The video of Shakib slapping is not of election day
A video of Shakib Al Hasan, Bangladesh national team cricketer and 12th parliamentary election candidate, slapping a guy in a crowd has gone viral on social media, with claims that the event occurred January 7, on the day of the national election in Bangladesh. The viral video has even caused mayhem in the mainstream media. However, Dismislab verified that the incident occurred on January 2nd, not today.
Several YouTube channels of mainstream media (1, 2, 3), various Facebook pages (1, 2, 3) and personal profiles (1, 2, 3) shared the video. Shakib Al Hasan is being said to have lost his temper at the voting field. However, due to the absence of any date on the video, people have assumed it to be today’s.
The video containing a logo of Desh TV had been shared on various Facebook pages. Relying on that source, Dismislab investigated the YouTube channel of Desh TV. On the channel the same video captioned “Shakib Al Hasan lost his temper in the voting field” was found. In the video, Shakib can be seen wading through a crowd of eager fans while trying to get into his car. While doing so, some fans can be seen pulling him backwards and that is when Shakib turns around and slaps a person. The channel has merged the same16-second video twice showing the slapping debacle in slow motion. The video has been viewed more than 1.5 million times so far with more than 46 thousand likes. It has also garnered comments from more than a whopping 11 thousand users, the majority of which are negative in nature.
One YouTube user wrote, “This is proof that a disrespectful person can never become nice.” Another comment reads, “Now that the election is over, Shakib is showing his true colors, this is our actor Shakib.” Another person wrote, “Shakib’s ‘development’ has started before even becoming an MP, mashallah.”
The video has even spread confusion among Facebook users who assumed the video to be of today’s. On the video shared by the page “Savage Tribe” one user commented, “The vote is over! How much more can be tolerated!” Another user wrote, “There is only entertainment today, the day is going great.” Another commented, “The votes are still being counted, getting back in the form so quickly.”
The video has been claimed to be today’s by numerous mainstream media as well. Protidiner Bangladesh published a news titled “Shakib loses his temper and slaps a fan”. The news report read – “Shakib Al Hasan, the candidate running under boat symbol in Magura-1 constituency, slaps one of his party supporters as he loses his temper. This incident occurred on the day of the 12th national parliament election on Sunday. A video of the slapping incident has also gone viral on social media”. “Dainik Jugantar” has also published a news article claiming the same.
However, a verification by Dismislab showed that the said video is not from 7th January, i.e. the election day. The incident actually took place on 2nd January when he arrived at Faridpur from Magura for an election rally.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina came to Faridpur on January 2 for an election rally. To attend that rally, Shakib also came to Faridpur from Magura. He even did an electoral campaign for the candidate supported by Awami League in the Faridpur-3 constituency. The debacle happened just before he was about to leave for Magura after finishing the rally.
Dismislab found a live video of Channel 24 regarding this incident. The video Captioned “Live: what we learned about the viral video of Shakib slapping his fan,” features interviews with two journalists who were present on the day of the incident. Both of them confirm that the video is from 2nd January and not from today. This incident happened when Shakib was returning at the end of the election rally. However, a similarity in the outfits between the day of the incident and today has caused the confusion. That has led this video to go viral today. Even a report by Dhaka Post mentioned that the incident happened on 2nd January.
A similar video was also found on Facebook. However, it had been shared the night before the election. The 16-second video was shared the night before election at 12:23 AM from the page “Rumki the Biggest Ailsya”. There Shakib could be seen slapping a fan. The video captioned “No more control” has been shared 19 times on Facebook so far.
As such, the video being circulated of Shakib’s slapping is misleading. The incident had not happened on the day of the election, rather, it had occurred during the election campaign.
