Videos of young men with weapons are not from the Chittagong Hill Tracts
Amidst the ongoing unrest surrounding the hill people-Bengali conflict in the Chittagong Hill Tracts, two videos are being circulated on Facebook, claimed to be from that region. The videos show several young men with weapons. However, Dismislab’s verification has revealed that the two videos are not from the Chittagong Hill Tracts but from the Philippines.
After analyzing the two videos, it was observed that both were recorded at the same location. In one video, two armed young men are seen crossing a road. At the 6-second mark of this 7-second video, a microbus is visible. The number plate of the microbus shows three letters and four digits, written in the LLL-DDDDD format, where “L” stands for letter and “D” stands for digit. This format matches the vehicle number plate system of the Philippines. In contrast, vehicle number plates in Bangladesh follow the format: “City – Vehicle Class Letter and Number – Vehicle Number.” For example, “Dhaka-D-11-9999” could be a typical number plate in Bangladesh. This indicates that the vehicle is not registered in Bangladesh.
In another video, an armed young man is also seen crossing the road. It can be confirmed that this video was recorded at the same location as the previous one. In both videos, a banner for “Tap Fresh Bread Bakery” is seen hanging, and there is also a visible resemblance in the shop behind the banner.
Dismislab traced the original source of both videos. These two videos were first posted by a page named “Sattar Jakkal” (1, 2). The primary location of this page is shown to be in the Philippines. Another video, found in a reel from the Sattar Jakkal page, matches the background of the 9-second scene of the second video. At the start of the reel, a mini gas station is visible in the background. The gas station also displays a banner for “GCash,” a popular mobile wallet service in the Philippines. GCash is one of the most widely used mobile wallets in the country.
Thus, by examining the sources of several videos and observing the surrounding locations, it is confirmed that these videos were not filmed in the Chittagong Hill Tracts of Bangladesh.
For context, on September 18th, clashes began in the Noapara area of Ward 6, Khagrachari Municipality, following the death of a Bengali youth named Mohammad Mamun. On Thursday, September 19th, intense clashes occurred between the hill people and Bengalis in Dighinala, Khagrachari district, with gunfire reported overnight in the district headquarters. Three hill people were reportedly killed in the gunfire and clashes, with at least 15 others injured. Meanwhile, clashes also broke out today between Bengalis and hill people in Rangamati, prompting the administration to impose Section 144.
