Claim
Transport workers have announced a halt to public vehicles in Kathmandu Valley.
Fact
Viral news clip is from February 2023.
A video claiming that the transport workers have announced to halt public transport in Kathmandu from tomorrow is going viral on TikTok.
TikTok user @ramrushan posted a video showing a clip of arson on a vehicle. The video also shows a collage of demonstrators burning tyres on a street. Text superimposed on the video reads, “Balaju area tense. Transport workers torched a police van.” A person speaking in the background says, “Transport workers have announced to stop operation of public vehicles from tomorrow. Transport workers have announced a halt to public vehicles within Kathmandu valley. The agitating transport workers torched a police van saying that the contractor of New bus park Lotse company exhibited hooliganism.”
The video posted on December 19 has garnered 16.8k likes, 100 users have commented and 591 users have shared it.
The archived version of the TikTok video can be seen here.
Newschecker found the claim to be misleading.
Fact Check /Verification
To check the veracity of the claim, Newschecker ran a search on Google by taking clues from the viral video. The search threw up several results from February 2023. On checking an article, dated Feb 13, 2023, posted on onlinekhabar, we found that two images carried in the viral video exactly matched the viral video. The news reported about the vandalism and arson attack by agitating transport workers.
Further, we found an article, dated February 15, 2023, posted on Nepal Live today online, about the violence that happened during a strike organised by various transport workers two days ago in Balaju area of Kathmandu. The transport workers resorted to strike and vandalism against the decision of traffic police to hike fines for traffic rules violation. We also found another article, dated February 13, 2023, posted on Nayapatrika online regarding vandalism and arson attack in Balaju area of Kathmandu to the viral video.
We also found a video, dated February 13, 2023, posted on YouTube channel named Prem Lama. The video exactly matched the three-second clip carried in the viral video depicting the police van torched by protesters.
We did not find any credible reports of recent incidents of arson attacks or strikes by transport workers.
Thus, our findings clearly indicated that the viral video is from 2023 posted as recent.
Conclusion
No, the transport workers have not announced any strikes. The viral video shows clips and images from February 13, 2023 when transport workers staged a protest against the decision to hike fines for traffic rules violation.
Result: Misleading
Sources
Onlinekhabar.com , Feb 13, 2023
Nepal Live, Feb 15, 2023
Prem Lama/YouTube
Nayapatrika Daily Online, Feb 13, 2025
