Recently, a video has been circulating on social media claiming to show a scene from the Chittagong Hill Tracts. In the video, some armed individuals dressed in military uniforms can be seen.
See the post published on the Facebook page of a media outlet making this claim:Gonokantho.
See some other Facebook posts spreading the same claim: here, here, here.
See a post spread on X: here.
See a post spread on Instagram: here.
Fact-check
Upon investigation by the Rumor Scanner team, it was found that the discussed video is not from the Chittagong Hill Tracts, but rather a video related to the conflict between the Kuki and Meitei communities in the Indian state of Manipur.
In this investigation, a longer version of the video was found on a Facebook account named ‘Thangjam Chingsangngakpa’, a resident of Imphal, the capital of Manipur, India, on December 17 of last year at 7:46 PM.
About one and a half hours earlier, the same video was also posted from another Indian Facebook profile named ‘Eshita Angom’. Translating the Meitei-language caption of the video revealed that it said: “If the Kuki militants attack, then we Meiteis will be forced to take action.”
Reviewing Eshita Angom’s Facebook profile showed that various posts supporting the Meitei community of Manipur are regularly shared from there (1, 2, 3).
Based on this information and evidence, it appears that this is a video related to the conflict between the Kuki and Meitei communities in the Indian state of Manipur.
According to a 2023 report published on the website of the international human rights organization International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs (IWGIA) (link), conflict between the Kukis and Meiteis began on May 3, 2023. On that day, the All Tribal Students’ Union Manipur (ATSUM) marched in various districts of the state in protest against the court’s order to quickly submit a recommendation to include the Meiteis in the Scheduled Tribes list. Immediately after the marches, clashes erupted. In its April 19 order, the court instructed the state government to, within four weeks, carefully consider and state its position on the petitioners’ demands in response to a 2013 letter. The verdict in this decade-long pending case sparked the conflict.
The same information was also found in a report published in the Bengali edition of Voice of America on May 4, 2023.
Therefore, a video from India’s Manipur state has been falsely promoted as footage of armed groups in the Chittagong Hill Tracts — which is false.
Sources
- Rumor Scanner’s analysis
- Eshita Angom: Facebook Post
- IWGIA: Understanding the complex conflict unfolding in Manipur
