Old Khagrachhari footage circulated as killing of three Jubo League activists in Cox’s Bazar
Footage has recently spread on Facebook with claims that “terrorists” from the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) killed three active Jubo League activists today in Cox’s Bazar, a coastal district in southeastern Bangladesh. Jubo League is the youth wing of the Bangladesh Awami League. However, Dismislab’s fact-check found that the footage is not from Cox’s Bazar. It shows the aftermath of a clash between two regional organizations in Panchhari, Khagrachhari, a district in the Chittagong Hill Tracts, in which three people were killed on July 6.
The nine-second video was posted on Nov 7 from a Facebook profile named “Naimul Vai.” It read, “Just now, BNP terrorists have brutally killed three active Jubo League activists in Cox’s Bazar.” As of this report’s publication, the post had received more than 500 reactions and had been shared more than a hundred times..
The same footage was circulated with the same claim from several other Facebook accounts (1, 2).
The video shows three individuals lying beside a paved road. A tin-roofed structure can be seen next to them, with two posters attached to it. A black cap lies on the road, and the front of a CNG-run three-wheeler is visible nearby.
A reverse search of several keyframes from the video, conducted to verify its authenticity, led to a report published by Dainik Amader Shomoy on July 6. The report, headlined “UPDF-JSS gunfight in Khagrachhari, 3 killed,” contains a photo of the same scene. The tin structure beside the road and its posters, the positions of the three individuals, the black cap lying on the ground, and the surrounding environment all match the circulating footage.
The report said three people were killed on July 6 in a gunfight between two regional organizations in the hills, the United People’s Democratic Front (UPDF) and the Parbatya Chattagram Jana Samhati Samiti (JSS), in Panchhari upazila, Khagrachhari.
A photo of the same incident was also found in another report published by NTV on July 6. The report, headlined “3 killed in gunfight between two factions over dominance,” said the gunfight broke out around 11am that day in the Modhumongolpara area of Panchhari upazila, centered on a dispute over territorial dominance, killing three people. Ferdous Wahid, officer in charge (OC) of Panchhari police station, confirmed the incident.
Information about the same incident was also found in a report published by ATN News on July 6, headlined “UPDF-JSS gunfight in Panchhari, Khagrachhari, 3 killed.”
While the reports, citing local sources, identified the deceased as UPDF members, Dismislab could not independently confirm their organizational affiliation. However, the visual match confirms that the photo and video are not from a recent incident.
In other words, the video circulating with claims that BNP terrorists killed three active Jubo League activists in Cox’s Bazar is, in fact, from the incident in Khagrachhari in which three people were killed in a gunfight between two organizations.
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.
