Footage of Rajbari mob beating falsely linked to Gaibandha political attack
A video spread on social media claiming that BNP “terrorists” tortured a rival Jubo League activist in Gaibandha for protesting the verdict on ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. But Dismislab’s fact-check found that the original video is from Rajbari, where locals beat up a man over an allegation of extortion.
Right after Hasina was sentenced to death on November 17, a video started circulating on Facebook. The caption reads, “In Gaibandha, a Jubo League activist was brutally beaten and injured in public by BNP terrorists for protesting the verdict in the false case against Jananetree Sheikh Hasina! Justice for this crime will come one day on the soil of Bengal –it is only a matter of time. There is no end to oppression, but injustice never won, and never will win. ✊🇧🇩।
Several personal profiles (1,2,3,4) posted the same video with the same claim. The same video also appeared on Instagram. In the 16-second video, a group of people surrounds a young man near a football goalpost on an open field. Several individuals hit him with sticks in public and strike him with shoes.
Reverse image search of the keyframes of the circulating clip revealed a video posted on a Facebook profile named Hafizul Islam Bokul. The description of the November 15 post says, “Beside the goal bar of the Sharisa playground in Pangsha, under the goalpost, people handed the accused over to police after some ‘ador shohag’ for demanding Tk 8 lakh taka in extortion… The accused’s name is Kabil, he was allegedly an accused in the Pikul murder case.” This video matches exactly with the one circulated claiming to show the beating of a Jubo League activist.
For further verification, Dismislab searched using relevant keywords, which led to multiple reports (1,2,3,4,5) published by different media outlets and online portals. A report published by Ekattor TV carried photo showing the identical scene. According to the report, on the afternoon of November 15, locals in Rajbari’s Pangsha upazila handed over a man named Kabil to the police after beating him over an allegation that he demanded Tk 8 lakh in extortion from Bachchu Biswas, BNP’s relief affairs secretary of the upazila. The incident took place at the Premtia School ground in Sharisa union. The report quoted Pangsha Model Police Station’s Officer-in-Charge, Md. Salahuddin, who said that on November 14, the man demanded money from the BNP leader.
So the video being circulated as an attack on a Jubo League activist in Gaibandha for protesting the verdict in the case against Sheikh Hasina, actually shows the November 15 mob beating in Rajbari over an alleged attempt to extort a BNP leader.
For context, on November 17, the International Crimes Tribunal sentenced Bangladesh’s ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to death for crimes against humanity.
