| schema:text
| - By: Rahul Adhikari
August 30 2024
The clip doesn't show a rally in Kolkata 'celebrating' recent events in Bangladesh. A video from Dhaka is being misrepresented with a communal spin.
What is the claim?
A video circulating on social media claims to depict a rally in Kolkata celebrating Islamic rule in Bangladesh and the "massacre of Hindus" in the nation. The video shows a large crowd marching under a flyover, with many participants wearing skull caps. Mobile phones are prominently used to capture the event. A Bengali text overlay on the video reads, “Jamiat-e-Islami party has entered the ground; Inshallah, we will win.”
Several users have shared this video on X (formerly Twitter), alleging it shows a recent incident from the Park Circus area of Kolkata. Archived versions of these posts can be found here and here.
Screenshots of social media posts. (X/Modified by Logically Facts)
However, the claim is false. The video is from Bangladesh and dates back to at least 2023.
How did we find the truth?
A reverse image search of keyframes from the video led us to a similar video (archived here) shared on Facebook on June 11, 2023. A Bangladeshi user identified it as footage of a rally organized by the Bangladeshi political party Jamaat-e-Islami. We compared this video with the viral one and confirmed they are from the same event.
Further investigation revealed several Bangladeshi media reports about a Jamaat-e-Islami rally. Prothom Alo reported that Jamaat-e-Islami held a rally in Dhaka on June 10, 2023, after a decade, with conditional verbal permission from the Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP). Jamaat adhered to these conditions and did not hold the rally on the road. Instead, the rally took place at the Institutions of Engineers Bangladesh (IEB) in Dhaka. Available visuals of this rally show a large gathering at the IEB, not on the streets.
Jamaat initially sought to hold the rally in front of Baitul Mukarram National Mosque on June 5 but was denied by the Dhaka Metropolitan Police. We found no reports of the rally taking place on the streets. A review of the viral video revealed no posters or banners, unlike the IEB rally, where such visuals were present. This suggests the video is not from the Jamaat rally.
Where is the video from?
A detailed examination of the video showed it was filmed beneath a flyover with three pillars. Using Google Street View to compare various flyovers in Dhaka with the video’s footage, we identified the location as the Dhaka-Mymensingh Highway. Notable features such as a green building, curved stone-topped pillars, a multi-story building, and a glass façade matched those seen in the video.
Image comparison between the viral video and Google Street View. (Source: X/Google Maps/Modified by Logically Facts)
Image comparison between the viral video and Google Street View. (Source: X/Google Maps/Modified by Logically Facts)
This confirms that the video is from Dhaka, not Kolkata. Additionally, we found no media reports of any processions in Kolkata celebrating recent political developments in Bangladesh.
What does the video show?
Research identified several videos resembling the viral one, linked to the 2023 “Bishwa Ijtema” in Tongi, Dhaka, available here (archived here) and here (archived here). A similar video was also shared in February (archived here).
A YouTube video by “World Walker 360” (archived here) shows a road tour of Tongi Bazaar. It captures thousands heading to the Ijtema venue under the same under-construction flyover, which features the green building and curved structure seen in the viral video.
The “Bishwa Ijtema,” an annual Muslim gathering, took place in Tongi, Dhaka, over two phases: January 13-15 and January 20-22, 2023.
However, Logically Facts could not independently confirm if the viral video specifically shows the Ijtema.
The verdict
The video is from Bangladesh and has been incorrectly labeled as an Islamic rally in Kolkata celebrating political developments in Bangladesh. It dates back to at least 2023 and is not related to recent conflicts in the country.
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