Fact Check: Viral visuals Falsely Claimed as Arms Seized from Hakeem Salauddin’s House in Lucknow
A day before Muharram in Lucknow, police recovered illegal arms just 100 meters from the Malihabad police station.
Guns and ammunition
A day before Muharram in Lucknow, police recovered illegal arms just 100 meters from the Malihabad police station. The illegal arms factory was operating from the house of Hakeem Salauddin, a 72-year-old traditional medicine practitioner. The Uttar Pradesh Special Task Force (STF) recovered 12–13 sophisticated firearms, including pistols, rifles, and Mausers, along with over 3,000 cartridges. Some sources mention the recovery of as many as 300 firearms and 50,000 cartridges. According to investigators, Hakeem Salauddin, who was arrested on Friday from Lucknow’s Malihabad area in connection with alleged involvement in the case, was in regular contact with a Dubai number, sometimes calling once or twice a day.
Meanwhile, a few visuals are going viral, claiming to show the guns and ammunition recovered from Hakeem Salauddin’s house in Lucknow.
Viral Video:
First, a video showing a lot of guns, money, and sacks full of cartridges, and also some sophisticated guns, is in circulation with the caption: “3,000 guns, 50,000 cartridges and cash recovered from Hakim Salauddin's house in Lucknow one day before Muharram. They are preparing for war. भीम आर्मी” #Hindus #Rajasingh “PM Modi” “Yogi” “Islam”
Viral Image:
Another image showing stacks of guns is going viral with the same caption: “3000 guns and 20 sacks containing 50,000 cartridges recovered from Hakim Salauddin's house in Lucknow.”
Fact check:
The claim is False.
Viral Video:
When we extracted keyframes from the viral video and searched them using Google reverse image search, we found that the video is an old one and shows visuals from the year 2021. #Afghanistan #USA #Kabul”. We also found a YouTube video published on August 24, 2021, with the title: “American equipment, American cars, American weapons - this is the new Taliban”.
Viral Image:
When we searched the viral image showing stacks of guns tucked in shelves, we found a few social media posts from the years 2021 and 2020.
We also found a post on a website called wisgoon.com, shared in the year 2017. We also found a similar image shared on QC Times website, with the title ‘Iowa opens new crime lab’. The article states that the agency looks over more than 3,300 guns for reference in their ballistics lab in Ankeny, Iowa.
Upon further search for the images of the guns and ammunition recovered by the Lucknow police, we found several images shared by some of the news reports.
Therefore, the viral visuals in circulation are not related to the guns and ammunition recovery from Hakeem Salauddin’s house in Lucknow. They are old visuals from different occasions. The claim that they show arms and ammunition recovered in Lucknow is False.
Claim : Viral visuals showing the guns and cartridges recovered from Hakim Salauddin's house in Lucknow
Claimed By : Twitter users
Fact Check : Unknown