A video of an elderly man being beaten up and stripped is going viral on social media, with the claim that it shows Muslims being mistreated.
However, we found that it is actually an incident from Bangladesh, which shows a man being beaten up by a local political leader over a ‘trivial incident’.
CLAIM
The video shows an old man being slapped, his lungi forcibly removed and his vest torn by one man, as multiple others look on. The video has music overlaid on it, blocking out the conversation in the video.
The clip has been shared with the title, which translates to “Shame on you guys..What is happening with Muslims in the world.”
Translated roughly, the caption of the post further says, “If you have any humanity, share this video. Does any religion allow this... that too to an elderly man. What is this humanity... the heart is crying tears of blood after seeing this video. Shame on you guys.”
The video had 2.1 million views and 82k shares at the time this story was published.
The video was shared by many people on Facebook with the same claim.
The video was also viral on Twitter with similar claims.
Moreover, we also found people sharing the video on Twitter with the hashtag #DalitLivesMatterIndia, with the insinuation that the man being mistreated is a Dalit.
WHAT WE FOUND
Using the software Invid, we broke the video into keyframes and reverse searched them. This led us to several news reports by Bangladeshi news outlets, which clearly said that the incident had happened on 24 May in Chakoria area of Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazaar.
According to a report, the man seen in the video is 71-year-old Nurul Alam, who was returning from Eid shopping on 24 May when Ansoor Alam, a local leader of the Bangladeshi organisation Jubo League, along with some other men, took him to a secluded spot and proceeded to beat him up.
The report said that although there were many people who witnessed the incident, no one came forward to help Nurul Alam, who was eventually rescued by his son, Ashraf Hossain, who has since filed a police complaint over the matter. According to Hossain, his father’s mobile phone and Rs 7,500 that he had on him were also snatched from him.
Police have arrested three people involved the incident, although Ansoor is reportedly still in hiding, according to the reports.
While the reports did not state the reason for the incident, they said that it took place over a “trivial matter”.
However, a report by another Bangladeshi news outlet claimed that the victim’s son Hossain said, "We have a long-standing enmity with the instigators of the incident and those involved."
Moreover, former Bangladesh Chhatra League General Secretary Golam Rabbani wrote on Twitter that the matter had happened in Cox’s Bazaar and the issue was over a shrimp farm.
Further, we performed a keyword search on YouTube and found the original video without the music, uploaded by a portal called Risingbd.com.
Therefore, it is clear that the incident seen in the video does not have anything to do with Muslims or Dalits in India being mistreated, but is an unrelated incident from Bangladesh which is being shared with this fake claim.
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