Footage of Bangladesh student clashes falsely shared as Hindu killing

"At Sheikh Mujibur Rahman College, Dhaka, Bangladesh. Hindu students were identified, segregated and killed," read an X post that shared the video on December 8.

The footage shows crowds attacking people with sticks near a building marked "Dr Mahbubur Rahman Mollah College", which is a school in Dhaka (archived link).  

Image

Screenshot of the false post, taken on January 23, 2025

The video spread in similar X posts which also claimed it showed a Hindu student killed in Bangladesh.

Bangladesh's minority Hindu community saw reprisal attacks in the chaotic aftermath of Sheikh Hasina's ouster because of their perceived support for her government (archived link).  

Hindus make up about eight percent of the mainly Muslim nation of 170 million people.

Student hospital death

A reverse image search of the video on Google found a longer version posted on YouTube by Bangladeshi newspaper Daily Jugantor on November 25. 

The video is titled: "Clashes between Kabi Nazrul and Suhrawardy College students with Mahbubur Rahman Mollah College".

The clip shared on social media can be seen from the 17:10 mark of Daily Jugantor's YouTube video (archived link). 

Image

Screenshot of the footage shared in the false post (left) and the video published by Daily Jugantor (right)

Bangladesh's Kalbela newspaper broadcast a livestream of the clashes on November 25, in which a journalist explains that Mollah College students began attacking students who descended on their campus from Kabi Nazrul and Shaheed Suhrawardy Colleges (archived link). 

The incident was the latest in a spate of violence that spilled over from protests following the death of a Mollah College student in hospital due to alleged negligence, Bangladesh's Daily Star and Prothom Alo newspapers reported (archived here and here).

Below is a comparison of the footage shared on social media posts (left) and Kalbela's video (right), with similarities highlighted by AFP:

Image

Comparison of the footage shared on social media posts (left) and Kalbela's video (right), with similarities highlighted by AFP

Around 100 people were injured in the November 25 clashes -- while police denied online rumours that two people were killed, according to the Daily Star.

"Students from two colleges attacked our campus, leaving 25 students injured from my college," Mollah College principal Md Obaidullah Nayan told AFP on January 23.

"There were no Hindu students among the injured and it was not an attack targeting Hindu students."

Police spokesman Faruk Ahammad, officer-in-charge of Jatrabari station, also said the fighting had "no connection with communal violence".

A hospital spokesman confirmed the death of the Mollah College student was not related to religious tensions in Bangladesh.

"Dhaka National Medical College Institute Hospital authorities have investigated the death of the student and found no link with communal conflict," Dr Md Rezaul Haque, the hospital's deputy-director told AFP on February 2.