Recently, a video showing several individuals tied with ropes being put into a police vehicle has been circulated on social media. The caption reads, “Bengali Muslims are being sent back from all over the world! Visas are also almost stopped! A nation is about to sink into darkness… details in the comments.” In the comments section, images of a news report about a Bangladeshi student’s US visa being canceled and a ban on Bangladeshi students’ admission to London Metropolitan University were shared. The claim is that the circulated video shows the scene of Bangladeshi Muslim citizens being sent back to their country.
See posts with this claim on Facebook here (archive) and here (archive).
Additionally, the video has also been circulated with the claim that it shows the scene of illegal Bangladeshis being sent back to their country through the Bongaon border in India.
See posts with this claim on Facebook here (archive) and here (archive).
See posts with this claim on X here (archive) and here (archive).
It is noteworthy that the aforementioned posts appear to have been made from accounts operated primarily from India.
Fact-Check
The Rumor Scanner team’s investigation found that the circulated video does not show the scene of illegal Bangladeshi immigrants being sent back from India. Instead, it shows the arrest of 34 Indian fishermen along with two Indian trawlers for illegally entering and fishing in Bangladesh’s maritime territory in the Bay of Bengal on July 14.
A reverse image search of several keyframes from the video led to a video report titled “Navy arrests 34 Indian fishermen with trawlers” aired on the YouTube channel of the mainstream media outlet ‘Maasranga TV’ on July 15. A comparison of the scene after the 50-second mark of the report with the circulated video shows a match in the arrested individuals, their clothing, their relative positions, and the surrounding environment.
This confirms that Maasranga TV aired a video of the same incident, filmed from a slightly different angle. In the video, Anisur Rahman, the Officer-in-Charge of Mongla Police Station, stated that it is primarily known that all of them are residents of the 24 Parganas area of India.
A search with relevant keywords led to a report published on the website of the national daily Prothom Alo on July 15, titled “34 Indian fishermen arrested with two trawlers in the Bay of Bengal.” The report states, “The Bangladesh Navy has arrested 34 fishermen from India along with two Indian trawlers for illegally entering and fishing in Bangladesh’s maritime territory in the Bay of Bengal. The two Indian trawlers named ‘FB Jhor’ and ‘FB Mangal Chandi-38’ were seized from the deep sea near the fairway buoy of Mongla port last Monday (July 14) night… OC Anisur Rahman said that there are 34 Indian fishermen on the two Indian trawlers. They were brought to Mongla late last night (July 14). The Navy will file a case against them for illegal intrusion and hand them over to Mongla Police Station.”
The evidence confirms that the individuals arrested in the circulated video are Indian citizens and were arrested for illegally entering and fishing in Bangladesh’s maritime territory in the Bay of Bengal.
Therefore, the video showing the arrest of 34 Indian fishermen for illegally entering and fishing in Bangladesh’s maritime territory on July 14 has been falsely circulated with the claim that it shows illegal Bangladeshi immigrants being sent back from India.
Sources
- Maasranga News – Navy arrests 34 Indian fishermen with trawlers
- Prothom Alo – 34 Indian fishermen arrested with two trawlers in the Bay of Bengal
