Old clip shows vehicles vandalised in Bangladesh, not violence in eastern Indian state

Published on April 2, 2025 at 11:11
3 min read
By Akshita KUMARI, AFP India

After clashes broke out between religious groups in West Bengal in March 2025, a video was shared in social media posts that falsely claimed it showed the violence in the eastern Indian state. The footage in fact shows a violent political protest in northeastern Bangladesh in November 2023.

The video, showing people smashing vehicles with sticks on a road littered with burning embers, was viewed more than 3,600 times after it was shared on Facebook on March 28, 2025.

Its Hindi-language caption says the footage shows neither Bangladesh nor Pakistan, but West Bengal.

"Hindus are being beaten up in public. Preparations have been made for a big massacre in Bengal. Keep sleeping Hindus," it adds.

Screenshot of the false Facebook post, captured on March 31, 2025

The footage was also used in similar posts on X and Instagram after violent clashes in Malda, in India's West Bengal state.

The clashes began when a Hindu religious procession passed near a local mosque and led to "allegations of firecrackers being thrown near the place of worship," the National Herald newspaper reported (archived link).

The report added that the ensuing violence involved arson, vandalism and assaults, with local authorities arresting 57 people and suspending internet services to restore order.

The video circulating online, however, does not show the clashes in West Bengal.

Sylhet blockade

A reverse image search on Google using keyframes from the falsely shared video led to the same footage in a report by Bangladeshi news outlet Prothom Alo, posted on YouTube on November 27, 2023 (archived link).

"In support of the blockade in Sylhet, vehicles were vandalised," reads its Bengali-language title.

Screenshot comparison of the falsely shared video (left) and the Prothom Alo video (right)

Prothom Alo reported leaders and activists from the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) had been holding a torchlight procession in support of a "political blockade" in the Subid Bazar area of the eastern city of Sylhet (archived link).

The Daily Sylhet Mirror also included a screenshot from the video in its report about the incident (archived link).

At the time, opposition parties in Bangladesh had been holding mass protests -- strikes and transport blockades -- ahead of general elections where the then-prime minister Sheikh Hasina was eyeing a fourth consecutive term in power (archived link).

Hasina's autocratic regime was overthrown in a student-led revolution in August 2024.

The footage used in the false posts matches Google Street View imagery of the Subid Bazar area of Sylhet (archived link).

Screenshot comparison of the footage used in the false posts (left) and corresponding features visible on Google Maps (right), with matching elements highlighted by AFP

The West Bengal police also refuted the false claim on its official X account on March 28 (archived link).

"Circulating such fake videos amounts to blatant attempts at triggering communal discord through rumour-mongering. This is a punishable offence," their post read, warning that efforts to disrupt communal harmony will be treated with "zero tolerance".

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