Nurul Haque Nur’s 2023 video circulated as recent criticism of government
A video has been circulating on Facebook with the claim that State Minister Nurul Haque Nur called the government “thieves, robbers and shameless” over the increase in electricity prices. However, a Dismislab fact-check found the claim misleading. Nurul Haque Nur made the remarks in protest against the increase in electricity prices in 2023, during the Awami League government.
On September 7, a 19-second video was posted from a personal profile in a Facebook group named “VP Sadik Kayem” with the caption, “State Minister Nurul Haque Nur called the government thieves, robbers and shameless because of the increase in electricity prices.” In the video, Nur can be heard saying, “Saying that the price would be adjusted, they have already increased the price by 12%. Is there anything new to say about the fact that this government is a robber government, a thief government, a shameless government?” In the video, he can be seen speaking while wearing a black panjabi. Until the publication of this report, the video had been viewed about 18,000 times and shared at least 480 times.
On August 3, another video from a different angle was posted from another Facebook profile with the same claim. Until the publication of this report, it had been viewed 17,000 times and shared more than 100 times.
Using keyframes from the video, Dismislab conducted a reverse image search and found a report published on the SA TV YouTube channel on February 3, 2023. Titled “Government cutting into people’s pockets by increasing electricity prices: Nurul Haque Nur,” the 1 minute 41 second video contains scenes from the 58 second mark onward that match the remarks by Nur, as well as his black clothing and the surrounding scenes in the circulated video.
A search using relevant keywords found reports published by multiple news outlets (1, 2, 3). A report published by Jugantor on February 4, 2023, said that Gono Odhikar Parishad held a protest rally in front of the National Press Club against the increase in electricity prices. A report published by Bangla Tribune on the same day said that Nurul Haque Nur, then member secretary of Gono Odhikar Parishad, said at the rally, “The government increased electricity prices twice in January and increased gas prices once. The Awami League has turned this nation into a nation without a backbone.”
In other words, the video of Nurul Haque Nur criticizing the government over the increase in electricity prices is not recent. An old video from 2023 is being circulated with a recent claim.
