False claim links Moroccan incident to BNP attack in Gazipur
A video recently went viral on the social media platform Facebook, claiming that a man in Gazipur climbed onto a water tank out of fear for his life to escape extortionists allegedly affiliated with the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), but ultimately failed to save himself. However, verification reveals that the claim is false; the video is neither from Gazipur nor from anywhere in Bangladesh, but from the African country of Morocco. Several Moroccan media outlets have published news about the video.
Several Facebook users have shared the video, claiming it depicts an incident in Gazipur, Bangladesh. The same claim has been circulated from multiple personal profiles (1, 2, 3, 4, 5) and pages (1, 2, 3). The accompanying description reads: “In Gazipur, he climbed onto a water tank out of fear to escape extortionists, but ultimately it did not save him. This is our new Bangladesh. The killings continue in new and horrifying ways.”
In the viral video, a man is seen assaulting another person atop a tall water tank. A third person is attempting to climb up using the tank’s ladder. The sound of shouting from numerous people nearby can be heard in the background.
An analysis of a Facebook post containing the same claim shows that it has been viewed nearly 20,000 times so far, with over a thousand reactions. The post has also received more than a hundred comments. A review of the comments reveals that most users assumed the video was from Bangladesh. One user wrote, “The full responsibility lies with the so-called peace envoy Dr. Yunus’s government. The administration is in complete disarray; the Home Affairs adviser is useless….!” Another commented, “You won’t be safe from the BNP even on Mars. Be alert now — boycott the BNP.”
To verify the authenticity of the viral video, Dismislab conducted a reverse image search using keyframes from the footage. The verification revealed that the circulated video matches exactly with other content available online. On July 12, Moroccan news outlet “BarlamanToday” posted a Shorts video on its YouTube channel containing the same footage.
The video, titled “Firefighter Beaten, Reportedly Thrown from Water Tower in Central Morocco,” included an English description stating that in Beni Mellal, central Morocco, a man was protesting atop a water tower demanding an investigation into his father’s death. During the protest, he assaulted a firefighter—who had climbed the tower to rescue him—using a blunt object and reportedly throwing him off the tower. The firefighter was seriously injured, and strict security measures were taken following the incident.
The same incident was also reported on July 12 by multiple Moroccan news outlets (1, 2).
Therefore, the viral video on Facebook is not related to any extortion incident in Gazipur. Footage from a separate incident in Morocco is being falsely circulated as an event from Gazipur, Bangladesh.
