False claims emerge amid Awami League’s hartal program

Clashes erupted on July 16 in Gopalganj during a rally organized by the National Citizen Party (NCP), resulting in the deaths of at least five people. Describing the incident as a “massacre,” the Awami League and its affiliated organizations called for a nationwide strike on July 20 in protest. On the day of the strike, several old videos were seen circulating on Facebook, presented as related to the hartal program. The outdated footage also misled some media outlets. Dismislab fact-checked at least four such videos on the event.

Video 1

On the morning of July 20, several Awami League-affiliated Facebook profiles (1, 2, 3) shared an identical 38-second video, claiming it depicted Awami League supporters enforcing the hartal in Sylhet. The caption, repeated verbatim across the posts, stated: “This morning at 5 a.m., patriotic citizens in Sylhet are participating in the Awami League’s program and observing the hartal.”

By conducting a reverse image search using keyframes from the circulated videos, Dismislab found that the footage dates back nearly two years. The original incident occurred on November 26, 2023, in Sylhet’s Subidbazar area. At that time, torch processions and vehicle arson took place in support of a blockade called by the BNP. In other words, a video from an old BNP program is now being circulated to falsely depict the Awami League’s hartal program.

This same video has previously circulated under multiple false claims, prompting at least two fact-check reports by Dismislab. The first instance occurred on the eve of the twelfth national election in 2024, when the video was shared on Facebook with the claim that it depicted an incident in Dhaka. Dismislab published a verification report at the time, disproving the claim. The video resurfaced in April this year with different claims. In some posts, it was claimed to show attacks on homes and businesses of Muslims in West Bengal, India; in others, it was said to depict arson attacks on Hindu homes and shops in India. Dismislab published fact-check reports then as well, confirming that these claims were also false.

Video 2

Another video is being shared on Facebook by several Awami League-affiliated profiles (1, 2, 3), claiming to show scenes from hartal in Cumilla. The 48-second video, shared with identical captions, asserts that police attacked Awami League activists during a peaceful strike in the city.

The footage shows police charging with batons and firing tear gas canisters at a group of people marching on the street. On the top-right corner of the video, the text “Jagoroni TV” and a logo are visible. Using this clue, a search on Facebook led to a page named “Jagoroni TV,” which identifies itself as a media outlet. There, the same video—posted in an extended version—was found from nearly two years ago, dated October 29, 2023. According to that post, the footage shows a BNP procession in Cumilla being disrupted by police action during a hartal. This confirms that the video is old and originally related to a BNP event, but is now being misrepresented as footage from an Awami League strike.

Video 3

Another video went viral on Facebook that day, falsely claiming to show hartal observance in Gazipur. The 32-second clip was shared with the same claim by several Awami League-affiliated pages and profiles (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7). The caption read, “Hartal being observed in Gazipur.” The video shows a group of people marching on the street with bamboo sticks in hand.

To verify the claim, Dismislab conducted a reverse image search using keyframes from the video. The search led to a Facebook post containing an identical still image from the footage, dated August 14, 2024, which claimed the incident took place in Bogura. Another post, dated August 6, 2024, also referenced the same video but claimed it was from Gopalganj. That post was shared by a page run by GM Sahabuddin Azam, who identifies himself as the General Secretary of the Gopalganj District Awami League.

Using that lead, Dismislab found a video report published by Prothom Alo on August 9, 2024. The report stated: “Gopalganj District Awami League organized a protest rally demanding the return of Sheikh Hasina, who had resigned and left the country.” Multiple visual elements in that report matched the current viral video, including specific buildings and structures. The individual who manages the Facebook page that shared the video also appears in the footage as one of the Awami League activists.

To further verify the location, Dismislab conducted a Google Maps search, which identified the location as the launch terminal area in Gopalganj. Structures visible in the video closely matched those seen in street-level images from Google Maps.

This confirms that the video showing people marching with sticks is neither from Gazipur nor from nearly a year-old event in Bogura. Rather, it shows a protest by Gopalganj Awami League activists that took place about a year ago.

Video 4

On the day of the hartal called by the Awami League, confusion was also spread by the mainstream media. Channel 24, in both a YouTube Shorts video and an online report, claimed that the footage was from the recent hartal. Although the outlet later removed both the report and the Shorts video, some individuals had already downloaded the content and began sharing it on Facebook. In addition, several Facebook users (1, 2, 3, 4) shared the same video claiming that arsonists had set fire to a bus during the hartal.

To verify the authenticity of the video, Dismislab conducted a reverse image search using keyframes. It was found that “Somoy TV” had published the same footage on its verified YouTube channel on December 3, 2023. Several Facebook posts (1, 2) also shared the same video on December 4, 2023, though none of those posts provided further details about the incident.

To confirm the actual context of the video, keyword searches were conducted. A Prothom Alo online report published on December 3, 2023, titled “Bus Set on Fire in Gulistan,” stated that “the BNP and allied opposition parties had launched their ninth round of blockade that morning, demanding elections under a non-partisan government. It was during that program that the bus arson incident took place in Gulistan.” Additionally, as similar videos recently resurfaced on social media claiming fresh arson attacks on buses, the Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) issued a statement labeling those claims as “false.”