Muslims are regularly targeted by misinformation spread online in India's Hindu majority. In the latest case, footage made the rounds on Facebook and X as a mechanic with an Islamic name allegedly vandalizes motorcycles to drive business to his repair shop. The man in the video, who identified himself as a Hindu, is a teacher who said he slashed the seats and tires of vehicles because he was angry with drivers who were parking outside the tuition centre. his
“Mohammad Junaid was seen tearing the seats of vehicles parked on the side of the road with a blowtorch,” read the X post who shared the video on December 23, garnering more than 2.3 million views.
“To expand his business, he crashes vehicles and tears seats.”
The video shows a man cutting motorcycle seats with a knife and hitting truck tires.
A screenshot of the fake Facebook post, captured on January 7, 2025
The video was circulated X and Facebookpromoting various Islamophobic attitudes.
“This is one of the main reasons why people should STOP buying from a certain community that is involved in abuse to get business. Then they talk about haram (forbidden in Islam),” read one idea
“All they want is destruction. There are no moral values of any kind,” said another.
India is a Hindu majority country and is ruled by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). nationalist rhetoric has left the Muslim minority of over 220 million fearing for their future (archive link).
An angry teacher
The video shared online has the watermark “Uttarakhand Exclusive” – the name of a speaker Instagram page (archive link).
AFP reached out to the page's manager, Gaurav Wasudev, who confirmed that the video was first published on his page in August and later deleted.
He identified the man in the film as a teacher in northern India who vandalized vehicles parked outside his tuition centre.
“The incident in the video is from Dobhal Chowk in Nehrugram area of Dehradun, Uttarakhand and the person in the video is a teacher named Dheeraj Aggarwal,” he said.
“He was angry at people parking their vehicles outside his tuition center and used a machete to vandalize them.”
AFP confirmed that the video was filmed in Dobhal Chowk by comparing it to Google Street View photos from the area (archive link).
Screenshot comparison between a view from the fake post (left) and an image of the area on Google Street View (right) with corresponding elements identified by AFP
Meanwhile, Aggarwal confirmed to AFP that he was the man in the video.
“The area around my teaching center is a market in Nehrugram. Often people would park their vehicles in and around the stores all day while visiting the market , making it difficult for the students to walk on the road safely,” he said.
“I thought about damaging the seat covers of some vehicles parked in front of my establishment to teach them a lesson.”
He said he was a Hindu, not a Muslim.
Pradeep Negi, station officer at the local Raipur police post, identified the man in the video as Aggarwal and said he was fined by officers present at the scene.
