Election drill footage shared claiming deaths of BNP, Jamaat-Shibir activists
A video has been circulating on Facebook with the claim that four BNP activists were killed by the Bangladesh Army. However, a Dismislab fact-check found the claim to be false. The footage shows a joint forces’ election security exercise held in Cumilla ahead of the 13th National Parliamentary Election in 2026.
A 1 minute 40 second video was posted from a Facebook profile named “Amalsar Union Awami League” with the caption, “Four BNP members killed by the Army. Joy Bangla, Joy Bangabandhu.” Text inside the video reads, “3-4 killed on the spot by the Army.” Published on August 31, the video shows the Army, Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) and police confronting protesters in an open field. At one point, several people can be seen falling to the ground as members of the joint forces fire shots. Several people are also seen recording the incident on mobile phones. Until the publication of this report, the video had been viewed about 140,000 times and shared 1,500 times.
Dismislab conducted a reverse image search using keyframes from the video. The search led to a video published on the Kaler Kantho YouTube channel. Published on February 8 this year, the video was titled, “Joint forces conduct election security exercise in Cumilla.” From the 1 minute 50 second mark, similarities were found between the protesters and the uniforms and surroundings of the joint forces shown in the circulating video.
The same Facebook profile posted another video with the caption, “Four Razakars killed by the Army. Thank you, Army. Keep it up.” Text inside the 1 minute 11 second video, published on July 31, reads, “Jamaat-Shibir chase and fight with the Army and three killed. Share this video and spread across Bangladesh” (verbatim). The video shows Army and BGB members getting out of vehicles in an open field and moving toward people who are protesting. A clash between the two sides then takes place. Until the publication of this report, the video had been viewed 83,000 times and shared 1,800 times.
A reverse image search using keyframes from the video led to the same video published by Kaler Kantho on February 8, 2026. The uniforms of the joint forces and protesters, as well as the surrounding scenes from the 2 minute 45 second mark onward match those in the circulating video.
A search using relevant keywords found reports of the incident published by several news outlets (1, 2, 3, 4). A report published by Dainik Bangla on February 8, 2026, said the joint forces held the election security exercise at the Debidwar Government Reaz Uddin Pilot Model High School field in the Cumilla-4 (Debidwar) constituency ahead of the 13th National Parliamentary Election. The joint forces, comprising the Army, Police, Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) and Ansar, took part in the exercise. The exercise was organized to prepare for maintaining law and order during the election, ensuring the security of polling stations and responding to any unexpected situation.
In other words, the claims that BNP and Jamaat-Shibir activists were killed by the Bangladesh Army are false. Footage from a joint forces’ security exercise held in Cumilla ahead of the 13th National Parliamentary Election in 2026 is being circulated with misleading claims.
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.
