2018 video of passports found on the roadside in Haryana falsely misattributed to Gujarat

Context

A 14-second video has gone viral on social media in which a few men show hundreds of Indian passports scattered on the roadside. The captions shared with this video claim it is recent footage from Bet Dwarka island in Gujarat. The videos are being shared to claim that the passports are of 'illegal' Muslims who have settled in Bet Dwarka. The captions state that the video shows how hundreds of "Kasabs" have "settled" in India - a reference to the Pakistani terrorist Ajmal Kasab, prime accused in 26/11 Mumbai attacks. Among those sharing the video is right-wing outfit Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader Sadhvi Prachi.

However, no such incident occurred in 2023. The viral video is five years old, from Haryana, and does not show passports of illegal Muslim settlers in India.

In Fact

We came across a news article by Dainik Jagran, dated March 11, 2018, which includes an image of some Indian passports on the ground. The article was about over 200 passports found dumped on the road from villages in Sirsa, Haryana. Around the same time, The Indian Express and Tribune India reported that 258 passports were found on a street in Haryana's Kalanwali. The Kalanwali police told the media that an investigation had been launched to ascertain how the passports reached the spot.

Using these details, we searched for similar videos from around the time and found a video news report by Punjab Kesari, a Hindi newspaper. The YouTube channel Punjab Kesari Haryana uploaded the video on March 12, 2018. It includes clips from the viral video and statements from the police and some members of the public. Punjab Kesari reported the police notified people to whom the passports belonged.

The Indian Express noted the individuals said that they had given their passports to a "Ludhiana-based immigration consultant" the previous year, which they were told had been stolen.

We found no credible news reports of any recent incident in Dwarka, Gujarat. The claim that these passports belong to "illegal Muslims" settled in Gujarat is also not backed up by evidence. Similar communal narratives have picked up speed after the celebration of Ram Navami on March 30 and several violent communal clashes across India. 

The Verdict

A 2018 video of passports found dumped on the roadside in Haryana has been incorrectly shared as from Gujarat, with an illegal immigration narrative and a communal twist. No such incident has taken place in Gujarat in 2023. Therefore, we have marked this claim as false.