Staged video from Bangladesh used to inflame religious tensions in India
- Published on February 9, 2026 at 09:27
- 3 min read
- By Akshita KUMARI, Eyamin SAJID, AFP India
A video of a man aggressively popping all the balloons being sold by a child on the street was staged in Bangladesh, contrary to social media posts framing it as an example of violence faced by India's Muslim minority population. The person who filmed the clip told AFP it was "an act" and the child in the video was aware of what was going to happen beforehand.
"On Republic Day, a child was selling balloons. A lowly person burst all the balloons after seeing his cap," reads part of the Hindi-language caption of a Facebook video shared on January 26, 2026.
The child in the video is wearing a skull cap worn by some Muslim boys and men.
"Heartiest wishes for Republic Day in the Amrit Kaal of Vishwaguru Atmanirbhar New India," the caption adds, appearing to mock Hindu nationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vision for the country's growth and development (archived link).
The video was also shared in similar Facebook, Instagram, Threads and X posts.
"The reason is that the government supports them. No action is taken. These are just political Hindus," reads a comment on one of the posts.
Another says: "Look, he is a Hindu, he is an Indian, see how much hatred he has."
The country has a long and grim history of sectarian clashes between the Hindu majority and its biggest minority faith.
However, the video has been staged and was not filmed in India.
A reverse image search on Google using keyframes from the falsely shared video led to a longer version shared on Facebook on January 12 (archived link).
"You will be surprised to see what happened to the little boy in the end," reads its Bengali-language caption.
In the longer version, the man can be heard speaking in Bengali.
After popping the balloons, he is shown offering the child 1,000 taka (US$8.20) and telling him to go play and study at home instead of selling balloons on the street.
The person in the video told AFP it had been staged, and was filmed in an area of Bangladesh's capital Dhaka.
"The video was taken in Agargaon and this is an act," Mohammad Raju Mia said on January 29, adding that the child in the video "knew everything beforehand and later on I posted multiple videos on my page featuring this kid".
The location of the video corresponds to Google Maps street view imagery of an area in the Agargaon neighbourhood of Dhaka (archived link).
Atiqul Islam, the child's uncle, separately told AFP on February 9 they both sell balloons in Agargaon.
"The video of him with the content creator was made with his consent," Islam said.
The same child appears in other videos on the content creator's Facebook page (archived here and here).
In a January 13 video, Raju Mia is shown talking to the child (archived link). Speaking to the camera, he says the child was told about what would happen in the circulating video beforehand.
AFP has debunked more scripted videos that were misrepresented as genuine here and here.
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