Old video of police scuffle with suspect passed off as mob torture of Chhatra League activist
A video has spread on social media claiming that a mob tortured an activist of Chhatra League, the student wing of the former Awami League party, and then tried to put handcuffs on him. But Dismislab’s fact-check found the video is from an incident in Sunamganj district, where police were involved in a scuffle with a suspect.
The video was posted from a personal Facebook profile. The caption of the 21-second video said, “After torturing a Chhatra League activist, mob terrorists are trying to put handcuffs on him. The question is, how did police handcuffs end up in the hands of mob terrorists?” Several other personal Facebook profiles (1, 2) posted the same claim with the video.
A keyframe search found the same footage published on December 6, 2025, on the verified YouTube channel of Jago News. The caption said, “Scuffle between police and suspect during arrest attempt; video goes viral.” From 32 to 53 seconds of the 1:39-minute video matches the circulated clip exactly.
Further verification found a report published by Jago News on December 6, headlined, “Scuffle between police and suspect during arrest attempt; video goes viral.” The photo used in that report matches the scenes in the circulated video.
The report said, “On the night of 15 June, smugglers launched a coordinated attack on BGB members when they attempted to intercept them at the Jhumgao border in Bangla Bazar Union when they were bringing illegal cattle from India. Later, on the afternoon of June 16, BGB filed a case against 15 smugglers. When SI Monirul of Doarabazar Police Station, in disguise, went to arrest Rafiqul Islam Rabbi, the number 4 accused in the case, a scuffle broke out between the smugglers and the police.”
Multiple news outlets (1, 2, 3) published reports about the incident. A report from Notun Sylhet published on December 6 said, “SI Monirul of Doarabazar Police Station, who was present at the scene, said that when he went to arrest the accused in the BGB attack case, the suspect started scuffling. His family members also behaved aggressively toward me.”
The Officer-in-Charge (OC) of Doarabazar Police Station, Zahidul Haque, said, “Police have arrested the number 4 accused in the case filed over the smugglers’ attack on BGB. He had been absconding for a long time. So the police went in disguise and arrested him.”
However, no media report mentioned any political affiliation of Rafiqul Islam Rabbi.
In other words, the circulated video shows police scuffling with a suspect in Doarabazar, Sunamganj, which is being shared with a false claim.
