Video From Bangladesh Protests Falsely Viral As West Bengal Violence

An old video from Bangladesh of a person wielding a revolver is viral with a false claim that it shows the current law and order situation in West Bengal (WB), India.

BOOM found the viral video is from Chittagong in Bangladesh and the man in the video is a history-sheeter and a member of the political party Awami League's youth wing, Jubo League. We further verified that the video is from July 2024, when students helmed nationwide protests demanding reforms to the quota system in the country.

The state of WB continues to remain volatile with multiple violent protests over the recently passed Waqf Act. The worst affected remains Murshidabad, located in 'heart' of the state, where peaked communal tensions led to three deaths with many more injured. The situation has brought heavy criticism for Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and her party, Trinamool Congress (TMC). Banerjee in turn has accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Centre of peddling misinformation to stoke anger.

The 37-second video shows a man with a helmet on his head, wielding a gun on a road and then loading it with ammunition. It is being shared with the text, "This video will show you the condition of West Bengal. But for Sagarika Ghose, it's Propaganda by BJP. Waah TMC waah !!"

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Fact Check

BOOM ran reverse image searches on the video keyframes and found the same visuals in Bangla news stories from 2024 about violent clashes in Chittagong, Bangladesh between student protesters and political workers.

News outlet News24 reported the video, as an incident in Chittagong region and identified the man in the video as Mohammad Firoz, a Jubo League leader and a history-sheeter.

The Bangla Tribune also uploaded a longer version of the same video on July 16, 2024 stating the location as Chittagong, Bangladesh.