Viral video of torture on elderly shows Jubo League affiliates, not BNP activists
A recent video being circulated on Facebook claims BNP (Bangladesh Nationalist Party) activists are attacking the house of a Chhatra League (student wing of the Awami League) activist centering around a procession in Gazipur. However, a fact-check by Dismislab reveals that the video is not of any recent incident.
According to reports from multiple media outlets, in 2020 in the Chakaria area of Cox’s Bazar, some miscreants forcibly pulled a man out of a vehicle, took him to an open field, and tortured him. In the reports, they were identified as the men of the then ward Jubo League (the youth wing of the Awami League) president, Anchhur Alam. After the video of the torture spread, the police arrested three individuals.
On July 4, a video was posted on Facebook from a personal profile named “Bangladesh Awami League” with a caption stating, “What BNP leaders do, his only crime is that the boy supports Awami League. I strongly condemn and protest. Centering around the Gazipur procession, BNP activists are attacking the house of a Chhatra League member, and alongside threatening to have him arrested by the police in front of his parents… You will not be able to suppress us with such threats…”
The video shows several individuals stripping and torturing an elderly man in a field. Up until the writing of this report, the video has been viewed more than 178,000 times and shared over 6,900 times.
The video has also been shared with the same claim by multiple personal profiles and pages on Facebook (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6).
To verify the authenticity, a reverse image search was conducted, which brought up a report by The Business Standard published on June 3, 2020. The headline of the report was, “Video of elderly man tortured in Cox’s Bazar goes viral, 3 arrested.” The image used in this report perfectly matches the scene of the circulated video.
According to the report, the case statement (First Information Report) read, “On May 24, after finishing Eid shopping, the elderly Nurul Alam was returning home from Dhemushia station by an easy-bike (Tomtom – a battery-run auto-rickshaw). On the way, the gang of thugs harbored by ward Jubo League president Anchhur Alam forcibly took him out of the vehicle and brought him to an open field. There, they forcefully pulled and tore the elderly man’s lungi (a traditional garment worn around the waist) and genji (undershirt). At one point, they stripped him naked and started slapping him. During this time, Anchhur Alam was verbally abusing the elderly man in obscene language. Meanwhile, a few youths present at the scene recorded the incident on their mobile phones.”
Additionally, multiple (1, 2, 3, 4) media outlets published reports on the incident. A report published by Ittefaq stated, “It is known that on May 24, Nurul Alam, 72, was subjected to torture in Chhoykuritikka Para of ward number 4 under Dhemushia Union of Chakaria Upazila (sub-district) in Cox’s Bazar. A group of rowdy youths committed the incident under the leadership of ward number 4 Jubo League president Anchhur Alam.”
That is to say, although a Jubo League president and his followers were involved in the torture incident, the old video is being circulated with the claim that it involves BNP activists.
