Photo from an unrelated incident circulating claiming to depict the shooting of BNP leader Ershad Ullah
A photocard has spread on social media claiming that the main perpetrator behind the killing of Chattogram BNP leader Ershad Ullah has been arrested in Cumilla. However, although shot and injured, Ershad survived the shooting. Dismislab’s fact-check also found that the image attached to the photocard is from a different incident.
A page named “Batoya News” posted a photocard on November 6. In the photo, a bearded man wearing a cap and a panjabi is seen being held by two police officers. On the right side of the image, there is an inset photo of BNP leader Ershad Ullah. The text inside the photocard reads, “The main perpetrator, a Shibir activist, behind the murder of Chattogram BNP leader Ershad Ullah, has been arrested from Cumilla.” The same image was shared from several personal Facebook profiles (1, 2, 3) with the same claim.
A reverse image search of the photo returned two news reports, one from Somoy TV and another from RTV. The image of the bearded man in a cap and a panjabi on the Batoya News photocard matches exactly the one used in those reports. According to the news report published by Somoy TV on May 18, 2021, Abdur Rahim, a teacher at Kathalbariya Ebtedayee Madrasa in Baraigram upazila, was accused of sexually assaulting a student. On March 12, 2025, he was sentenced to life imprisonment. The photo used in the viral photocard originally comes from that report. RTV also published a report using the same image and information. Further verification using relevant keyword searches found another report on the same incident published by Prothom Alo.
On the other hand, although the Batoya News photocard claimed that Ershad Ullah had been killed, he is still alive. A relevant keyword search found a report published by The Daily Star on November 7, which stated that he is now out of danger and has been transferred from Chattogram to Dhaka for better treatment. Several other reports (1, 2) have also been published on this matter.
Therefore, BNP leader Ershad Ullah is not dead, and the photo circulated claiming that his killer was arrested in Cumilla actually belongs to a different incident.
Notably, on the evening of November 5, during a voter outreach event in the Chalitattali area of Bayezid, Chattogram, Chattogram Metropolitan BNP convenor and BNP’s nominated candidate for the Chattogram 8 constituency, Ershad Ullah, was shot. Later, he was admitted to a private hospital in Chattogram.
