How AL supporters formed false narrative of Chhatra Dal activist ‘choking’ ordinary student
Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) exam candidates have been protesting over holding exams during floods and waterlogging, and over the education minister’s remarks on the matter. A narrative is being spread on social media, using photos and videos, along with a claim that Chhatra Dal (ruling party BNP’s student wing) grabbed a protesting student by the throat during the ongoing protests. On July 14, when protesting students gathered at Dhaka University, an incident occurred in which someone was shoved by the throat amid the crowd.
Later, a still image taken from the video, along with a graphic made from it, also spread. In the graphic, the person gripping the throat is labeled “Chhatra Dal” and the person whose throat is gripped is labeled “ordinary student.” This kind of post was mainly spread from various profiles identifying themselves as Awami League supporters.
However, Dismislab’s investigation found the actual scenario to be different. The person shoving the other by the neck in the video is a Chhatra Dal leader. But the person who was shoved is not a protester — rather, he is another Chhatra Dal leader himself. Dismislab verified the faces of both individuals and confirmed that one of them is Mohammad Omar Faruk Mamun, Chhatra Dal’s central joint secretary general, and the other is Mahin Ahmed Shujon, co-general secretary of Chhatra Dal’s Dhaka Metropolitan East unit.
How the incident unfolded
Dismislab first came across a post whose caption read, “Chhatra Dal and the BNP’s police force are attacking ordinary protesting students with sticks and various we*pons” (verbatim). A video attached to the post shows, amid a crowd, a person in a white shirt shoving another person in a white shirt and making a slapping gesture.
Searching relevant keywords about the incident, Dismislab found a reel posted from the page of the news outlet Daily Bangladesh. The reel’s caption read, “‘We brought down Sheikh Hasina, this is nothing to us either.’” This video showed the discussed neck-shoving scene twice, at the beginning and the end, but gave no explanation of the incident anywhere in the video.
Upon further searching, Dismislab found a video from a Facebook page called Dainik Ghatana. The page’s post caption read, “Seniors brought a section of Chhatra Dal under control!” This video, filmed from a different angle, shows that the person claimed to be the “ordinary student” whose throat was gripped was actually engaged in a heated argument. Moments later, another person in a white shirt came and shoved him away.
Searching further based on this post, Dismislab found a statement from Md Amanullah Aman, Chhatra Dal’s central organizing secretary, posted from Chhatra Dal’s official Facebook page. The statement read that photos and videos were being posted claiming a Chhatra Dal leader had grabbed a student’s throat, and stated that the incident did not occur with any student who came for the protest — rather, when a Chhatra Dal member was responding to a protesting student’s remarks, a leader from the central committee immediately intervened to stop the subordinate member from getting into an argument with the students.
Further searches showed multiple Chhatra Dal leaders and activists posting about the incident. According to one post, the person who shoved the other person was Chhatra Dal leader Mohammad Omar Faruk Mamun. To confirm this, Dismislab contacted Nittanonda Paul, senior joint convener of Chhatra Dal’s Dhaka University Jagannath Hall unit. Nittanonda told Dismislab that the person who did the shoving was named Omar Faruk Mamun, who currently serves as Chhatra Dal’s central joint secretary general, and that the person who was shoved was Mahin Ahmed Shujon, who currently serves as co-general secretary of Chhatra Dal’s Dhaka Metropolitan East unit.
Dismislab subsequently found the Facebook accounts of both individuals. On Mahin Ahmed Shujon’s Facebook profile, a post stated that since “Prime Minister Mr Tarique Rahman” came to Dhaka University that morning, all of them from Chhatra Dal’s central committee were present for their scheduled duty, but some troublemakers posing as ordinary students created a mob; when they tried to stop it, the troublemakers became more agitated, and at that point his colleague shoved him. He said some “mob-creating bot IDs” were falsely posting that Chhatra Dal was beating an ordinary student, when in fact he himself was a Chhatra Dal member wearing a Chhatra Dal badge, and demanded exemplary punishment for those spreading such false information.
