2024 video of Awami League gathering falsely shared as garment workers’ oath
A video has been circulating on Facebook claiming that garment workers have taken an oath to bring former prime minister Sheikh Hasina back to the country. This fuels the misinformation spread centering Sheikh Hasina’s December return claims.
However, the video spread claiming garment workers’ oath is in fact from August 2024, when Awami League and its affiliated organizations’ leaders and activists took an oath in Tungipara, Gopalganj, to bring Sheikh Hasina back to Bangladesh.
On November 4, a Facebook page named “Sheikh Hasina’s Soldiers” posted a 30-second video (archive) with the caption, “All garment workers have taken an oath to bring Sheikh Hasina back to the country by any means necessary.” The video shows a gathering of people taking an oath. They can be heard saying, “We solemnly swear that, through the movement, as long as we have a single drop of blood left, we will not allow the movement to be disrupted. We will certainly bring Leader Sheikh Hasina back to this soil of Bengal….”
Until the publication of this report, the video had been viewed nearly 12,000 times and shared more than 100 times.
The same video was also circulated from several Facebook accounts and groups (1, 2, 3, 4). It was also shared with the same claim from the verified profile of Showkat Hossain Khan, deputy publicity secretary of the US Awami League.
A reverse image search using keyframes from the video led to a video published on Jamuna TV’s YouTube channel on August 8, 2024. The one-minute-30-second video, titled “Tungipara Awami League takes oath to bring Sheikh Hasina back to the country,” matches the footage circulating on Facebook from the one-minute mark onward.
Several news reports (1, 2, 3) about the event were also found. A report published by the online edition of Channel 24 on August 8, 2024, said that after paying tribute at the mausoleum of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in Tungipara, leaders and activists of the Tungipara upazila Awami League and its affiliated organizations took an oath to bring Sheikh Hasina back to the country. The oath was administered by Ilias Hossain Sardar, vice-president of the Tungipara upazila Awami League.
In other words, an old video showing Awami League leaders and activists taking an oath in Tungipara, Gopalganj, in August 2024 to bring Sheikh Hasina back to the country is being circulated as footage of garment workers taking an oath.
Notably, garment workers have recently staged protests in Dhaka’s Mirpur and Savar and in several areas of Gazipur over various demands, including setting a minimum wage.
