Indian temple video shared as Madaripur death incident
A video shared on social media platform ‘X’ claims to show the killing of three brothers, including a Swechchhasebak League leader, inside a mosque in Madaripur. The footage has circulated on Facebook and YouTube with the same claim. However, verification confirms that the claim is false. The original video is at least three years old and was actually filmed in a temple in India.
A user shared an 11-second video on X, accompanied by the caption, “Bangladesh of militancy! Three brothers, including a Swechchhasebak League leader, were killed together inside a mosque in Madaripur! Which Bangladesh is this?” By the time of this report, the video had been viewed over 16,000 times. The video depicts a young man wearing a black T-shirt, with his arms and legs spread out on the floor, though his head is not visible. The same video was also posted by an account named ‘Awami League Brahmanbaria,’ maintaining the original description with some hashtags (#BangladeshCrisis #SaveBangladeshFromYunus).
The video was shared on Facebook (1, 2) and YouTube with the same claim.
Dismislab conducted a reverse image search to verify the video circulating online. The search revealed that the same video had been uploaded on a YouTube channel called Balaji Bhagwanpur Dham on March 7, 2022, more than three years ago. The 1 minute 3 second video, titled in Hindi, and when translated to English via Google, reads: “Ghosts are brutally beaten in Kashtabhanjan Bhagwanpur Balaji Dham.” The video description further mentions, “Balaji Bhagwanpur Dham amethi up, Hanuman chalisa, Balaji aarti, ma Kali ki aarti, pretraj sarkar ki aarti.”
The video begins with a young man lying sprawled on a floor, his head out of view. The clothing worn by this individual matches exactly with that of the person shown in the video recently circulated with false claims of murder in Madaripur. At the 52-second mark, the young man is seen alive, having inserted his head into a square hole. The first 11 seconds of this video, which depict him in a prone position, have been cropped and are being shared as evidence of the alleged killing in Madaripur.
Dismislab conducted further verification of the YouTube video by searching for the keyword “Bhagwanpur Dham Amethi” on Google, which led to the discovery of a temple by the same name in Amethi, Uttar Pradesh (UP), India. So, it has been confirmed that the video circulating online is not related to a murder inside a mosque in Madaripur, but rather depicts an event at a temple in India. Additionally, the video is over three years old.
On March 8, three brothers were brutally hacked to death in a dispute over the sand business in Madaripur. Multiple media outlets have reported on the incident. According to Prothom Alo, the conflict erupted between two clans over sand mining in the area between Molla Bari and Sardar Bari in the Tekherhat area of Khwajapur Union, Sadar Upazila. The two groups clashed with sticks, and the victims sought refuge in a mosque to escape the attack. However, the assailants followed them inside and fatally attacked the three brothers. The deceased were identified as Ataur Rahman Sardar (35), Saiful Islam (30), and their cousin Palash Sardar. Saiful Islam was serving as the organizing secretary of the Khwajapur Union Swechchhasebak League.
