Not Sheikh Hasina's return announcement, but a scene from Ityadi
In a video recently circulated on the social media platform Facebook, a young man is seen sitting in a rickshaw, announcing the news of ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina’s return to the country. However, Dismislab’s fact-check has revealed that the video is edited. The video has been spread by adding a different audio track to a scene from a skit on the Bangladesh Television (BTV) magazine program Ityadi.
On August 11, a 36-second video was shared from the official Facebook page of the Bangladesh Awami League. In the video, a person is seen sitting in a rickshaw and announcing over a microphone, “Residents of the area, listen carefully, Sheikh Hasina will return to the country with her head held high along with the Awami League’s convoy. The public now understands that Sheikh Hasina is needed at this moment….”
The video was first posted on August 10 from a page named “Mujibism Insights 71”. As of the writing of this report, the original post has been viewed more than 349,000 times and shared over 1,700 times.
The same video was also posted from another page named “Dainik Ajker Kontho Digital” with the caption, “Young man is announcing the news of Sheikh Hasina’s return by miking.” In addition, the video has been seen circulating on various other social media platforms (1, 2).
Conducting a reverse image search to verify authenticity reveals a video uploaded on September 30, 2024, from a YouTube channel named “Fagun Audio Vision”. The video’s title reads, “Ekti Harano Bigyopti (A Missing Notice) | Ityadi October 1997 Episode”.
An exact match is found between the 2-second to 14-second segment of the original video and the first 12 seconds of the circulated video. Nowhere in the 2-minute-and-2-second original video is anything heard regarding the news of Sheikh Hasina’s return. It is primarily a comedic skit from the October 1997 episode of the magazine program Ityadi. In that skit, a missing person’s notice is seen being announced over a microphone.
It is noteworthy that on August 5, 2024, Sheikh Hasina took refuge in India after being ousted in a mass uprising. Last November, the International Crimes Tribunal sentenced her to death in absentia on charges of crimes against humanity for suppressing the movement. Since then, Bangladesh has repeatedly requested India to repatriate her. On August 5, at a press conference organized by the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of South Asia in Delhi, Sheikh Hasina claimed that she would return to the country in December this year.
Previously, when multiple fake claims spread regarding Sheikh Hasina’s return to the country or public appearances, Dismislab published fact-check reports addressing them.
