Dhaka: Fact-checking platform BanglaFact, operated by the Press Institute Bangladesh (PIB), has identified a misleading campaign on social media using an Indonesian protest video, claiming it depicts current unrest in Khagrachari. The video, widely circulated on platforms such as Facebook, was falsely claimed to show ongoing shooting at night in Khagrachari amidst a Section 144 imposition due to a deteriorating law and order situation.
According to Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha, the BanglaFact investigation team discovered that the video was shared by several Facebook pages and accounts linked to the Awami League. Their verification process confirmed that the video is not from Khagrachari but from Indonesia, capturing scenes from anti-government protests in late August over rising commodity prices.
The team employed reverse image searches using still frames from the video, leading to the identification of the same footage posted on August 31 by a Facebook account named 'Aung Zaw Myint,' which specified the incident as occurring in Indonesia. Another post by the account 'Eric Sua' also indicated the video's Indonesian origin.
Key visual evidence supporting this conclusion included a vehicle in the footage marked with 'BRIMOB,' identified as the acronym for the Mobile Brigade Corps, a paramilitary unit under the Indonesian police. BanglaFact officially designated the claim that the Indonesian protest footage was from Bangladesh as false.