Video of Muslim Youths Beaten in Bangladesh Over Theft Allegations Circulated with a False Communal Claim

23 August, 2025 4:14 pm

Recently, a video has been circulated on social media with the claim that two Hindu youths in Bangladesh are being mercilessly beaten by a man with a beard and a prayer cap after being tied to a pole. The video shows one young man tied hand and foot, lying face down on the ground, while the man with the beard and cap hits him on the feet with a stick. Another person is seen assisting him. The video also shows another young man tied to a nearby pole. A crowd of curious onlookers can also be seen standing around the incident.

See the video circulated on X (formerly Twitter) here (archive).

See a similar video circulated on Facebook here (archive).

See the same video on Instagram here (archive).

Fact-check

An investigation by the Rumor Scanner team has found that the incident in question is not about Hindu youths being tortured by Muslims in Bangladesh. In reality, the video shows two young men being tied up and beaten by a workshop owner in Babuganj, Barisal, over allegations of stealing iron plates. Furthermore, the two youths who were beaten are not Hindu; they are Muslim.

Through a reverse image search of keyframes from the video, our investigation led to a report published on March 16 by the online news outlet Dhaka Mail, titled “Two youths tied up and tortured on theft charges, shop owner arrested.”

A review of the report shows that its featured image is an exact match to the scene of the assault in the circulated video. This confirms that the report is about the same incident. According to the report, the incident occurred on March 16 in the Rahmatpur Bridge area of Babuganj upazila in Barisal. The two youths, identified as Mithun (20) and Lincoln (23), were beaten over allegations of stealing iron plates from a shop.

Citing sources, the report mentions that several iron plates were stolen from the ‘Seba Engineering’ workshop on the night of March 15. The next morning, the shop owner, Hasan, discovered the theft and learned that a neighboring scrap dealer, Saidul, had bought the stolen plates. Based on Saidul’s confession, Hasan and some local residents called Mithun and Lincoln and assaulted them. While the report does not mention the religious identity of the two victims, it does provide their fathers’ names. Mithun is the son of Chan Munshi from Doarika village in Babuganj upazila, and Lincoln is the son of Babul Bepari from the same village.

Multiple other media reports on the incident confirmed the same information, though none specified their religious identity. See some of these reports here, here, and here. However, their fathers’ names suggest that they are of the Muslim faith.

To further verify this, Rumor Scanner contacted Zakir Hossain Sikder, the Officer-in-Charge (OC) of the Airport Police Station of the Barisal Metropolitan Police. He stated that the incident is quite old and the accused individual is currently in jail in connection with the case. He confirmed that none of the victims were Hindu; they are all Muslim.

Therefore, a video of two Muslim youths being beaten in Barisal over theft allegations has been circulated with the false claim that it shows Hindu youths being assaulted in Bangladesh. This claim is entirely false.