A video claiming to show Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) members thrashing and tearing the clothes of a senior citizen is false. BOOM found that the disturbing video is from Bangladesh where a 72-year-old man was beaten and stripped naked by members of a local political party.
The video shows a man identified as Mohammed Nurul Alam (72), being slapped and his clothes forcefully removed by members of the Bangladesh Awami Jubo Leaague, the youth wing of the Bangladesh Awami League. The incident from Bangladesh's Cox's Bazar area has been overlaid with music to hide the voices of those speaking, with the caption falsely claiming that the assaulters are RSS members and also blaming the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)
The video has been tweeted with the caption, "So this is going to be new normal in Indian society! #ShamelessBJP is only working on hatred! More than a dozen #Rss_terrorists insulting Old man of theirs' father's age! So #NEW #IndiaThatIsBharat ."
Click here to view the archive of the tweet.
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The same video is viral on multiple Indian Facebook pages as from India.
Incident is from Bangladesh
BOOM broke the video into its keyframes and ran a reverse image search which directed us to multiple news reports from June 2 published by Bangladeshi news outlets.
According to a news report on Somoy News Tv, Bangladesh, the incident is from May 24, but came to light after the video was viral on Facebook. Media outlets reported that the victim is 72-year-old Mohammed Nurul Alam and the accused is one Ansoor Alam, president of the local wing of the Jubo leaguge.
Both are residents of Cox Bazar's Chokriya upazilla and Ansoor Alam attacked Nurul Alam on May 24, when he was returning after Eid shopping. An excerpt from the news report quotes the complaint filed by Alam's son Ashraf Hossain, "My father was returning from Dhemushia station in an e-rickshaw after Eid shopping. Ansoor Alam and his men stopped the vehicle and pulled down my father and took him to a deserted area. They tore his lungi and shirt. They hit him and also abused him. A few youngsters filmed the entire event. When my father cried for help, my brother Salauddin went to the area with locals and rescued him and rushed him to the doctor,"
The news report further states, that Ansoor Alam has since been expelled by the party and his designation too revoked. According to the statement of the victim's son Hossain, reported by media outlets, Nurul Alam was beaten up because he objected to several illegal activities done by the Jubo League leader, Ansoor Alam.
BOOM also found the original video of the attack where the accused Ansoor Alam can be heard cursing and shouting at the senior citizen and forcefully tearing his clothes. Both of them can be heard talking in Chittagonian accent of Bangla, a dialect spoken in Bangladesh, which was overlaid with music in the viral video.
According to the statement of Hossain, the victim's son, as reported by media outlets, Nurul Alam was beaten up because he objected to several illegal activities done by the Jubo League leader, Ansoor Alam.