Old Bangladesh unrest clip falsely shared as recent

"Attacks on journalists and cocktails explosion at a press conference on DUCSU elections at Dhaka University in the evening. Tense situation prevails," reads a Bengali-language Facebook post shared September 8, 2025, by Tulip Rizwana Siddiq, a member of the UK parliament and Hasina's niece.

The accompanying video, viewed more than 27,000 times, shows heavy smoke in an area where several media workers were amassing.

"The university administration says the attack was planned to sabotage the vote. Profiteer Yunus can't hold a DUCSU election, so how can we expect a national election?" she said, referring to Bangladesh's interim leader Muhammad Yunus.

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Screenshot of the false post taken September 10, 2025, with a red X added by AFP

Similar posts also surfaced on Instagram and X as Dhaka University's Central Student's Union (DUCSU) geared up for elections on September 9, following a six-year hiatus.

Student politics has long shaped the South Asian nation's history and many candidates in the university vote played key roles in the revolution that toppled Hasina (archived here and here).

The university's vice chancellor Dr Niaz Ahmed Khan said the student polls will set an example for Bangladesh's planned February 2026 elections as violent political rivalries deepened (archived here and here).

However, AFP journalists in Dhaka say there has not been any explosion on the eve of the university election.

A reverse image search using keyframes traced the video to a Facebook post from local media organisation NewsNext Bangladesh on July 17, 2024 (archived link).

"Police's sound grenade at TSC, journalist injured. July 17, 2024," reads the caption, which used the acronym for the Teacher-Student Center of the University of Dhaka.

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Screenshot comparison of the false post (L) and video from the Newsnext Bangladesh, with the red X added by AFP

AFP reached out to Newsnext Bangladesh editor Nazrul Islam, who confirmed the video is old. "It is our video and it is from July last year. One of our journalists filmed the video," he said on September 11. 

Local media Dhaka Tribune at the time also reported the clashes featuring photos of the incident (archived link).

AFP has debunked other false claims about the unrest in Bangladesh here and here.