2013 Bangladesh Video Peddled As Police Crackdown In Assam

A distressing montage of a police raid at night showing wounded and dead protesters in Bangladesh is being falsely shared online as Assam.

Furthermore, BOOM found that the video can be traced back to May 2013 and is in no way related to India.

The 2.26 seconds clip has been falsely linked to a proposed National Register of Citizens (NRC)

The clip, which shows police in anti-riot gear rounding up and beating protesters, is viral on social media with different captions.

Also read: PM Modi's Claim Of No Discussion By Govt On NRC Since 2014 Is False

The video was also shared by Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan who later deleted it when he was called out on Twitter.

Also read: Imran Khan Falls For Fake News, Deletes Tweet Post Social Media Uproar

BOOM received the same video on its WhatsApp helpline (77009 06111) asking us to verify the video. 

Viral on Facebook

 

The clip has also been shared on Facebook with a claim that it relates to the NRC.

Several Twitter users have shared the video clip with a similar claim.

Fact Check

BOOM found that the insignia seen on the police uniforms is RAB or the Rapid Action Battalion - an anti-crime and anti-terrorism unit of Bangladesh police. The insignia can be seen several times in the viral video. A comparison can be seen below.

We then broke up the video into keyframes and ran a reverse image search, which showed it was uploaded to  Dailymotion - a video streaming website, seven years ago. The description of the video said, 'Joint force killed more than 3000 innocent Hefajot Activists while sleeping at May 6 morning between 2.30 am to 4.00 am.'

We then searched on YouTube with relevant keywords consist of "Bangladesh police" and "Hefajat e Islam 2013" and found the exact same video on the platform published on September 10, 2013.

NOTE: Distressing visuals

Also read: Assam Police Beating Up People Not Included In The NRC? A FactCheck

A search for news reports showed that the incident is from May 5 - May 6, 2013, when violent clashes between police and religious hardliners demanding stronger Islamic laws, broke out in Dhaka. Thousands of supporters of the group Hefazat-e Islam (defenders of Islam) laid siege to the capital's city centre, bringing Dhaka to a halt in their bid to demand strict Islamic laws. 

The video above describes an early morning raid by police.

Several international news outlets such as The Guardian, BBC, and Al-Jazeera had also reported about the clashes. According to Guardian, the security forces had evicted nearly 20,000 protestors by firing tear gas and rubber bullets. The video can be seen below.

Below is an excerpt from an article published by the BBC.

 "At least 27 people have been killed and dozens hurt after police and Islamist protesters clashed in Bangladesh. Police used stun grenades and rubber bullets to disperse a Sunday protest organized by the group Hefazat-e Islam in the capital Dhaka. But there were later running battles throughout Sunday and into Monday in areas across the city. Tens of thousands of Islamists had gathered in the city to call for stronger Islamic policies."

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