Old Sitakunda photo circulated as attack on workers’ protest in Gazipur
A photo has spread on Facebook with claims that an armed Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) leader attacked a workers’ protest in Gazipur, an industrial city near Dhaka. However, Dismislab’s fact-check found that the photo is not from Gazipur. It shows a clash between two BNP factions in Sitakunda, an upazila in Chattogram, on Sept 1.
The photo was posted on Nov 2 from a Facebook profile named “Joy Bangla”. The post read, “BNP leader attacks workers’ protest in Gazipur with a heavy weapon in hand.” The photo shows a man wearing a panjabi and gray pants, holding an object that resembles a firearm. Shops are visible behind him, and a woman can be seen on the other side of a road divider.
As of this report’s publication, the post had been shared more than 1,000 times and had received more than 2,500 reactions. The photo was also posted with the same claim from a Facebook profile named “Ami Bangali”.
A reverse image search conducted to verify the claim led to a report published by Ajker Patrika on Sept 2. The report, headlined “Clash between two BNP groups in Sitakunda, police searching for armed youths,” contains the same photo. The clothing of the man in the photo, the weapon, the shaded shops behind him, and the position of the passing woman all match the photo circulating on Facebook.
The report said the clash took place on Sept 1 in the Hasan Gomosta Mosque area of Sitakunda’s municipal headquarters in Chattogram, centered around a program marking BNP’s 48th founding anniversary. Followers of Aslam Chowdhury, BNP’s former joint secretary general, and Kazi Mohammad Salahuddin, former joint convener of Chattogram North District BNP, were reportedly involved.
The same photo was also found in another report published by Prothom Alo on Sept 3. The report, headlined “Two armed youths identified in clash between BNP factions in Sitakunda,” said police had identified two young men who were seen holding weapons during the clash. They were identified as Sirajul Islam and Md Sadek. According to the Prothom Alo report, the man in the photo circulating on Facebook is Sirajul Islam.
A search using relevant keywords also turned up video reports of the same incident on the YouTube channels of Ekushey Television and Prothom Alo. Ekushey Television’s video, titled “Two armed youths rehearse during clash between Chattogram BNP factions”, shows the armed individuals during the clash.
A video report published on Prothom Alo’s YouTube channel on Sept 2, titled “Clash between two BNP groups in Chattogram’s Sitakunda, police searching for two armed men”, also shows various scenes from the same incident.
In other words, the photo circulating on Facebook with claims that it shows a BNP leader attacking a workers’ protest in Gazipur with a weapon is, in fact, from the Sept 1 clash between two BNP factions in Sitakunda, Chattogram.
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.
