President's remarks on oil prices are from 2022
A video of President Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir was recently spread on the social media platform Facebook. It is claimed that the president explained why the BNP raised fuel prices by Tk20 per liter even as international oil prices fell. However, Dismislab’s fact-check found that the video is more than four years old. At the time, the banned political party Awami League was in power.
On September 23, a video was posted from a Facebook page named “Virtual Baba.” The post’s description read, “Even as fuel prices fell in the global market, the Honorable President Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir explained why the BNP raised the price by Tk20 per liter.” Text within the video read, “On a day when oil prices fell in the international market, the BNP raised the price by Tk20 per liter at home.”
In the 20-second video, Mirza Fakhrul can be heard saying, “When oil prices fall in the international market, prices are raised here instead. Why? To legitimize the money they loot, the money they steal through corruption, they take it straight out of the public’s pocket…”
One user commented on the post, “Fakhrul shaheb has stopped with the empty talk and started speaking the truth 🤣🤣🤣” Another user wrote, “Thank you to His Excellency the President for bringing out the truth.”
As of the writing of this report, the video had been shared more than 800 times and viewed more than 68,000 times. The post had received more than 3,000 reactions.
A post from a personal Facebook account made the same claim, presenting the video’s remarks directly as a quote from President Mirza Fakhrul.
The video was also found to have spread with the same claim from several other Facebook pages (1, 2) and profiles (1, 2).
To verify the video, Dismislab conducted a reverse image search on its keyframes. This led to a report uploaded to Channel 24’s YouTube channel on August 7, 2022, headlined, “Fuel Oil Prices Were Raised Only to Legitimize Looted Money: Mirza Fakhrul | Mirza Fakhrul | BNP.” The segment from 1 minute 5 seconds to 1 minute 19 seconds of that 1-minute-35-second video matches exactly with the circulating video.
The same remarks were also found in a report published the same day on Jamuna TV’s YouTube channel, headlined, “‘The Government Raised Oil Prices Only to Legitimize Looting and Corruption’ | Mirza Fakhrul.” In other words, the video is not a recent statement, but old footage from more than four years ago.
A report published in Daily Jugantor on August 8, 2022, states that Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, then BNP secretary general, made these remarks at a rally organized by Krishak Dal in front of the BNP’s central office in Naya Paltan, in the capital. In other words, he was speaking to criticize the government of the time, not to explain any recent decision of his own party.
It is worth noting that on September 20, a notification from the Energy and Mineral Resources Division raised the prices of four types of fuel, diesel, kerosene, petrol, and octane, by Tk20 per liter.
