Fact Check: Demolition Video Of Theme Park In Indonesia Shared With False Claim Of Mosque Being Razed In India
PTI debunked a viral video claiming bulldozers demolished a mosque-shaped building in India, clarifying it was an Indonesian theme park demolition.
Published : March 13, 2025 at 6:19 PM IST
New Delhi: Multiple social media users shared a video of a turquoise colour mosque-like structure, those sharing the video claimed that it was an illegally built mosque in India that was being demolished with the help of bulldozers.
However, the PTI Fact Check Desk investigated and found that the viral video was shared with a false claim. Upon investigation, it was revealed that the video shows a building in a theme park in Java, Indonesia, being demolished for violating land permits and is unrelated to India.
Claim
On March 11, an X (formerly Twitter) user shared a video of a turquoise building shaped like a mosque, claiming that bulldozers in India demolished it.
The caption of the post read: “Bulldozers in India demolish illegal mosques.” When posting this article, the post had garnered 2.2 Million views.
Here is the link to the post and below is a screenshot of the same.
Investigation
The Desk ran the viral video through the InVid tool and extracted multiple keyframes. Upon running one of the keyframes through Google Lens, the Desk found various users shared the same video with similar claims. Two such posts can be found here and here.
On further scanning the search results, the Desk came across a video uploaded on YouTube on March 7, 2025, showing the structure's destruction visible in the viral video. The video's title, initially in Indonesian, reads, "End of the story for Hibisc Fantasy Tourism Park."
Here is the link to the video and below is a screenshot of the same.
The Desk found a striking resemblance between the viral video and the video uploaded on YouTube. Below is a combination image highlighting the same.
Taking a cue from this, the Desk conducted a customised keyword search on Google and came across an Instagram post by a local media outlet featuring the same video. The video's caption, a demolition of the Hibisc Fantasy Puncak recreation center, which stands in the middle of the tea plantation, Cisarua, Bogor Region, was carried out.
Here is the link to the post and below is a screenshot of the same.
Taking the investigation further, the Desk conducted another set of customised keyword searches to find relevant media reports and found a video report by Indonesian news outlet TribunNews uploaded to YouTube on March 6, 2025. At the 0:22 second mark, the structure is visible. Here is the link, and below is a screenshot of the same.
Furthermore, CNN Indonesia also reported the incident on March 11, 2025. According to the report, the theme park was built on plantation land, and it violated construction rules, exceeding the number of buildings allowed on plantations. Here is the link to the report, and below is a screenshot featuring the structure of the mosque.
The report mentioned: “PT Perkebunan Nusantara ( PTPN ) has finally spoken up after being criticised by the Governor of West Java, Dedi Mulyadi alias Demul, regarding the conversion of their plantation lands into tourist attractions, one of which is the construction of Hibiscus Fantasy Puncak which is accused of triggering flooding.”
Subsequently, the Desk concluded that the viral video shows a building in a theme park in Java, Indonesia, being demolished for violating land permits and is unrelated to India.
CLAIM FACT The viral video shows a building in a theme park in Java, Indonesia, being demolished for violating land permits unrelated to India. |
CONCLUSION
A video of a mosque-like structure is widely being circulated on social media with users claiming that it was an illegally built mosque in India that was being demolished using bulldozers. In its investigation, the Desk found that the viral video shows a building in a theme park in Java, Indonesia, being demolished for violating land permits and is unrelated to India. The video was shared with a false claim.
(Note: This story was first published by PTI and is republished by ETV Bharat as part of Shakti Collective.)
