Football tournament clash video circulated as scene from Chhatra League strike
A video was spread on Facebook with claims that it shows a strike called by the banned Chhatra League, the student wing of the Awami League, whose activities have also been banned. However, Dismislab’s fact-check found that the video does not show the strike. It shows a clash between students of two universities during the final match of an inter-university football tournament at Bashundhara Kings Arena in Dhaka on Nov 3.
The 17-second video was posted on Nov 10 in a Facebook group named “Bangladesh Awami-Jubo League”. (Jubo League is the youth wing of the Awami League.) The post read, “Strike called by Chhatra League underway.” It also called for vehicular movement and shops to be kept shut down and asked everyone to stay home.
The video was also posted with the same claim from several other accounts (1, 2).
The video shows several people running around in front of a building at night. A bus is also visible, and several people are seen throwing stones at it.
To verify the video, several keyframes were put through a reverse image search. This led to a video of the same scene on the verified Facebook page “TBS Graduates” of the news outlet The Business Standard. According to that post, published on Nov 4, the scene shows tensions after the final match of the ABG University Cup 2026.
The multistory building under construction in that video, the structure in front of it, and the positions of the people present match the scene in the circulated video. The post’s description said tensions had flared between players of the two teams in the 20th minute of a football match between Daffodil International University and American International University-Bangladesh (AIUB).
Another video of the same scene was also found on a Facebook page named “Private University National Association of Bangladesh”. That post, published on Nov 3, said a clash had broken out between students of Daffodil International University and AIUB over the final of the ABG University Cup.
A search using relevant keywords also turned up a report published by Kalbela on Nov 4. The report, headlined “Clash between two sides at inter-university football tournament,” said that clashes between students of the two universities took place during and after the final of the ABG University Cup on Nov 3.
During the clashes, one air-conditioned bus and six regular buses were damaged. According to preliminary information, more than 20 injured students received treatment at hospitals.
It is worth noting that the banned organization Bangladesh Chhatra League called a nationwide strike on Nov 10 with an eight-point list of demands, including the withdrawal of the ban on the Awami League and the Chhatra League.
In other words, the video circulated on Facebook with claims that it shows the strike called by the Chhatra League is not from that program. It was recorded during the clash between students after the final match of an inter-university football tournament at Bashundhara Kings Arena on Nov 3.
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.
