Unrelated clip of massive fire falsely linked to Bangladesh 'mini-Hajj'

Published on February 4, 2025 at 10:13
3 min read
By AFP Bangladesh

Bangladeshi police dismissed online rumours in December that a massive fire burned a neighbourhood near the site of the annual Ijtema that is considered the world's second largest gathering of Muslims after the Hajj in Mecca. The false posts -- which featured a clip of an unrelated fire -- surfaced as local media reported of deadly clashes between rival factions of the group organising the gathering.

"Fire at homes near Ijtema ground," read a Bengali-language Facebook post on December 18, 2024. It included a clip showing a massive fire razing huts across a muddy field.

The post emerged as rival factions within the Tablig Jamaat group which organises the Ijtema clashed over the control of the grounds for the gathering, leading to at least five deaths according to local media (archived link).

The Ijtema is held in two phases from late January to early February 2025 on the banks of the river Turag in Tongi town north of the capital Dhaka. It is expected to draw about four million attendees (archived link).

Most of those who attend are from rural areas of Muslim-majority Bangladesh although the event also draws thousands from Muslim countries in North Africa, Central Asia and even China.

The event has been dubbed a mini-Hajj, especially by the poor Bangladeshi Muslims who cannot afford a plane ticket to Mecca in Saudi Arabia.

Screenshot of false post taken on January 22, 2025

Similar posts about a fire near the Ijtema grounds were also shared on Facebook but local police dismissed the claims.

Iskander Habibur Rahman, officer-in-charge of the Tongi West Police Station told AFP on February 4, 2025: "No such incident took place during the clashes in December."

Moreover, a reverse image search on Google followed by keyword searches found the footage in the posts shared on Facebook on July 2, 2024 (archived link).

"Sudden fire at Rohingya camp in Cox's Bazar," read its Bengali-language caption, referring to the southeastern Bangladeshi city that is the site of sprawling camps for Rohingya refugees who fled from neighbouring Myanmar.

Screenshot comparison between the false post (left) and the video from July 2024 (right)

The clip corresponds to footage of the same burning huts taken from slightly different angles that were earlier published on the YouTube channels of Bangladeshi media outlet Ekattor TV and news agency Storyful in June 2024 (archived links here and here).

Ekattor TV said the fire gutted more than two hundred houses in the Rohingya camp in Cox's Bazar.

Screenshot comparison of the clip in the false posts (left) and the video published by Ekattor TV (right) with similar elements highlighted by AFP

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