[The following story includes graphic photos and videos. Readers’ discretion is advised.] In the first week of September, Alt News started receiving multiple requests daily to verify audio and videos clips related to incidents and/or rumours of child kidnapping. The volume of requests was unusually high and most of them were from one of India’s largest states, Uttar Pradesh. In all of these cases, an individual or a group was assaulted by the general public on the suspicion that they were child kidnappers. Based on this, we started analyzing news reports using keyword searches, and also monitored social media. We observed that the attacks on individuals increased exponentially between August 30 and September 13. On August 30, a mentally challenged woman was assaulted by villagers in DK Shikarpur, West Champaran, Bihar. The same day, in Uttar Pradesh’s Phoolpur, a group of sadhus were detained by police over child kidnapping allegations. In many cases, sadhus and mentally challenged individuals were at the receiving end of mob attacks over child theft rumours. In Prayagraj, even health department officials were not spared when they went to a village to spray larvicide in and around the home of a dengue patient. Villagers assumed them to be child kidnappers and started chasing them. The health workers barely managed to escape. Later, on the outskirts of the village, they met the elders of the village and explained to them that they were health workers. This incident was reported by Amar Ujala on September 13. Dainik Bhaskar reported that eight people on their way to work were attacked by villagers in Bihar on September 9. On the same day, it was reported that four workers of a telecom company were attacked by locals in Kasganj, UP, on suspicion of child abduction, before police rescued them. On September 11, Jagran reported that three youths who had gone to a village in Uttarkhand to buy contraband were assaulted by villagers for similar reasons. Police personnel who who went in to control the situation were not spared, either. Again, on September 12, a couple was attacked by villagers in UP’s Pilbhit while they were travelling with their daughter. According to Jagran, the couple and the three-year-old child were on a bike, during which she started crying. This aroused suspicion in onlookers and they started attacking the man. Between August 30 and September 13, the number of instances in which sadhus were attacked stood at six, while in eight cases, mentally challenged individuals were at the receiving end. The total number of attacks/assaults in the span of 15 days was 27. September 1 to September 13 witnessed 25 attacks. We also found that 17 attacks occurred in Uttar Pradesh, followed by seven in Bihar, and one each in Karnataka, Maharashtra and Uttarakhand. What led to this wave of child kidnapping rumours in such huge volume is difficult to determine. However, the seeds of it were sown over a period of time. Scripted videos showing incidents of child kidnapping have been doing the rounds on social media for months now, each video different from the other. Some were even shared with communal messages, but the basic narrative remained the same. A group or an individual steals children and is either caught, or successfully escapes. Most of which happens in the open. By end of August, two such staged clips were viral on social media. In the first clip, we see three men haggling over money and apparently unconscious children lying around them. In the second clip, we see two masked men being confronted by a group of people, it also shows children lying in the back seat of the car. Below we have embedded the first clip. (Archive link.) वीडियो को देखकर आपकी आंखें खुली की खुली रह जाएंगी पैर के नीचे की जमीन खिसक जाएगी कलेजा एक बार दहल जाएगा वीडियो कहां की है यह तो नहीं पता है वीडियो कहीं की भी हो प्रशासन को हरकत में आना चाहिए pic.twitter.com/EzMkXxmKXv — Sunil Yadav (@SunilYa59918245) July 6, 2022 The second clip is not available in the public domain, however, we have added screengrabs from the viral video. Both the videos were debunked by Alt News and The Quint fact-check. In fact, the second scripted video was debunked by The Quint in the beginning of July. However, both videos continue to be circulated on WhatsApp. During this wave of rumours, even older clips tarted to surface online. One such video is a staged clip of a burkha-clad man stealing a child. The video was shot in Egypt but it viral in the Indian context. Again, the clip had been debunked by Alt News and various other fact-checking organisation in July but it continues to surface online as a genuine clip. July, in particular, saw two more instances of scripted child kidnapping videos going viral.