Businessman assaulted by Jatiya Party leader, not Jamaat leader

A video showing a bearded man in a white cap and a panjabi slapping another man inside a shop has recently spread on Facebook. The post claims that a Jamaat leader assaulted the businessman for criticizing a Jamaat MP who was allegedly caught with a woman. However, Dismislab’s verification found that the attacker is not a leader of Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami. Instead, he is the convener of the Bangladesh Jatiya Party (BJP) in Bhola.

The video was posted from a Facebook profile on July 21. The caption reads, “A Jamaat leader assaults a businessman for criticizing the Jamaat MP over the female coordinator!!” The seven-second video shows a man pointing his finger while speaking to another man sitting inside a shop. At one point, he slaps the man several times.

Until the publication of this report, the video had received more than 243,000 views and over 400 shares. Users reacted to the video more than 2,500 times.

The video was also posted from another Facebook profile with the same claim.

To verify the claim, Dismislab conducted a reverse image search using key frames from the video. The search found the same video had been posted on July 21 by a Facebook profile named Taqi Khan. The post reads, “Allegation of a ruling party leader assaulting a businessman in Bhola. Abul Kalam Matabbar, convener of the Bangladesh Jatiya Party (BJP) in Char Samaiya Union, stands accused of attacking a business establishment.” At the end of the caption, Taqi Khan identifies himself as a journalist and chairman of the Bhola District Oikya Forum.

Another post that spread on social media on July 20 claimed that Abul Kalam Matabbar and his associates assaulted Sohag, a businessman who owns a telecom and mobile servicing shop at Shantirhat Bazar in Bhola, following a heated argument. They also attacked the shop.

A search using relevant keywords found several news reports (1, 2, 3, 4, 5) on the incident. The reports confirm that the man seen in the video is not a member of Jamaat. He is Abul Kalam Matabbar, convener of the Bangladesh Jatiya Party (BJP) in Char Samaiya Union under Bhola Sadar upazila.

According to the report, Andaleev Rahman Partho, MP for Bhola-1 and president of the Bangladesh Jatiya Party (BJP), said legal action would follow in the incident. He also said that no favoritism or bias would receive any tolerance in the matter.

Therefore, the man seen assaulting the businessman in the video is not a Jamaat leader. He is Abul Kalam Matabbar, a local BJP leader from Char Samaiya Union in Bhola.

All social media captions, quotations, and news excerpts in this article have been translated into English from the languages in which they were originally posted or published.