Old video of opposition Sri Lankan politician being manhandled falsely shared as recent

"Douglas Devananda getting assaulted by his own people on the Jaffna beach," read the caption with the clip shared on Facebook on November 15, 2024. 

Devananda, a supporter of former president Mahinda Rajapaksa and leader of the Eelam People's Democratic Party, lost the election from Jaffna electoral district in the snap polls held on November 15 (archived link).  

The one-minute, 51-second video shows Devananda, flanked by his security officials, being manhandled by a crowd. 

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Screenshot of the false post, captured on November 17

The clip was shared elsewhere on Facebook with claims in Sinhala here and here. 

The video circulated on Facebook and WhatsApp around the same time as people voted in the island nation’s parliamentary elections. 

After sweeping the September presidential elections, Dissanayake -- a self-avowed Marxist -- called for snap elections 10 months ahead of its schedule in November.

Voters upheld the president's decision by rejecting establishment parties and giving his National People's Power (NPP) coalition a thumping majority (archived link). 

In a sign of the magnitude of support for Dissanayake, his party won the most votes in the northern district of Jaffna, dominated by the island's minority Tamil community, for the first time since independence from Britain in 1948.

But the video first circulated more than seven months ago in posts about a protest in Kilinochchi district, not in Jaffna.

Old video

A reverse image search on Google found similar footage uploaded by local journalist Murukaiya Thamilselvan on his Facebook account on April 5, 2024 (archived link).

The Tamil caption of the post read in part, "Minister of Fisheries Douglas Devananda was manhandled by those who took part in the protest against limestone quarrying to be carried out in  Poonakary Ponnaveli area."

Thamilselvan told AFP that he did not film the video, but he was there when the confrontation between the protesters and Devananda took place on April 5, 2024.

"The incident is from Poonakary divisional secretariat. The former minister had given approval to the cement factory but people in Ponnaveli opposed it," Thamilselvam told AFP on November 26. 

Below is a screenshot comparison of the false post (left) and the video shared by the Sri Lankan journalist (right):

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Screenshot comparison of the false post (left) and the video shared by the Sri Lankan journalist (right)

Local news outlet Newscut reported the jostling took place in Kilinochchi district on April 5 when the minister was trying to pacify two groups clashing over a cement factory (archived link). 

Local media outlet Jaffnagallery.lk also posted a longer video of the incident on Facebook (archived link). 

AFP also spoke to Devananda who said "the video was old" and he was "well and alive".

"The incident is old. This was an abandoned land at Ponnaveli in Kilinochchi where a limestone quarry was about to come up. A group of people supported it while another politically motivated group opposed it. I went there to settle the dispute between them," Devananda told AFP on November 21, 2024.

Police spokesman Nihal Thalduwa confirmed to AFP "no such incident has been reported during the recent parliamentary elections".