Myanmar military clash video falsely linked to Sajek
A video of an operation by armed men has recently spread on Facebook with the claim that it shows the current situation in Sajek (a hilly area in Rangamati, Bangladesh). The people in the video are being called the “Shanti Bahini” (“Peace Force”). However, Dismislab’s fact-check found that the video is not from Sajek. It shows an operation by the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA) in Myanmar’s Tanintharyi region.
On October 24, the Facebook page “Hatiyar News” posted a video. The 4-minute-14-second video shows several people with weapons in hand advancing while firing in an area between a forest and a populated area. The caption claimed, “This is the situation in Sajek, these are the Shanti Bahini,” (verbatim).
As of the publication of this report, the video had received more than 4,000 reactions, been shared more than 370 times, and been viewed more than 200,000 times.
Dismislab conducted a reverse image search on keyframes of the video. This led to a match with a video uploaded on October 12 to the YouTube channel People’s Spring. The video’s title was “KNLA Special Forces say 10 soldiers killed in ambush near 285th Battalion.”
A circular logo appears in the two upper corners of the original video. In Hatiyar News’s video, the page’s own logo has been placed in those two spots. The original video carries text in Burmese reading, “Video: KNLA Brigade-4 Special Force.”
The video’s description states that the KNLA and allied forces attacked a Myanmar army outpost on the morning of October 12. The location was Palaw Township in the Tanintharyi region. The description contains no mention of Sajek or the Shanti Bahini. The casualty figure stated in the title is a KNLA claim. Dismislab could not independently verify it.
A 4-minute-4-second video with the same logo was posted on X on October 13 by the verified account “War Noir” (@war_noir). The post (translated from English) stated that the KNLA had attacked a Myanmar army position.
The Karen National Union (KNU), the political organization of the KNLA, issued a statement on the matter on October 13 on its verified Facebook page. It said that a joint attack was carried out on the morning of October 12 on an army outpost near Ma Gyi Gone village in Palaw. On the same day, the English edition of Development Media Group (DMG) reported the incident on its verified Facebook page, citing the KNU statement. DMG’s post describes the outpost as being near a pagoda. A structure like this can also be seen in the circulating video.
The October 17 edition of Burma Coup Resistance Notes, a newsletter on the situation in Myanmar, also mentions the incident. It states that on October 12, the KNLA attacked an army camp near Palaw in Mergui-Tavoy district.
In other words, the video is not from Sajek; it shows an operation by the KNLA in Myanmar.
