New Delhi: A photo of a policeman throwing an object has been shared repeatedly in multiple Facebook and Twitter posts which claim it shows a policeman participating in sectarian violence in the Indian capital of Delhi in February 2020.
The claim is false; the image is an AFP photo of a police officer taken in December 2019 during clashes with anti-citizenship law protesters in Lucknow, a major city in north India.
In recent weeks, Delhi has experienced its worst sectarian violence in decades. At least 50 people have been killed in the violent clashes, as reported here by AFP on March 7, 2020.
The claim is false.
A reverse Google image search found the photo was in fact taken by AFP on December 19, 2019, during protests in Lucknow.
Below is a screenshot comparison of the photo in the misleading Facebook post (L) and the AFP photo (R) :
The AFP photo caption reads as: “Police throw stones towards protesters during demonstrations against India’s new citizenship law in Lucknow on December 19, 2019. Indians defied bans on assembly on December 19 in cities nationwide as anger swells against a citizenship law seen as discriminatory against Muslims, following days of protests, clashes, and riots that have left six dead.”
Deadly unrest also broke out in other cities across India in late 2019 over the citizenship law.