Woman garment worker died after falling ill, not in a police-BNP attack
Amid garment workers’ protests in various parts of the country, a video has circulated on the social media platform X claiming that police and terrorists of the ruling Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) killed a worker and are making the body disappear. However, Dismislab’s fact-check has found that, in the incident referred to in the video, the woman worker died after falling ill while working at the factory.
An X account named Monir Sagar posted the video on November 4, writing in the caption, “BNP’s terrorists, together with police, attacked and killed a woman garment worker and are making the body disappear. Lamentations of relatives, including a small, uncomprehending child.”
In this 45-second video, a child is seen crying and demanding justice for her mother’s death. He is heard saying, “They tell us they will give us money, we don’t need money. There’s crores of taka, we don’t need money. Money can be obtained, but a mother can’t be found!” As of the publication of this report, the video had been viewed more than 1,000 times and reposted 10 times.
A reverse image search using key frames from the video found the exact same video published on October 17 on an Instagram account named Esomoy. Its caption reads, “Death of a woman worker of Deco Garments, Nayapara, Ashulia; relatives allege the bo/dy was made to disappear from the Women and Children Hospital” (verbatim).
A relevant keyword search found video reports published on October 17 on the online news platforms Ajker Pratidin, Doinik News and Dhaka Press. In these videos, the deceased’s son and several people around him can be seen, which indicates that this is the incident in the circulated video. His clothing, position, the surrounding scene and other visual elements match.
In addition to these video reports, multiple news reports on the incident (1, 2, 3) reveal that on October 16, Sumi Akter, alias Mishu, a sewing operator at “Agami Apparels Limited,” an establishment of the Dekko Group in Ashulia, Savar, fell ill while working at the factory. When she was taken to the Women and Children Hospital in Ashulia, doctors declared her dead.
Worker representatives and relatives alleged that Sumi was not given leave even though she felt sick. In connection with the incident, a dispute and scuffle occurred between her relatives and the factory authorities over the handing over of the body. After bringing the situation under control, police recovered the body and took it to the police station. The body was later sent to Shaheed Suhrawardy Medical College Hospital in the capital for an autopsy.
In other words, the video is more than two weeks old. The video shows relatives of the woman worker who died in this incident. The worker did not die in any attack; she fell ill and died while working at the factory.
Incidentally, garment workers held protests in Savar, Gazipur, Mirpur and various other parts of the country demanding a minimum wage of Tk30,000. Centering on these protests, repeated clashes and chases and counter-chases took place between workers and police.
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.
