On June 16, Zee News posted a two-minute broadcast that showed people marching on hilly terrain. The march was carried out to create awareness for establishing a Gompa in Kargil, which has been pending since the 1960s. As per BBC, Gompa is a Tibetan institution that combines a shrine, a vihara and a meditation hall. Some contain facilities for study and learning. Collins Dictionary refers to it as a Buddhist monastery. The channel insinuated that a “clash” took place between the “peace-loving” Buddhist community and “radical Muslims”. Videos aired by Zee News show a large crowd marching, along with representational clips of monks and the Leh region. At the 50-second mark, Zee News alleged that in order to “protect” Buddhism, the monks “clashed” with radical Muslims. The channel did not report on the nature of the “clash”, albeit no physical altercation can be observed in Zee News’s broadcast. The video gained over 24 lakh views on YouTube. [English transcript of the opening 50 seconds of Zee News broadcast: “An incident took place in Ladakh of which the entire nation was unaware. The news must be viewed by the nation so they know why the eternal, peace-loving Buddhists got enraged suddenly. Actually, in Ladakh, Maulvis and radicals have stopped Buddhists to build their temple due to which turmoil began. This issue is gaining momentum because of the march by the minority community of Buddhists [in Ladakh] against Maulvis and radicals. In order to protect their religion, Buddhists have clashed with Muslims. In order to protest against Maulvis and radicals, thousands of Buddhists joined the march. Let us inform you that this clash dates back decades…”] Zee News also posted this on Facebook on June 16 and June 17. The posts gained over one lakh likes and over 12,000 shares cumulatively. The June 16 post gained over two million views. We also noticed that multiple pro-BJP and pro-Hindutva Facebook accounts shared this video. If you have access to CrowdTangle, you can view these posts here. Zee News claimed “clashes” took place between Buddhists and Muslims in Ladakh without providing an explanation of the nature of the clashes. It must be noted that the video does not depict any violence, either verbal or physical. In order to understand the nature of the incident, Alt News spoke with all relevant stakeholders and rummaged through other news reports. On June 12, Amar Ujala reported that Tibetan religious leader and the eighth Choekyong, Palga Rinpoche, led several hundred Buddhist community members on a ‘padayatra’. On May 27, Rinpoche’s Facebook page posted an image that listed details about the march. It took place from May 31 to June 14. As per the post, the march was organised to raise awareness about the restoration of the Kargil Gompa. Capturing the historical context, Firstpost reported, “As per reports, 15 March, 1961, the then-Government of Jammu & Kashmir, General Department, Ladakh Affairs, sanctioned the land to Ladakh Buddhist Association (LBA) for the construction of Buddhist Temple and Sarai. It was clearly mentioned in the order that religious construction was allowed on the land. However, in 1969, the government issued another order, stating that the land allotted to LBA could only be used for the construction of residential or commercial buildings and refused to allow religious construction on the land.” Thus, this is essentially a land dispute dating back to 1961. Alt News spoke with Skarma Dadul, president of the Kargil Buddhist Association (KBA). Dadul shared the true copies of the 1961 and 1969 documents [view PDF]. He said, “I had joined the march. The aim of this march was to create awareness about the Kargil Gompa by laying the foundation. The video of people marching shown by Zee News is from June 12.” When we enquired if there was a “clash” during the march, he responded, “There was no clash. BJP Ladakh President and MP Jamyang Tsering Namgyal met the group of people marching near Mulbekh Monastery (view on Google Maps) and stated that Union Home Minister Amit Shah has communicated to stop this march. We stopped the march as requested.” Dadul clarified, “The protest was peaceful.” YouTube user Stanzin Zingtak has uploaded a speech by BJP MP Namgyal. In the speech (from 8:27 to 8:47 minutes), Namgyal claimed that Amit Shah requested Palga Rinpoche to stop this padayatra.