Recently, at an annual event held on December 17 and 18 at Jamia Islamia, a madrasa in Jessore, students performed a play depicting the Israel-Palestine conflict, where one student portrayed a Palestinian leader using plastic weapons as props. A video of this play later circulated online, drawing criticism. The video was later shared online and falsely labeled as being associated with an “armed group,” intensifying criticism.
Another video titled “Dress Up as You Like: Turning the Usurious Country into a Safe Haven for Militants” also went viral, showing individuals with covered faces delivering speeches using terms like “Mujahideen” and “Jihad.” The video was implied to depict a Bangladeshi armed group.
View the posts claiming this on Facebook:
Fact Check
Rumor Scanner’s investigation revealed the viral video is unrelated to any Bangladeshi armed group; it belongs to the Myanmar-based Arakan National Defense Force (ANDF).
During the investigation, a report titled “New Muslim armed group emerges in Arakan State” was found on the Myanmar-based news outlet Development Media Group (DMG) website, published on December 13. Read the report here. The images in the report resemble the footage in question.
The report stated that after the Arakan Army captured Maungdaw town near the Myanmar-Bangladesh border, the Arakan National Defense Force (ANDF), a new Muslim armed group, was formed to oppose them. A member of the ANDF announced their presence and vowed to fight the Arakan Army in a video that recently went viral on social media.
The same information was corroborated by another report published on December 14 by the Myanmar-based media outlet Era’s Eye. Read the report here.
An extended 2-minute-19-second version of the video was uploaded on December 11 by the YouTube channel “Rohingya Knowledge World.” (Watch the video here). The channel description also claims the video belongs to ANDF.
Conclusion
A video from a newly formed armed group in Myanmar has been misrepresented as belonging to a Bangladeshi armed group; this claim is false.
Sources
- DMG – New Muslim armed group emerges in Arakan State
- Era’s Eye – Website
- Rohingya Knowledge World – Who are they? Arakan Rohingya National Defence Force (ARNDF)_New Video
