Old Video Falsely Shared As Bangladeshi Hindus Crossing India Border Post CAB

An old video that allegedly shows refugees illegally crossing the India-Bangladesh border is being shared on social media with claims that Bangladeshi Hindus are coming to India after the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill (CAB) was passed in both houses of parliament, this week.

The claim accompanying 30-second long clip, which shows many people jump over a barbed wire fence, reads: "After Passed #CAB at Lokshoba then all Bangladeshi Hindus are Coming to India without permission. #ShameGovt #ShameBJP #ShameCM #AssamIsNotADustbinOfBangladeshis #SayNoCAB."

In the video, one can hear people speak Bengali.

The timestamp shows that the Facebook page Bhanga Today shared the video after CAB was passed in parliament. You can see the Facebook post below and its archived version can be accessed here.

The contentious Citizenship Amendment Bill provides citizenship to six non-Muslim minority groups from Pakistan, Afganistan, and Bangladesh who face religious persecution in these countries by amending The Citizenship Act (1955). Wide scale protests have broken out in several parts of the Northeast particularly Assam and Tripura out of anger over the bill. (Read why, here) Normal life has been thrown out of gear with the army deployed and internet services suspended in large parts of the state. Transport services to the two states also appear to be hit.

Fact Check

BOOM broke the video clip into key frames and ran a reverse image search. We found that the video was available on the internet since January 2019. Hindi news website News Nation had published the same video on January 22, 2019. According to the anchor, the video shows Bangladeshi immigrants infiltrating the India-Bangladesh border at Silchar in Assam. However, BOOM cannot independently verify the same. It is also unclear when the video was shot.

It does not mention any specific religion in the video, it neither claims it was due to the Citizenship Amendment Bill.

We found the same video on YouTube as well. It was published on the same date as News Nation. Nowhere does the video mention Bangladeshi Hindus in its description.

The video was uploaded on January 22, 2019, over 11 months before the CAB was cleared in Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha.

Several tweets from earlier this year could be found with different claims. Old tweets can be seen below that show the same video clip.

Alt News traced the video as back as 2015.