Khagrachhari violence: BanglaFact reveals deceptive social media campaign

Staff Reporter :

Fact-checking initiative BanglaFact, run by the Press Institute Bangladesh (PIB), has uncovered a deceptive social media campaign where a protest video from Indonesia was circulated as if it depicted recent unrest in Khagrachari.

According to the BanglaFact investigation team, the misleading clip spread widely across social platforms, particularly on Facebook. The circulated posts alleged that gunfire was taking place in Khagrachari at night.

This wave of misinformation emerged at a time when Section 144 was in force in Khagrachari due to a worsening law and order situation, the team noted.

Investigators also pointed out that the footage was shared by multiple Facebook pages and accounts linked with the Awami League.

After verification, BanglaFact confirmed that the video had no connection to Khagrachari, but instead originated from anti-government demonstrations in Indonesia during late August. These protests broke out in response to a sharp rise in commodity prices.

To trace the video’s origin, the fact-checkers used reverse image search on still frames.

This led them to the same footage uploaded on August 31 by a Facebook user named Aung Zaw Myint, who clearly identified the incident as Indonesian. Another account, Eric Sua, also shared the clip labeling it as Indonesia.

A critical clue was a vehicle in the footage marked with the word “BRIMOB.” Further checking revealed that BRIMOB refers to the Mobile Brigade Corps, a special paramilitary wing of the Indonesian police.

Based on these findings, BanglaFact officially classified the claim that the video showed Khagrachari events as false and misleading.