False Claim About Indian Army Entering Bangladesh Shared on Social Media

The video of the truck is old, while the image shows Tejgaon Airport, Agargaon, Dhaka.

Fact-Check: False claims about Indian army entering Bangladesh go viral. 

(Source: The Quint) 

Amid the ongoing violence in Bangladesh, images of military vehicles are circulated with a claim that the Indian Army was entering the country to help former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina suppress the demonstrations.

An archive of the post can be found here.

(Source: X/Screenshot) 

(Archives of similar claims can be found here and here.)

Is this true?: No, the claim is false.

• We traced the the video of the truck back to 2022 hence, it predates the present situation.

• The image of the lake with the military vehicles is from Tejgaon Airport (Old Airport), Agargaon, Dhaka.

• The Ministries of External Affairs or Defence has not released any information or statement about the Indian Army moving into Bangladesh to quell protests.

What we found: We checked both the visuals separately and below are the findings.

IMAGE: We ram a Google reverse image search on the photo and were led to a post by X user Fiola Lali, national coordinator of the Revolutionary Communist Party from the United Kingdom.

• She posted the same visual with the caption, “Several tanks and APCs (Armored personnel carriers) from Dhaka Cantonment were seen moving through city streets this afternoon” on 18 July.

• The search results also showed reports by The Telegraph and Kashmir Reader and a Facebook page Bigyanpriyo.

• The Telegraph and Kashmir Reader noted Bangladesh took out tanks in Dhaka streets as over 900 students return to India.

• The Facebook page captioned the image stating, “These are called APC, not tanks. Machine gun is usually used as a weapon in this. But can't take part in the war with this." It stated that the location of the image was Tejgaon Airport (Old Airport), Agargaon, Dhaka.

This location is 290 kilometres from the Indo-Bangladesh border from the side of West Bengal, according to Google Maps.

The distance between the two is 290 kms. 

(Source: Google Maps/Screenshot) 

We spoke to a journalist from Bangladesh who told us that the point about the Indian Army entering the country was a rumour.

VIDEO: We divided the video into a few screenshots and ran a Google reverse image search on some of them.

• We found the same video on Facebook and Instagram from 2022.

• The Facebook user uploaded the clip on 23 June 2022 and wrote an emotional note for the Indian army soldiers.

The post states that it was uploaded on 23 June 2022. 

(Source: Facebook/Screenshot)

The Instagram user uploaded the video on 31 May 2022. Both these predate the present situation in Bangladesh.

Ministry of External Affairs: On 20 July, the MeA released a statement on the return of students and stated that more than 4500 Indian students have returned to India from Bangladesh and the High Commission is making security arrangements for the safe movement of Indian citizens.

On 4 August, the ministry has released another statement, advising Indian citizens against travelling to Bangladesh.

• None of the statements note the Indian army entering Bangladesh.

• There are no statements by the defence ministry as well.

Conclusion: A false claim that the Indian army had entered Bangladesh went viral on social media.

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