An image of people holding a Palestinian flag and climbing onto a statue in a public place has gone viral. Those sharing the image claim that it is from Punjab where Palestinian supporters defaced the statue of Maharaja Ranjit Singh.
A social media user shared the image and wrote, “BREAKING: Palestine supporters deface Maharaja Ranjit Singh's statue in Punjab. Ranjit Singh, the ‘Lion of Punjab,’ was a strong Sikh ruler who defended the region from invasions.”
SouthCheck found that the claim was misleading. The viral video is from Canada, not Punjab.
On doing a Google reverse image search, we found the same image published by NewsBytes on September 29, 2024. The report was titled, ‘Canada: Outrage as pro-Palestine protesters 'deface' Maharaja Ranjit Singh’s statue’.
The report associated with the image suggested that the incident happened in Brampton, Canada, as part of a pro-Palestinian protest.
The report also had a link to an X post shared by the Hindu American Foundation which had the video of the incident. The caption suggested that the 'defacement' of the statue happened in Ontario, Canada.
“We are outraged by the defacement of the statue of Maharaja Ranjit Singh in Ontario, Canada. Maharaja Ranjit Singh, the Sikh emperor, is universally respected in India as a defender of the nation by defeating Afghan invaders. Attacking this statue is a hate crime," the caption read.
Using Google Lens, we were able to find a 2018 video on a Facebook page. As per the caption, the video purportedly showed the statue of Maharaja Ranjit Singh located at a Punjabi market in Brampton, Toronto. The video also showed the row of business outlets in the same open compound as the statue. Brampton is a city in the Canadian province of Ontario.
We were able to compare the Facebook video with the statue’s location on Google Maps and confirmed both show the same places.
We also found that the incident was also reported by News 18 on September 29, 2024. It was titled ‘Hate Crime: Indians Outraged After Pro-Palestine Protesters ‘Deface’ Maharaja Ranjit Singh Statue In Canada’. The report also carried the viral image.
While not many details regarding the incident were found, we could ascertain that the incident was from Canada, not Punjab.