Jatiotabadi Swechhasebak Dal rally falsely shared as Awami League’s
A video of a broom procession has been widely shared on Facebook over the last two days, with several Awami League party-affiliated profiles claiming that its activists organized the demonstration to demand the resignation of Bangladesh interim government Chief Adviser Dr. Muhammad Yunus. However, verification reveals that the claim is false. According to media reports, the procession was actually carried out by leaders and activists of the deprived faction of Jatiotabadi Swechhasebak Dal, an affiliate of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), protesting over internal party issues in Sylhet.
Dismislab first identified the video claiming an Awami League-led broom march being shared by a Facebook profile named “Amra Joy Banglar Lok” at 12:17 a.m. on March 22, 2025. The post’s caption reads, “Awami League soldiers are directly marching with brooms demanding the resignation of illegal usurper Yunus.” The 11-second video shows a group of people walking on a street at night, holding brooms and chanting slogans supporting Sheikh Hasina and against Dr. Yunus.
Within minutes of the initial post, the video was shared by several other profiles (1, 2, 3, 4), all carrying the same caption. At 3:12 a.m., a profile named Kamrun Nahar Sume also posted the video with the same claim. The video has been viewed over 16,000 times and has received nearly 1,000 reactions. Many users, believing the video to be of an Awami League procession, left comments such as, “Trial of this Yunus will be held on the soil of Bengal” and “The situation of Dhanmondi 32 is tense right now! Shouting slogans of Joy Bangla, Joy Bangabandhu! Sheikh Hasina is not afraid, we have not left the road!”
An analysis of the profiles sharing the video reveals that many of the individuals behind these accounts identify themselves as being affiliated with the Awami League or its affiliated organizations. Some of these profiles have shared multiple posts at different times in support of the party, while others explicitly state their allegiance to Awami League through their profile names and pictures.
Dismislab initially conducted a reverse image search to verify the authenticity of the video that was circulating. However, the search only returned results for the same claim. Subsequently, an online search using the keyword “broom procession” in Bangla led to the discovery of a different video featuring the same footage. This video was uploaded on the official Facebook page and YouTube channel of Desh TV on March 20, 2025. The video’s description identified the event as a “sweep procession of the leaders and activists of the deprived Jatiotabadi Swechhasebak Dal in Sylhet.” Furthermore, the slogans heard in the viral video, which claimed to show an Awami League rally, did not match those heard in the original footage.
The rally involving the deprived leaders and activists of the Swechhasebak Dal in Sylhet was also reported by several other (1, 2) online portals. According to these reports, on the late night of March 18, the Swechhasebak Dal committees of six different thanas in Sylhet district were announced. Following this, the deprived leaders and activists staged a protest procession with brooms, demanding the cancellation of the Shahporan thana committee and issuing a 48-hour ultimatum. The procession concluded with a brief speech.
To confirm this further, Dismislab contacted Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha’s (BSS) Sylhet correspondent Shoaibul Hasan. He confirmed that the video was from Sylhet, stating, “This is a video of the leaders and activists of the Swechhasebak Dal committees from various thanas in Sylhet who were deprived of their positions.” He also provided the original video, which was published on the Facebook pages of two local media outlets (1, 2) in Sylhet, and pointed out that the audio in the viral video shared on Facebook under false claims had been altered.
That is the original video of the broom rally by the Swechhasebak Dal of Shahporan thana in Sylhet, which took place two days ago, is now being circulated by Awami League activists, falsely claiming that it is a demonstration demanding Yunus’ resignation.
