Videos of security drill misrepresented as Bangladesh election protest

"Boycott, Boycott! We don't accept the illegal election, we will not accept the illegal election," reads a Bengali-language Facebook post shared on February 9, 2026. 

The attached video contains two clips.

The first appears to show Bangladeshi army officers restraining several people, before cutting to a second one that shows a scene of protesters chanting in front of a line of police officers and soldiers: "We don't accept the election, we will not accept it."

Another video circulated on Facebook which similarly shows a group of people confronting uniformed officers with a caption that reads, "Clash between BNP-Army in Debidwar. Two killed, over a hundred injured."

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Screenshots of the falsely shared videos taken on February 16, with red Xs added by AFP

A mirrored version of some of the scenes spread elsewhere on Facebook with a similar claim. 

The clips circulated days before Bangladesh went to the polls on February 12, where the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) led by Tarique Rahman -- who returned after 17 years in exile -- won 212 seats, compared with 77 for the Islamist-led Jamaat-e-Islami alliance, according to figures from the Election Commission (archived link). 

The election is Bangladesh's first since a student-led revolt overthrew Sheikh Hasina in August 2024, ending her 15-year autocratic rule.

Her Awami League party was barred from taking part. The former leader issued a statement from hiding in India, decrying the poll as "illegal and unconstitutional".

Bengali news daily Prothom Alo reported that the student wing of her party held a flash protest on February 6 in Rajbari district of Dhaka, calling for a boycott of the poll (archived link).

Political clashes killed five people and injured more than 600 during campaigning in the lead-up to the election (archived link). At least two people died in post-poll clashes, while scattered acts of vandalism and assaults were reported in several districts (archived link). 

But the videos do not show an actual protest. 

Goutam Kumar Biswas, the police chief of Chapainawabganj district police, told AFP that the first video shows a security mock drill ahead of the election.

"Apart from my office premises, such drills also took place on the grounds of a nearby school," he said on February 17.

Md Moniruzzaman, the officer in charge of the Debidwar police station, separately told APF the second video was also filmed at the drill, and that no such protests actually happened in his area. 

A keyword search on Google found a video report from Bangladeshi broadcaster Somoy TV published on February 9 showing the scene at the beginning of the first false clip with a caption that reads: "Joint forces' exercise in Chapainawabganj on elections" (archived link).

The same group of people and officers in the false video can be seen at the 3:14 timestamp of Somoy TV's report in front of a sign that reads "Office of the Police Superintendent Chapainawabganj".

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Screenshot comparison of the falsely shared video (left) and Somoy TV's video

A separate keyword search found another broadcaster ATN News' report on February 9 on the drill, which matches the scene of mock protesters confronting officers as seen in the second clip (archived link).

Another clip showing the same officers was also uploaded on YouTube on the same day (archived link). 

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Screenshot comparison of the false video (L) and ATN News' report, with the same elements highlighted by AFP

A reverse image search using keyframes from the second video led to a video report on the same drill from the Bengali newspaper Daily Jugantor's YouTube page published on February 8 (archived link). 

The title of the video reads: "How Army and Border Guard Bangladesh will intervene in attempts to seize polling stations." 

Bengali daily Kaler Kantho also published a picture showing the same officers and mock protesters in a report on February 9 (archived link). 

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Screenshot comparison of the falsely shared second video (left) and video published by the Daily Jugantor

AFP has debunked other false claims about Bangladesh's election.