Video of former Ulama Dal leader circulated with claim of Jamaat leader's detention along with woman
A video has recently circulated on the social media platform Facebook claiming that a Jamaat leader named Zakir was detained in Cumilla along with a woman. However, Dismislab’s fact-check has found that the person visible in the video is not from Jamaat-e-Islami, but a former leader of Ulama Dal.
A 43-second video was posted from a Facebook page named Bangla 24 Media (Bangla24midia), which identifies itself as a news media outlet. Both the caption and words inside the video read, “Jamaat leader Zakir in Cumilla caught red-handed at his home with a pr’os’ti’tute” (verbatim). As of the publication of this report, the video had been viewed more than 93,000 times and shared more than 3,000 times.
A video of the same incident, with the same claim, has also been posted in two parts (1, 2) from another Facebook page identifying itself as a news media outlet named WMR News. Of these, the first part’s video has been shared more than 1,600 times, and the video has been viewed more than 60,000 times.
Through a keyword search, Dismislab found several news reports published about the original incident (1, 2, 3). The person and surrounding environment visible in the recently circulated video match exactly with the images used in the reports by Asia Post and Amar Desh. From the headlines of these reports, it is learned that the person in the video is the former general secretary of Cumilla South District Ulama Dal.
On a Facebook account created using Zakir Hossain‘s name, multiple photos and videos show him at various meetings and rallies of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, or BNP.
In other words, the claim circulated about a Jamaat leader being detained along with a woman is not true. The person in the video is, in fact, a former leader of Ulama Dal in Cumilla.
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.
