Old video misrepresented as post-election violence in Bangladesh
- Published on February 20, 2026 at 06:04
- 2 min read
- By Rasheek MUJIB, AFP Bangladesh
Local media in Bangladesh reported cases of violence following the South Asian nation's landmark February 2026 election, but online footage supposedly depicting one such incident is old. The clip in fact shows a man attacked during the funeral of former prime minister Khaleda Zia in December 2025. A content creator who filmed the incident at the procession confirmed to AFP the video is old.
"Islamists have started attacking Hindus in Bangladesh after Jamaat-e-Islami lost Elections," reads the caption of an X video shared on February 14, 2026, referring to Bangladesh's largest Islamist party.
The video, which has been viewed more than 49,000 times, shows a group roughing up a man.
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The video also spread in similar Facebook posts days after the Muslim-majority nation of around 170 million people held its first election since a deadly 2024 uprising ousted former prime minister Sheikh Hasina (archived link).
The Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) celebrated a landslide victory, with leader Tarique Rahman poised to become prime minister.
Election Commission figures said the BNP alliance had won 212 seats, compared with 77 for the Islamist-led Jamaat-e-Islami alliance -- which said there had been "massive irregularities in vote counting" and demanded "redress".
It was unclear immediately what action Jamaat would take.
Hasina's Awami League party was barred from taking part.
Incidents of sectarian violence involving the majority Muslim and minority Hindu population were reported in the lead-up to the vote (archived link).
Post-election clashes also occurred in some districts, according to local media, but the circulating video does not depict one such incident, contrary to the false posts (archived here and here).
A reverse image search on Google using keyframes from the clip found the original video shared on the official YouTube channel of media outlet Bangla TV News on December 31, 2025, some two months before the election (archived link).
The video was captioned: "'Joy Bangla' slogans raised at Begum Khaleda Zia's funeral".
Former BNP leader Zia, the first woman to serve as Bangladesh's prime minister, died on December 30, 2025 (archived link).
The slogan "Joy Bangla" is associated with the Awami League party of her rival Sheikh Hasina.
The video has also appeared in other local media reports about the incident at the time (archived here, here and here).
A further reverse image search led to a similar video posted by a content creator on December 31, 2025 (archived link).
The content creator, Sumon Hassan Bappy, told AFP he filmed the video.
"This is from Khaleda Zia's funeral day, a random person chanted Joy Bangla slogan and then others started attacking him," he told AFP on February 19.
Bappy added the video was taken in front of the National Parliament House in Dhaka.
A local police official confirmed to AFP no post-election violence had been reported in the Parliament area as of February 18.
AFP has previously debunked misinformation around Bangladesh elections here and here.
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