Old video shared with false claim of election boycott in Gopalganj
A video circulating on Facebook claims that people in Gopalganj have taken to the streets to boycott the election. But a Dismislab fact-check shows the video is actually six months old and depicts a student protest in front of the Secretariat in Dhaka.
A personal Facebook profile posted the video with the caption, “People in Gopalganj have taken to the streets to boycott the election.” The 29‑second clip shows a large crowd chanting “fake, fake” in front of army personnel. Comments under the post indicate many users believed the claim. One wrote, “Many thanks to the people of Gopalganj. Joy Bangla, Joy Bangabandhu, Joy Sheikh Hasina.” Another wrote, “Salute to the people of Gopalganj.”
The same video was shared from several other personal profiles (1, 2, 3), all repeating the same claim.
A reverse image search found a matching YouTube video published on August 30 of last year titled, “Students chant ‘fake, fake’ after seeing the army in front of the Secretariat.” The portion from the 2:00 to 2:29-minute mark is identical to the clip now circulating on Facebook.
Searches with relevant keywords produced more videos (1, 2, 3, 4) from different news outlets showing students protesting in front of the Secretariat. Additional reporting (1, 2, 3) confirms the same event. A Bangla Tribune story published on July 22 last year was headlined, “Students storm Secretariat and protest; police use batons.”
That report stated: “Students protesting over a training aircraft crash at Milestone School and College, along with broader demands related to mismanagement in education and the resignation of the law and education adviser, entered the Secretariat premises through its gate around 4 p.m. Tuesday (July 22). Police attempted to remove them. The students had been demonstrating since noon.”
The video being shared with the claim that people in Gopalganj are protesting to boycott the election actually shows a months‑old student protest in Dhaka, unrelated to the election.
Disclaimer: The original version of this fact-check report was published in Bengali on Dismislab’s Bengali website on February 12, 2026. The English translation was completed later; however, to maintain time accuracy and avoid any potential misinterpretation, the English version has been published with the original publication date.
