Fact Check: No Orders from Army Chief to Civil Administration

30 April, 2025 9:55 pm

Recently, claims have been circulated on social media involving Army Chief General Waker-Uz-Zaman, stating, “Today in his speech, the Army Chief gave the following information and instructions to the administration –

No one can be falsely charged without a crime.
If a case seems politically motivated, it will not be accepted.
Police and all law enforcement agencies will not be subservient to anyone. They will operate independently.
Everyone will have equal rights to conduct political rallies and gatherings.
Mobs will not be tolerated. Attacks, vandalism, and looting of homes will not be accepted.
For a free and fair election, the army will do whatever is necessary, and the police will take a strict stance to maintain law and order without waiting for instructions from anyone.”*

See a Facebook post promoting this claim here (Archive), and here) (Archive).

In some of these posts, a video of the Army Chief is attached. See such a post here (Archive), and here (Archive).

See a YouTube video promoting the same claim here (Archive).

Also see a TikTok post making similar claims here (Archive).

Additionally, Indian media has reported that Bangladesh Army Chief Waker-Uz-Zaman instructed law enforcement to take strict action in cases of mob violence. They also reported that he said all political parties can hold peaceful rallies and that he rejected the demand to ban the Awami League. See a report from The Economic Times here.

Fact Check

Rumor Scanner’s investigation reveals that the claim of recent instructions from the Army Chief to the administration is not true. In reality, a video from August 2024, where the Army Chief spoke to the media at the Rajshahi cantonment about national issues, has been circulated with a fabricated caption, presenting it as recent instructions to the administration.

The investigation found that since at least April 25, the claim has been circulating under the title “Today’s speech by the Army Chief includes directives to the administration.” However, searches through media, the Bangladesh Army’s Facebook page, and other reliable sources show no evidence of the Army Chief making such statements on or around April 25.

Further investigation uncovered a video posted on Deepto TV News’ Facebook page on August 14, 2024, titled “Army Chief: Former ministers and MPs whose lives are at risk have been given shelter” (Watch here). The video includes a portion of the Army Chief’s speech that matches what is seen in the viral posts, confirming that the video being shared is from that day.

According to the report, the Army Chief made this statement on August 13, 2024, during a conversation with journalists at the Rajshahi cantonment about national issues (Archived link). A longer version of this speech is available on journalist Md Ziaul Gani’s Facebook account (Watch here) and on mainstream media outlet BTV (Bayanno TV)’s YouTube channel (Watch here).

However, there are notable discrepancies between the original video and the caption used in the viral claim. In the original footage, the Army Chief primarily discourages acts of vandalism, expresses opposition to extrajudicial actions, and discusses general national issues.

In short, an approximately 9-month-old video of the Army Chief’s speech was used with a fake caption to falsely suggest recent directives to the administration.

Further investigation on April 27 revealed that the Bangladesh Army’s official Facebook page posted screenshots of the viral claims and clearly identified them as rumors.

It is worth noting that although the Army Chief has not recently issued any such public directives to the administration, in the past, he has assured support to interim governments during elections (Reuters report), commented that the country is heading into an 18-month election period, and discouraged vandalism.

Conclusion

A nearly 9-month-old video of the Army Chief has been circulated with a fabricated caption falsely claiming recent instructions to the administration. This is false.