A video showing an elderly man being humiliated with a garland of shoes in Bangladesh has surfaced with a false communal angle on social media identifying him as a Bangladeshi Hindu who was made to wear the garland by Islamists.
BOOM found that the incident is from Baliakandi, where a medical officer Ahmed Ali was assaulted for making derogatory remarks against the Prophet.
The Claim: Video shows humiliation of a veteran Hindu teacher in Bangladesh
Viral posts on Facebook and X claimed that the victim is a Hindu who has worked as a teacher for 40 years. Kreately shared the video on X with the caption: "A Hindu teacher who worked for 40 years was garlanded with slippers by radical Islamists in Bangladesh."
Click here, here, here, here and here to see the archive of the posts.
What We Found
1. Man Identified As Ahmad Ali
We ran a reverse image search on the keyframes from the video and found the same video uploaded by a YouTube user on June 15, 2025. A person recording the video can be heard saying in Bangla that Beruli bazar's Ahmad Ali has made derogatory remarks against Allah's Rasul, hence, the Towhidi Janata put on a garland of shoes on him as punishment.
2. News Reports On The Incident
Taking a cue we ran related keyword searches on Google which led us to multiple news reports on the incident published by Bangladesh-based news outlets. A June 15, 2025 article by Dhaka Times reported, a retired community medical officer named Ahmad Ali was beaten by enraged public in Rajbari's Baliakandi. Following this, he was also forced to wear a garland of shoes. According to a Kaler Kantho report, Ali had allegedly made insulting remarks on Prophet Muhammad in the morning of the incident in front of Nawabpur Highschool which caused public outrage leading to his humiliation. The situation was brought under control with the intervention of police and army.
Bangladesh's Chief Adviser's Press Wing Facts also debunked the viral, false claim from their official Facebook account.