khamenei. Protests also took place in Lucknow, the capital of Uttar Pradesh. Meanwhile, a video of police lathi charging is being shared on social media with the claim that the police carried out a lathi charge on people protesting for Khamenei in Lucknow.
A Facebook user wrote while sharing the video, ‘Something very wrong happened… Shoes and slippers were left behind in Lucknow’s market, and even got their backsides beaten up for Khamenei’s love.’
The same video is being widely circulated on Facebook. Many users have shared the viral video claiming that it shows police lathi charging on people protesting for Khamenei, which can be seen here, here, here, and here.
Fact Check:
After investigating the viral video, the DFRAC team found that this video of police lathi charging is not of the protest on the death of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. This video is from September 2025, which shows police lathi-charging on people protesting over the ‘I Love Muhammad’ issue in Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh. During the investigation, we found this video on an Instagram account posted on 26 September, 2025. Information shared in this post states that the video is from Bareilly.
After this, we conducted some keyword searches on Google on police lathi charge in Bareilly. We found several media reports along with ABP News and Hindustan on 26 September 2025. According to a report by ABP News, ‘In Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh, the police carried out a lathi charge after protesters resorted to stone-pelting during a protest held after Friday prayers. Police officials said that after Friday prayers, people held a protest carrying banners reading ‘I Love Muhammad’ and raising slogans such as ‘Allahu Akbar. When the police tried to calm the protesters, and the situation went out of control, they carried out a lathi charge to restore order.
For further investigation, we looked into the incident of a lathi charge on protesters in Lucknow. We found a post from the UP Police’s fact-check unit. The police stated in the post that the viral video is not from Lucknow, but from the lathi charge that took place in Bareilly on September 26, 2025. The police wrote in the post, ‘This video is related to Bareilly district dated 26.09.2025. This video is being misleadingly claimed to show protests in Lucknow over the death of Iranian leader Khamenei; this claim is completely false and misleading. @Uppolice, rebut this misleading video.
Our team contacted a Lucknow-based journalist, Abu Ashraf Zeeshan, on the context of this video. After watching the video, Zeeshan stated that no such incident occurred during the protests in Lucknow, as shown in the video.
Conclusion:
DFRAC’s fact-check makes it clear that the video shared on social media is from a police lathi charge in Bareilly in September 2025, which has been misleadingly claimed to show a lathi charge on people protesting for Khamenei in Lucknow.
