Videos of ‘Arakan Army attack’ in Rangamati are from film shooting
A video posted on the social media platform Facebook has claimed that the Arakan Army attacked indigenous people in Rangamati. Another video post claimed that weapons were being handed over to members of the Arakan Army. However, Dismislab’s fact-check found that the two videos are, in fact, footage from the shooting of a Bodo-language film (a film in the language of the Bodo people, an ethnic community based mainly in Assam, India) made in Assam, India.
On August 19, the two videos were posted from a Facebook page named “Pahar Voice.” The first video’s caption read, “They are constantly torturing the Bangalis and indigenous people in the hilly areas of Rangamati; watch the video to see how the Arakan Army is fleeing after attacking the indigenous people.” A red banner attached to the video also read, “The Arakan Army is fleeing after attacking the indigenous people; because of this Arakan Army, the indigenous people cannot live in peace…” The 29-second video shows several people running and fleeing amid smoke in a tree-covered location, with a makeshift tent made of bamboo and tarpaulin visible nearby. As of the publication of this report, the video had been viewed more than 17,000 times.
The second video, posted from the same page, claimed, “Yesterday, the Arakan Army armed all its men and women with pistols to prepare them for tomorrow…” Text within the video read, “Yesterday, the Arakan Army trained and prepared all its men and women, arming them with pistols.” The 18-second video shows several men and women dressed in military-style clothing and gear walking past a bamboo tent in a forest and standing with rifles in hand; firearms are visible with each of them.
To verify these two claims, Dismislab conducted a reverse image search using key frames from both videos. This led to the discovery of two separate videos uploaded on August 17 and August 14, 2026 from a Facebook page named “Derhasar Brahma.” The video uploaded on August 17 was found to match exactly with the video that spread under the first claim (attacking and fleeing). Meanwhile, the video uploaded on August 14 matched the video that circulated under the second claim (the weapons-in-hand preparation scene). The posts of both videos on this page carried hashtags such as filmmaking, movies, action movies, and shooting.
The original video matching the first claim is 33 seconds long. Its opening scene shows a person wearing an orange cap and olive-colored clothing, standing with a walkie-talkie in hand, with a professional video camera mounted on a tripod visible beside him. In addition, the trees, dust, and smoke visible in the original video match exactly with the scenes in the video that spread recently, confirming that the two are the same footage. The video that spread recently was posted retaining only the portion showing smoke and people fleeing, so as to make it appear to be a scene of an actual attack.
The duration of the video (from the Facebook page Derhasar Brahma) matching the second claim also corresponds with that of the video that spread recently. It shows a woman in military clothing, holding a rifle, standing in a forest, with another person dressed similarly and holding a weapon standing beside her. The same video was also found on a YouTube channel named “Sona Basumatary.”
A keyword search shows that Derhasar Brahma is a cameraperson based in the Udalguri area of Assam, India. Several more video clips (1, 2, 3) of the filming of the same movie were found on his Facebook page, showing armed individuals in various scenes.
In other words, the two videos that spread online under the guise of an Arakan Army attack and arms distribution in Rangamati are, in fact, scenes from the shooting of a Bodo-language film in Assam and have no connection to any real event.
It should be noted that the Arakan Army is an armed ethnic group active in Myanmar’s Rakhine State, which has primarily been fighting against the Myanmar military.
