A disturbing video showing a mob assaulting a woman in Bangladesh's Cox's Bazar on suspicions of theft is viral with false communal claims in India.
The video was shared on X by the handle Voice of Hindus with a caption claiming that a Hindu woman was attacked for not wearing a hijab.
The text of the X post reads, "Horrible No Hindu girl can even walk in Bangladesh without wearing Hijab, Welcome to new Bangladesh of Muhammad Yunus, Now No one stand for hindus in Bangladesh so we have to speak #SaveBangladesiHindus."
The video shows a woman crying as she is punched and slapped by a mob. Many try to remove her head scarf, as she is pinned down and kicked.
Trigger Warning: The video contains disturbing visuals, viewers discretion is advised.
See post here, click here for an archive.
The video is also viral on Facebook with the same caption.
Click here to see post and here for an archive.
Fact Check
BOOM Bangladesh was able to ascertain that the video is from Bangladesh's Cox's Bazar area.
We reached out to Toufiqul Islam Lipu, Cox’s Bazar correspondent of Independent TV who corroborated the same. Lipu told BOOM that the woman assaulted in the video is Kohinoor and she is a Rohingya Muslim from the Qutub Alam Refugee Camp. He further confirmed that the woman is a TikToker. "She was caught for alleged theft from a village near the Qutub Alam Rohingya refugee camp and was also assaulted in Teknaf area of Chittagong division," Lipu told BOOM.
It was also confirmed that no case has been registered against Kohinoor in Teknaf or Ukhiya Thana of Cox's Bazar.
BOOM then ran a related keyword search on Facebook and found several posts that identified the woman's TikTok and Instagram accounts.
Archive of the post can be seen here.
Videos of Kohinoor being harassed for her alleged involvement in theft are also viral.
We also found a longer version of the viral video uploaded by a Facebook user on October 7. In the video, a mob can be seen dragging Kohinoor by her hair through a muddy path, crossing a road and entering the building where she was assaulted. The caption reads, "TikToker Kohinoor Cox caught for mobile theft at Cox's Bazar's Ramu." (Translated from Bengali) Click here for an archive of the post.
We were further able to geolocate the place using Google Maps as Ramu City Stay House in Cox's Bazar.
Below is a comparison between the screengrab of the building Kohinoor was taken to and the Ramu City Stay House as seen in Maps.
We were also able to ascertain that the place of assault was the ground floor of the building near the staircase.
We reached out to Kohinoor for a comment. She corroborated that the woman in the video is her and ruled out a communal angle to the incident. She however did not wish to comment on the video or the reason for the assault.
(Additional Reporting: Swasti Chatterjee)