The same profile also posted the video that Dainik Ghatana had posted. According to the “About” section of this profile, he is the co-general secretary of Chhatra Dal’s Dhaka Metropolitan East unit. Additionally, his Facebook profile’s cover photo, uploaded in 2022, shows him with Md Amanullah Aman, Chhatra Dal’s central organizing secretary.
To compare the face of the person in the video with the photos on this profile, Dismislab used a face-comparison tool. The tool’s results showed an 88 percent facial match between the two individuals — indicating they are the same person.
In other words, the person who was shoved was not a protester, but rather a Chhatra Dal leader himself.
To learn about the original incident, Dismislab contacted Mahin Ahmed Shujon. Shujon described Omar Faruk Mamun’s behavior as the kind of reprimand one might expect from an older brother figure. He said, “Mamun bhai is someone I know. He reprimanded me for managing the situation. Out of respect for him, I did not speak further after that.” Noting that the way the incident involving him was presented on social media had caused his family to rebuke him and various people to call him and say things, Sujon said, “This is actually a bit embarrassing for me. I feel that the way this was presented has damaged my reputation.”
How narrative was pushed
The oldest version of the discussed scene was found on the Dainik Ghatana page, posted at 12:26pm on July 14. The Daily Bangladesh Facebook page’s post went up at 1:36pm of the same day.
The post that led Dismislab to begin this investigation, was made at 3:22pm of July 14. In this video, the Daily Bangladesh logo had been blurred out. Checking the poster’s profile revealed a bio reading, “I am a Joy Bangla person till death.” Analysis of the profile’s multiple posts indicated the user is an Awami League supporter. From the same profile, at 3:39pm, a graphic image was uploaded depicting the scene from the video. In the image, one person is shown gripping another’s throat — the one gripping is labeled “Chhatra Dal,” and the one being gripped is labeled “ordinary student.” Using this image as a lead, Dismislab continued the investigation.
While searching for the oldest version of this image, Dismislab found a profile named “Fardin Taher Rahul” who posted the image at 3:09pm. According to the profile’s information, the user is a leader of the banned organization Chhatra League. Then, at 3:26pm, a profile named “Nurul Azim Rony” posted the same image with a caption stating the video link was in the comments. A link to the discussed video was indeed provided in the comments. This post was shared more than 400 times. Analysis of the “Nurul Azim Rony” profile’s activity also confirmed the user to be an Awami League supporter. Although a Chhatra League leader in Chattogram shares the same name, it could not be confirmed whether this is his official account.
From another profile with the same name, the image was posted at 3:26pm with the caption “video in comments.” This post too was shared more than 300 times. This user, operated from the United Arab Emirates, identifies itself as “a member of the Youth and Sports Sub-committee of Bangladesh Awami League.”
This image was found posted separately by at least 27 different profiles between 3:09pm and 3:39pm. While several posts used the caption “video in comments,” other posts had original captions of their own. Some slight variation was also noticed in the image posted by one user. However, analysis of all these profiles confirmed that they all identify themselves as Awami League supporters.
Jamaat supporters also play role
A personal profile named Murad Hossain posted the image at 12:11am with the caption, “Today, during the student protest, a BNP Chhatra Dal leader grabbed a student by the throat! 🥹 What is Chhatra League’s (Chhatra Dal’s) role in this movement?” Earlier, the same profile had shared the video of the shoving incident at 9:06pm with the caption, “HSC candidates’ demand is a small one — they don’t want to sit for exams in disastrous weather. To suppress this small demand, the Tarique Rahman government used police and Chhatra Dal thugs to torment students like this.” The profile’s activity indicates the user is a supporter of Jamaat-e-Islami.
The graphic was also posted on YouTube by an account named “Shahinuddin-v3o.” This account’s detailed description reads “Jamaat Islam.” The account regularly posts anti-BNP content in favor of Jamaat.
In a group named Delwar Hossain, a profile called Oikkobôddho Baufal posted the image at 7:40pm with the caption, “Destruction is very near ✊.” This post was shared more than 400 times. This profile too was regularly seen posting in favor of Jamaat-e-Islami.
