Video claiming teacher-student scuffle in Bangladesh is actually from India
A video has been circulating on Facebook with the claim that a scuffle occurred between a teacher and students in Bangladesh. However, Dismislab’s fact-check found that the incident did not take place in Bangladesh, but in West Bengal, India. Published news reports reveal that it is footage of a scuffle between former students of a school and a school official in the Malda district of the state.
On August 24, the 2-minute-and-20-second video was posted from a Facebook profile, which shows uniformed students engaged in a scuffle and fighting with a woman. Another person is seen trying to stop them. The post read, “Where is civil society? From the usurer Yunus to Tarique Rahman, everyone is enjoying the 24 [situation] in Bangladesh tremendously!!! A scuffle between the teacher and students of Jagaddala High School ah,,,, Bangladesh!”
By the time of this report’s publication, the post had been shared more than a hundred times.
The same video was posted from another Facebook profile with the caption, “Where is civil society, scuffle between a teacher and students of Jagaddala High School stirs sensation, ah Bangladesh.”
The video was posted from multiple Facebook accounts (1, 2, 3, 4).
During its investigation, Dismislab conducted a reverse image search using several keyframes from the video. In doing so, Dismislab found a video report published on August 22 on the verified Facebook page of the Indian news outlet Calcutta News. Similarities were found between the scenes in that report and the circulating video. The headline of the report was, “Scuffle between female non-teaching staff member and students over certificates.”
The report reveals that the incident took place in West Bengal’s Malda district. On August 21, at Jagaddala High School in Bamongola, Malda, a scuffle and altercation occurred between school clerk Pratima Mondol and students over the correction of a name on a transfer certificate.
A relevant keyword search found reports about the incident published by multiple news outlets (1, 2, 3, 4). These reports show that the incident originated over the issuance of transfer certificates to former students of Jagaddala High School. A former student demanded a certificate bearing his current, corrected name. However, the school official stated that the certificate would be issued according to the name recorded in the school’s official documents. This led to a verbal altercation between the clerk and several students, which at one point escalated into a scuffle and fight.
Therefore, the claim that the circulating video shows a fight between a female teacher and students in Bangladesh is not true. The video actually shows a scuffle between former students and a school staff member in Malda, India.
Previously, Dismislab published fact-check reports on several incidents from India that circulated with false claims about Bangladesh.
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.
