Visuals from Uzbekistan Shared as an Attack on a Foreign Tourist in India

Social media users on X recently shared a video alleging that a foreigner visiting India was physically assaulted by locals in India. The posts also raise questions about the mistreatment of international tourists and women’s safety in India. However, we found that the incident in the footage occurred in Uzbekistan, not India.

The viral claim

A Pakistan-based X account, Ababeel (@areesha8md), shared a post on 1 November claiming that a female foreigner was recently attacked in India. The post’s caption reads, “A female tourist visiting India was allegedly raped and mistreated, and her hair was also cut off. This incident raises serious concerns about women’s safety in India, not only for foreign tourists but also for ordinary Muslim women living there.”

The video features a woman being physically assaulted and having her hair cut.

As of 4 November, the post had garnered 61,00,000 views, 16,000 likes and 2,900 reposts.

Responding to the post, a user remarked, “1st rule about going to India… DON’T GO TO INDIA,” while another user stated, “How can India call itself a safe country when women, even foreign visitors, face such horrifying treatment? This is shameful and unacceptable.”

Several users pointed out that the video is not from India and is from Uzbekistan.

We also found that the same footage was shared with claims that a foreign woman had been attacked in Pakistan.

An Indian X user, Gaurav (@k_gauravs), shared the same video accompanied by the caption, “A female tourist visiting Pakistan was allegedly raped, mistreated and had her hair forcibly cut off.  This horrifying incident raises serious questions about women’s safety in Pakistan. And the concern isn’t limited to foreign tourists; countless ordinary women living there, including Muslim women, deserve the same protection and dignity.  A woman’s safety should never depend on her nationality, religion or background.”

The post also tagged Baba Banaras™ (@RealBababanaras), who had been flagged several times by fact-checkers for spreading fake news.

How did we verify?

The language heard in the video does not correspond to any regional language spoken in India, suggesting that the footage could be from another country.

We performed a reverse image search on the keyframes of the viral video, which led us to an X post dated 16 October that claimed the incident had occurred in Turkey. The post’s caption suggests that a young foreign woman was beaten by two women, who then also cut her hair.

The official X account of Gusholder Haber Bülteni, a popular Turkish digital news outlet and social media broadcast entity, also shared the video on 15 October. Its post claimed that the incident had occurred in Arnavutköy, Istanbul, Turkey.

We found that the visuals in the social media posts linking the footage to different countries were either 1 minute or 1 minute and 29 seconds long and appeared to be clipped. Further analysis of the viral video’s keyframes led us to a longer version uploaded to YouTube on 23 September. The video’s title suggests that the woman featured in it is from the Khorezm region of Uzbekistan.

Our analysis of the video’s transcript revealed that the language spoken by the individuals in the footage is Uzbek. This further suggests that the footage could be from Uzbekistan.

Furthermore, a report published by Turkish news outlet TR Haber on 10 October 2026 stated that a video circulating on social media, allegedly showing a physical assault in Arnavutköy, Istanbul, was actually recorded in Uzbekistan.

According to the report, the Istanbul Police Department’s Arnavutköy District Police Directorate examined the footage after it began circulating online with claims that the incident had taken place in the district. The investigation reportedly established that the incident occurred in Uzbekistan and that the footage was old. The police also stated that no complaints or official reports had been filed regarding the alleged incident in Arnavutköy. The authorities urged social media users to exercise caution when sharing potentially misleading content that could cause public concern or panic. They advised verifying the authenticity of videos before circulating them.

OBC’s analysis reveals that a video that was initially shared as being from Turkey and later linked to an alleged attack on foreigners in India and Pakistan actually depicts an incident that took place in Uzbekistan.