Claim of mosque attack over remarks regarding Sheikh Hasina is false
A video on the social media platform Facebook claims that at the Model Mosque in Shariatpur, worshippers attacked the mosque’s imam and leaders of the NCP (National Citizen Party) after being angered by derogatory remarks about Sheikh Hasina made during the Friday sermon. However, Dismislab’s fact-check found that the circulated video shows an attack on Jamaat-e-Islami leaders and activists during a July Mass Uprising Day programme on August 5.
The video was posted on August 8 from a Facebook page named “News Desh.” The post read, “Public fury against the mosque’s imam and NCP leaders over derogatory remarks about Sheikh Hasina. At the Model Mosque in Shariatpur, the mosque’s worshippers grew enraged, and this incident occurred after derogatory remarks were made about Sheikh Hasina during the Friday sermon!” In the 30-second video, a man wearing a panjabi (a traditional South Asian tunic) is seen being beaten in front of a mosque.
As of this report’s publication, the video had been viewed more than 179,000 times. The post had received over 9,700 reactions and had been shared more than 3,500 times. The same claim was also circulated from multiple Facebook profiles (1, 2, 3) and pages (1, 2, 3).
To verify the claim, Dismislab conducted a reverse image search using keyframes from the video. This led to an exact match with a video published on August 5 on the Facebook page of news outlet risingbd.com. The scenes in the circulated video matched the portion from 1 minute 10 seconds to 1 minute 40 seconds of that 1-minute-52-second video, titled “Attack at Jamaat Programme in Shariatpur, Journalist Also Beaten.”
In addition, reports on this incident were published in multiple national news outlets (1, 2), which included scenes matching the circulated video.
According to a report published in Prothom Alo on August 5, “Leaders and activists of BNP have been accused of attacking a Jamaat programme organised in Jajira, Shariatpur, on the occasion of July Mass Uprising Day. During this, a local journalist was assaulted while trying to film a video of the attack.” The report stated that Jamaat-e-Islami had organised a mass procession and discussion meeting at the premises of the Model Mosque at the upazila (sub-district) headquarters, while BNP and its affiliated organisations were simultaneously holding a separate programme nearby, and clashes between the two sides led to the attack.
In other words, the circulated video does not show worshippers’ anger at a mosque over derogatory remarks about Sheikh Hasina, but rather scenes of an attack on a Jamaat programme on July Mass Uprising Day.
