Hasnat and Hannan Masud’s procession was in Noakhali, not Habiganj

A video has been circulating on the social media platform Facebook claiming, “NCP [National Citizen Party] entered Habiganj accompanied by lakhs and lakhs of people” (lakh: a South Asian numbering unit equal to 100,000). However, a fact-check by Dismislab finds that the video is actually from NCP’s “July Padajatra” (July March) programme held in Noakhali on 10 July.

A Facebook page named “Esho Islami Samaj Gori” (Let Us Build an Islamic Society) posted a 30-second video on 29 July. The post read, “Lakhs, lakhs, of people, NCP entered Habiganj accompanying…” [original text reproduced verbatim]. In the video, Abdul Hannan Masud, member of parliament for Noakhali-6, and Hasnat Abdullah, member of parliament for Cumilla-4, are seen chanting the slogan, “We must fight to survive, we must win this fight.” Until the publication of this report, the post had been viewed more than 270,000 times and shared more than 2,300 times. The video has also been circulated with the same claim from multiple Facebook groups (1, 2) and pages (1, 2).

In the course of the investigation, a reverse image search was conducted using keyframes from the video. This led to a video published on 10 July on a Facebook page named “Discover Bangla.” The video’s caption read, “Hannan Masud and Hasnat Abdullah chanting slogans at NCP’s show of strength in Noakhali.” The segment from 40 seconds to 1 minute 10 seconds of this video was found to match exactly the video that went viral. The viral video had been edited by zooming in and slightly increasing the playback speed.

A keyword search led to a report on Ekushey Television’s YouTube channel, which reported Hasnat Abdullah’s participation in the July Padajatra programme in Noakhali on the same day. In addition, the viral video was also found to match a video published on Jamuna TV’s YouTube channel about the same day’s programme.

According to a report by Samakal, at NCP’s July Padajatra and “showdown” in Maijdee, Noakhali Sadar, on 10 July, the party’s central leaders demanded the implementation of the referendum verdict, the resolution of the electricity crisis, and control over commodity prices. Hasnat Abdullah, the party’s chief organiser, and Abdul Hannan Masud, the local member of parliament, were present at the rally.

It should be noted that NCP began its month-long July Padajatra programme on 6 July across 100 upazilas (sub-districts) and municipalities in 64 districts nationwide, and the Noakhali rally was part of this programme. Separately, following the conclusion of the padajatra programme in Habiganj on 28 July, the convoy of NCP leaders was attacked and party workers were beaten. The party has blamed the ruling BNP (Bangladesh Nationalist Party) for the incident. In protest of this attack, NCP has called for nationwide demonstrations on 29 July.

In other words, the video circulated with the claim of a gathering of lakhs of people for NCP in Habiganj is, in fact, from the July Padajatra programme in Noakhali.