Video from Cox’s Bazar incident spreads, claiming to show the murder of a Jubo League leader in Cumilla
A video has spread on Facebook with the claim that BNP “terrorists” publicly cut off the leg of a Jubo League leader in Debidwar, Cumilla. However, Dismislab’s fact-check found that the footage is from a different incident in Maheshkhali in Cox’s Bazar district. The footage shows the killing of a farmer named Shamsul Alam, whose leg was severed over a land dispute in the district’s Matarbari on September 8 this year.
On December 28, a video was posted from a Facebook profile with the caption, “BNP terrorists publicly cut off the leg of a Jubo League leader in Debidwar, Cumilla. Have you seen such torture in 17 years? They cut off a person’s leg in public, yet the administration, government, and media remain silent! Such brutality even surpasses 1971.” By the time this report was published, the video had been viewed more than 16,000 times.
The same video was shared with the same claim from another personal Facebook profile. In the 16-second video, a person is seen holding up a severed leg wrapped in cloth, cut slightly above the ankle. Several other people are standing around him.
To verify the claim, Dismislab conducted a keyframe search and found multiple video reports shared on Facebook pages of several online news portals (1, 2, 3) on September 8. These reports show the same visuals as the circulated video. One portal’s caption read, “Land dispute in Maheshkhali: Brother cuts off brother’s leg.”
Further verification found a report published on September 8, 2025, by a news outlet called Telegram News. The headline read, “Farmer killed by severing leg over land dispute in Maheshkhali.” The report stated, “In Matarbari of Maheshkhali upazila in Cox’s Bazar, a farmer named Shamsul Alam (60) was killed after his leg was severed over a land dispute. The incident occurred around 8:00 p.m. on Monday, September 8, in the South Rajghat area of Matarbari. He was the son of the late Ahmed Mia of the area. The death was confirmed by Dr. Hridoy Sarkar of Matarbari General Hospital.” The image used in the report exactly matches the scene in the circulated video.
Dismislab also contacted Dr. Hridoy Sarkar, who was on duty at Matarbari General Hospital on the day of the incident. Dr. Hridoy Sarkar told Dismislab, “The incident is from September, and the victim came to our hospital. The patient’s leg was severed, and there were deep cuts on his head as well. I examined him and declared him dead.”
Searches using relevant keywords showed that several news outlets (1, 2, 3) published reports on this incident. A report published by the daily Ittefaq on September 9, 2025, stated that on September 8, around 8:00 p.m., a farmer named Shamsul Alam was killed after his leg was cut off over a land dispute in Matarbari of Maheshkhali upazila, Cox’s Bazar. The victim’s brother, Nurul Islam, alleged that due to a land dispute, their cousins Yakub Ali, Abdul Gani, Yakub Nabi, and several others hacked and severed Shamsul’s leg, killing him.
It should be noted that none of the reports mentions any political identity of the deceased.
Therefore, an old video from a different incident in Cox’s Bazar is being circulated with the false claim that a Jubo League leader’s leg was cut off in Debidwar, Cumilla.
