Claim: A viral video shows Hindu men assaulting a Muslim man in India.
Verdict: Misleading
What is the claim?
A video showing two men beating another man with sticks while his hands appear to be tied has gone viral on social media. The video is being shared with claims that it depicts a Muslim man being assaulted by Hindu men in India. The posts also present the incident as a recent occurrence. The claim has gained attention because it attaches a communal identity to the people involved and places the incident in India.
What did we find?
The video is not from India. An investigation found that the footage had previously been shared on Facebook by users in Bangladesh, including posts published in July. This establishes that the video predates its recent circulation with claims about India. A reverse-image search of keyframes from the viral footage led to older Facebook posts containing the same video.
One Bengali-language post carried the caption:
“The final rehearsal of the massacre is going on in our new mobland.”
Another post shared the footage with the caption:
“Welcome to the new Bangladesh.”
Both accounts were identified as belonging to users in Bangladesh.
Clues in the video point to Bangladesh
The location could also be traced through visible text in the background. The footage shows the name “Gulshan Academy School & College” on a building. A search for the translated name led to the Facebook page of Gulshan Academy of School and College in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Another clue was a partially visible telephone number on the wall behind the people in the video. The number was identified as 01755-759396. In Bangladesh, mobile numbers beginning with 017 are associated with Grameenphone. The footage also contains text referring to a Hafizia Madrasa, with details indicating residential, non-residential and day-care facilities. Searches for these details linked the location to Bangladesh.
The video was already online before the viral posts
The investigation found the same footage on Facebook in July, well before it began circulating with claims that it showed a recent incident in India. The earlier posts did not identify the footage as a recent attack in India. This is significant because the viral posts change both the location and communal context of the original footage.
Why is the viral claim misleading?
There are two major problems with the claim. First, the video is being presented as an incident from India, while evidence identified it as footage from Bangladesh. Second, the viral posts describe the attackers as Hindu men and the victim as a Muslim man. The evidence examined in the investigation does not establish those identities. Sharing an old video with a different location and an unverified communal narrative can give viewers a false impression about when and where the incident occurred.
Conclusion
The viral video does show men assaulting another man, but the footage has been misrepresented on social media. The video was available online in July through Bangladeshi Facebook accounts, and visual clues in the footage point to a location associated with Dhaka, Bangladesh. There is no evidence in the investigation that the footage depicts a recent incident in India or that the people involved were Hindu and Muslim as claimed. An old video from Bangladesh is being falsely presented as a recent incident from India involving Hindu men assaulting a Muslim man. The location and communal framing attached to the viral video are unsupported by the evidence.