Video from Bangladesh shared as assault on elderly Muslim man in India

What is the claim?

A 24-second video circulating on social media shows a young man in a pink t-shirt physically assaulting an older man dressed in a white kurta and skull cap. An X (formerly Twitter) user shared the video with the caption: "Elderly man was beaten in India." Although the post was deleted, it had garnered over 168,000 views, 2,300 reposts, and 4,700 likes at the time of writing. An archived version of the post can be accessed here.

Another X user shared the video with a caption in Hindi that translates to: “Whoever this coward is, he is a very mean and lowly person. How is he beating an elderly Muslim; he broke his glasses. The devil inside him awoke as soon as he saw the beard and cap. #AllEyesonIndianMuslims.” Archived links to similar posts can be found here and here.

However, this claim is false. The video is from Bangladesh and is unrelated to India.

What are the facts?

A reverse image search revealed that the video was shared four days ago, on September 8, 2024, with captions claiming it depicted an "assault on a freedom fighter" in Barguna, Bangladesh. An archived version of the post can be found here.

Further verification led us to a report by Dhaka Post, a Bangladeshi news outlet, published on September 8, 2024. The report (archived here) features the same video and identifies the older man as former freedom fighter Abdur Rashid Mia. The man attacking him is Shawon Molla, the son of Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) leader Farooq Molla. The report states that the incident occurred at the Deputy Commissioner's office on September 8.

A day after the attack, Rashid spoke to Bangladeshi news channel Jamuna TV (archived here), where he explained that while passing by the Deputy Commissioner's office, he was accused of being a "fake freedom fighter," leading to an altercation and assault. A report by the Dhaka Tribune corroborates these details.

According to another report in the Daily Star, a case was filed against the attacker on September 9, 2024, following a complaint from the victim, Abdur Rashid, in Barguna. The report also notes that the complaint was registered at Barguna Sardar Police Station.

'Fake freedom fighter' row

Abdur Rashid Mia is a former commander of the Barguna Freedom Fighter Sangsad and was a general secretary of the Chattra League, according to the Barguna District website. He was also recognized as a freedom fighter in a 2022 report by Daily Shomoyer Alo. Rashid has been accused of accepting money from political leaders to add their names to the list of freedom fighters.

Dhaka Tribune reports that the altercation occurred because Rashid allegedly took money from Shawon to add his father's name to the freedom fighters list and made derogatory comments about Chattra League Vice Chairman Nurul Islam Moni.

The verdict

The video, which originates from Bangladesh, has been misrepresented with the false claim that it depicts an assault on an elderly Muslim man in India.