Video shared to show Sheikh Hasina at Indian hotel is from 2007 London interview
A video has recently spread with the claim that it shows ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina at a hotel in India. However, Dismislab’s fact-check found that the footage is from an interview of Sheikh Hasina in London in 2007.
On July 28, a news outlet called Banglar Shomoy TV posted a video showing ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina speaking inside a room. Text overlaid on the video reads, “Awami League President Sheikh Hasina of the banned Awami League has been seen at a hotel in India.” A reverse image search of keyframes from the video shows that the same video was also posted on July 6 from a Facebook page identifying itself as a news outlet named mati tv.
The caption of that post reads, “Banned Awami League President Sheikh Hasina was spotted at a hotel in India.” The video has been viewed more than 860,000 times and shared more than 850 times. The same video was also posted by a Facebook page called Swarthopor Bangladesh. Text overlaid on that version reads, “Sheikh Hasina is returning to the country on the 6th. Sheikh Hasina suddenly faced journalists at a hotel in India.”
At the beginning of the video, Sheikh Hasina can be heard saying, “They left the Awami League, formed their own party, and are also contesting elections. Now those who form political parties but cannot organize them, and those who cannot even retain their election deposits, criticize the Awami League while presenting themselves as educated people.” Shortly afterward, a journalist is heard asking, “Are you going on the 6th?”
A review of the comments on both posts shows that while some users believed the claim, many others pointed out that the video is old.
A reverse image search using keyframes extracted from the video led to the same footage on a YouTube channel named Immigrant Channel. The video was published there on May 16, 2007. Its description reads: “The former Prime Minister’s explosive remarks about Professor Yunus.”
At the beginning of that YouTube video, a background narration says: “May 1, 2007. At an event organized by the Bangladesh Students’ Association of the London School of Economics, leader Sheikh Hasina shared her views in response to questions from the audience and journalists.” The portion beginning at 33 seconds into that video matches the circulated video exactly.
The same footage was later found on another YouTube channel named Tanvir Ahmed. Published on July 17, 2007, the video’s description reads, “An exclusive interview with Sheikh Hasina following her speech at the London School of Economics.” This version of the video indicates that the person Sheikh Hasina was referring to at the beginning of the circulated clip was Barrister Moinul Hossain, who served as an adviser to the caretaker government in 2007.
Notably, in 2007, the Awami League president visited the United States and the United Kingdom. During that trip, the then caretaker government imposed a restriction on her return to Bangladesh. It was in this context that the question about “the 6th” was raised in the interview.
The same video had also circulated in 2024 with the claim that it showed “Sheikh Hasina’s interview in India.” At that time, fact-checking organization BOOM Bangladesh published a fact-check report debunking the claim.
