By Sachin Baghel
A disturbing video showing visuals of a faith healer electrocuting children and adults, who are seen writhing in pain, is circulating with false claims that Hindu minorities are forcibly being converted to Islam through electrocution in Pakistan's Peshawar.
BOOM found that the viral video from 2020 shows an act of exorcism performed by a Muslim faith healer; the fake faith healer, named Muhammad Ullah was later arrested by the Peshawar Police.
The video is circulating on Twitter with a caption in Hindi: “A case of forcible conversion of Hindu minorities, including children to Islam by electrocution and extreme torture in Peshawar Pakistan has come to light. What a pathetic condition of Hindus with whom there is no international media or human rights organization.”
Original text in Hindi: “पेशावर पाकिस्तान में, बच्चों सहित हिंदू अल्पसंख्यकों को बिजली के झटके देकर और अत्यधिक यातनाएं देकर जबरन इस्लाम में परिवर्तित करने का मामला सामने आया है। हिंदूओं की कितनी दयनीय स्थिति है जिनके साथ कोई अंतरराष्ट्रीय मीडिया या मानवाधिकार संगठन भी नहीं है”
Note: The video has disturbing visuals
Click here to view the archive.
The video was also shared on Facebook with the same claim. Click here, here and here to view the posts.
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Fact Check
BOOM ran a keyword search with the claim and found a fact check by Soch Fact Check, a Pakistani fact-checking outlet, published on March 30, 2022.
Soch Fact Check debunked the same claim when it went viral in March 2022. BOOM contacted Haseem uz Zaman from Soch Fact Check, who refuted the claim of conversion of Hindu children, and confirmed, "The Islamic faith healer named Peer Mohammadullah used to electrocute children for exorcism; after the incident came to light, he was arrested by Peshawar City Police".
Taking this as a cue BOOM ran another keyword search and found a Pakistani news report by The News published on August 10, 2020. The report stated how a fake godman was arrested for torturing people in an area under Sarband police station in Peshawar. The report also mentioned the statement of a police officer. According to the police officer, Peer Mohammadullah was arrested by the police for torturing and electrocuting a young man in a video.
We also found another report by Parhlo, published on 10 August 2020. The report stated that a fake faith healer was arrested for giving an electric shock to a boy to cast out the Islamic jinn from him.
The report quoted the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Police statement, “Peshawar police arrested a fake peer while taking action in the area of Achini Bala, who was identified as Muhammad Ullah Buksh Qaddullah.” The police also revealed that the fake godman used to torture the children by electrocuting them and telling them that this was the right way to remove evil.
Peshawar City Police tweeted the information about the arrest of the fake faith healer on August 10, 2020. The images present in the tweet are similar to the visuals of the viral video.
We also searched for the person Muhammad Ullah on Facebook and found his page, where he posted several exorcism videos. According to his bio,'Jado Over Jinat ka Rouhani Elaj' (Magic and Spiritual Healing of Jinat).'
Muhammd Ullah's location was listed as Achini Bala, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan as the location.
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