Assam clash video falsely linked to Barishal vandalism
A video recently posted on Facebook claims that the BNP vandalized the house of a man in Barishal because he had attended an Awami League procession. However, a Dismislab fact-check found that the video is not from Bangladesh. According to reports by several Indian news outlets, the footage shows a clash over a land dispute in Gossaigaon, Assam, last July.
The video was posted on September 17 from a Facebook profile named “Shibli Sadik MP.” In the 21-second video, several people are seen breaking down the wall of a house under construction. The screams and cries of several women can be heard. The caption of the video reads, “The son had gone to an Awami League procession, BNP vandalized the house, Barishal.”
As of the writing of this report, the video had been viewed more than 25,000 times and shared nearly 900 times. More than a thousand users had reacted to the video.
The video was also posted with the same claim from another Facebook profile.
In the course of the investigation, a search using several keyframes led Dismislab to a video report on the verified Facebook page of Headline 8, an Assam-based online news outlet. Translated, the text of that July 29 post reads “A land dispute in Gossaigaon, Kokrajhar, takes a terrifying turn. Several people, including women and an elderly man, were injured in a clash between two sides in Uchatari village of Bhaoraguri. A conflict had been going on between the families of local residents Nurul Khan and Goni Sheikh over a plot of land.” The scenes in the 3-minute-31-second video were found to be similar to those in the circulated video.
In addition, “The Bodoland Tribune,” an Assam-based Facebook page that identifies itself as a news outlet, published another video report on the incident the same day. It, too, stated that a clash had occurred in Uchatari village of the Gossaigaon area of Assam over a land-related dispute.
A search using relevant keywords turned up several reports published on the incident (1, 2, 3). According to a fact-check report by the news outlet India Today, the incident originated primarily from a long-running land dispute between the families of local residents Nurul Khan and Goni Sheikh. Goni Sheikh and his associates were even accused of demolishing a government house belonging to Nurul Khan that was under construction under the “Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Gramin” (a government housing scheme). After the incident, police filed an FIR at Gossaigaon police station against five people, including Goni Sheikh.
In other words, the claim that an Awami League supporter’s house was vandalized in Barishal is false. The video being circulated is from the Indian state of Assam.
