Viral Video Falsely Claims Jamaat-Shibir Vandalized BNP Stage
A video has gone viral on Facebook and X, showing a group of people throwing chairs in front of a stage. The caption claims that members of Jamaat-Shibir vandalized a BNP stage in protest against derogatory comments made about the late Jamaat-e-Islami leader Professor Ghulam Azam. However, fact-checking reveals that the claim is not true. The video is old and unrelated to any BNP event. It is from January of this year, the incident involved madrasa students attacking a Qawwali programme at a shrine event.
Several Facebook users have shared the 29-second video (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6) with the same claim. One post reads, “Jamaat-Shibir broke BNP’s stage over remarks on Ghulam Azam. Leaders fled to save their lives. Everyone says Marhaba.” Dismislab observed such posts being shared on social media since May 12. The same video has also been shared on X with the same claim.
An analysis of one Facebook video shows it has been viewed nearly 200,000 times and shared more than 2,000 times. The footage shows a group of people approaching a stage and then throwing chairs placed in front of it. The same video has also appeared in several Instagram posts (1, 2, 3).
To verify the claim, Dismislab conducted a reverse image search using keyframes from the video. The search led to a report by The Daily Star, which includes an image that matches the viral video exactly. The report, published on January 9, cites locals who said a group of madrasa students attacked a Qawwali event and damaged a shrine in Thanarghat, Mymensingh. The event was organized by the shrine committee of Hazrat Shah Sufi Syed Kalu Shah (R) as part of the annual milad and dua mahfil held for Sama Qawwali.
Further keyword searches led to multiple news reports (1, 2, 3) describing the same incident. A report by Prothom Alo states that on January 8, around 11:00 p.m., a Qawwali programme was held near the Brahmaputra River to mark the 179th annual Urs of Hazrat Shah Sufi Syed Kalu Shah (R). Around 11:30 p.m., the attack began. The stage and chairs were vandalized, and later, around 3:00 a.m., the shrine was also attacked.
A related report by bdnews24.com includes a 3-minute and 12-second video. The first 29 seconds of this report match the viral clip circulating on Facebook.
That is, the video circulating on social media is from an incident at a Qawwali programme in Mymensingh in January, where madrasa students carried out an attack. It is now being shared with a false claim that Jamaat-Shibir vandalized a BNP stage over remarks on Ghulam Azam.
