A video is going viral on social media from Kashmir. It shows a school where she can be seen reciting some hymns on a podium and other girls can be seen sitting on ground and listening her.
Social media users are claiming that” Muslim girls in a Kashmir secondary school are forced to recite Hindu prayers.”
Public Relations Expert Ghulam Nabi Fai (@ghulamnabifai) has also written about the video. His tweet reads,”Muslim Girls From a School in #Kashmir Forced To Recite #Hindu Prayers’@NazilaGhanea ‘Condemn abuse of #religion or belief as tool of discrimination and violence.’ Urgency to add teeth to enforce it. @narendramodi has callous attitude to life in Kashmir. @antonioguterres @potus”
A news article was also found on the website The Islamic Information sharing the above claim.
Fact check:
DFRAC team investigated the video shared and found that the video is from Girls High School, Sallar, Pahalgam of South Kashmir which features a Hindu girl reciting Ganesh Aarti. The audience includes both Hindu and Muslim girls.
It can be seen in the video that after the children finish reciting the Ganesh Vandana, the teacher ask the girl student to explain the significance of the Lord Ganesha.
With the help of one of the teachers, the student explained to her peers that as Lord Ganesha is regarded as the ultimate deity, we recite the Ganesh Vandana and apply Chandan (Sandalwood) paste to his statue before beginning any task.
Executive Editor of TV9 Network, Aditya Raj Kaul also shared the video and wrote,” Beautiful recital of Ganesh Aarti at the Girls High School, Sallar, Pahalgam of South Kashmir.”
Our team found the article published by Ground news on August 19, covering the news. The article has no mention of Muslim girls being forcefully asked to recite Hindu prayers.
We also found that the account which shared the video with the viral claim was of Muzzammil Ayyub Thakur(@M_A_Thakur) which has been withheld by twitter in India.
Conclusion:
We conclude from the fact check that the video is being shared with misleading claims. There is no evidence of forced activity being conducted by any of the school authorities in the video.
