Indian video circulated as Chhatra Dal attacking general students
A video has recently been circulating on multiple social media platforms with the claim that Chhatra Dal (the student wing of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party) is torturing general students who were protesting over holding HSC (Higher Secondary Certificate) exams amid flood and the education minister’s subsequent remarks on the matter. However, a fact-check by Dismislab reveals that the video is from Berhampur in Odisha, India.
According to Indian media reports, on May 18 in Odisha, a young man was traveling on a motorcycle with his girlfriend. A group of people blocked their path in the Bijipur area of Berhampur. They dragged the young man down to the street and started beating him with sticks. When the girlfriend tried to save him, she was also severely injured. The circulated video is of that incident.
On July 16, a 9-second video was posted from a personal Facebook profile with a caption stating, “Torture of general student brothers and sisters by Chhatra Dal.” In the video, a woman is seen trying to protect a man lying on the road. Several individuals are beating both of them with sticks. A motorcycle is lying nearby.
Up until the writing of this report, the video has been viewed more than 49,000 times and shared 911 times. The video has been shared with the same claim on multiple Facebook profiles (1, 2, 3, 4, 5). It was shared on X with the caption, “Physical torture in a medieval style is going on against the protesting students. This is the picture of torture inflicted on a protesting student by the terrorists of Chhatra Dal! This is BNP’s democracy!!”
To verify the authenticity of the claim, a reverse image search brought up a report by Times Now News published on May 18. The headline of this report was, “Man, Woman Brutally Attacked With Sticks On Busy Road In Odisha’s Berhampur.” The image used in this report perfectly matches the scene of the circulated image. The report stated, “A disturbing case of public violence has been reported from Berhampur city in Odisha, where a young man and woman were allegedly assaulted by two youths in the middle of a busy road. According to reports, the incident occurred on Giri Road in Berhampur. A video of the attack has gone viral on social media, sparking widespread outrage among users.”
Multiple reports (1, 2) from Indian media have been found regarding this matter.
That is to say, the video circulated with the claim that Chhatra Dal is torturing protesting general students is actually from an incident in Odisha, India. When the video previously circulated with a different claim, Dismislab published a fact-check report on the matter.
Incidentally, protesting against holding the HSC exams amidst continuous rain and waterlogging, and the “adverse’ remarks made about the students, students have been demonstrating in 13 districts, including Dhaka and Chattogram, since July 14, demanding the resignation of the education minister. Among these, highways were blockaded in Dhaka, Barishal, and Tangail, and the education boards were besieged in Chattogram and Rajshahi.
Dismislab has also published a fact-check report regarding the misinformation spreading around these demonstrations.
All social media captions, quotations, and news excerpts in this article have been translated into English from the languages in which they were originally posted or published.
