Video of Bangladesh street theatre performance falsely shared as ‘Islamists attacking cultural show’

Religious relations have been turbulent in Bangladesh since a student-led August revolution toppled the Muslim-majority nation’s long-time autocratic leader Sheikh Hasina. However, footage that posts claimed showed Islamist groups attacking a cultural event was actually taken from a street theatre performance. There were no reports the incident described in the posts happened, local police told AFP.

The video was shared on Facebook on November 19, 2024 with a Bengali-language caption that read: “The helmet team of Shibir-hijbut, the days of free cultural practice are over.”

Hizbut Tahrir is a banned Islamist outfit in several countries including Bangladesh and Germany while Shibir refers to Islami Chhatra Shibir, the student wing of Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami, the largest Islamist political party in Bangladesh (archived links here and here).

Both were banned in Bangladesh under Hasina’s rule, but the interim government lifted the ban on Shibir following her ouster (archived link).

The video, viewed over 25,000 times, appears to show men wearing helmets attacking a group of people with sticks in front of a statue in Dhaka University (archived link). 

The overthrow of long-time autocratic prime minister Sheikh Hasina has seen a spate of protests in Muslim-majority Bangladesh, including a surge in Islamist groups emboldened to take to the streets after years of being suppressed (archived link).

In the immediate chaotic days following Hasina’s ouster, there were a string of reprisals on Hindus — seen by some as disproportionate supporters of her regime — as well as attacks on Muslim Sufi shrines by Islamic hardliners.

In November, a Bangladeshi mystic sect promoting religious tolerance cancelled their popular music festival after Islamist threats, a victim of turbulent religious relations since a student-led August revolution.

The video was also shared alongside similar claims on Facebook here and here.

Comments indicate some people believed it showed a genuine incident.

One said, “What a mockery of freedom!” while another wrote, “BNP may have been involved in this attack with Shibir” referring to the Bangladesh National Party, a previous ally of Jamaat-e-Islami (archived links here and here).

But Mohammad Khalid Monsur, Officer in-Charge of Shahbagh police station in the capital Dhaka, told AFP there were no recent reports about attacks by Shibir or Hizbut Tahrir around Dhaka University.

“Any such claim circulating on social media is false,” he said on December 17.

Moreover, a reverse image search on Google using keyframes from the falsely shared video led to higher-quality footage published on YouTube channel on November 16, 2024 (archived link).

The video was captioned, “What happened to Lal Majlums’ music stage”.

Below is a screenshot comparison of the shared falsely video (left) and the one from YouTube (right):

Further keyword search led to two news articles with screenshots of the video published by local media Bdnews24.com and The Daily Star (archived links here and here).

The reports stated a mobile street theatre performance titled “Lal Majlum” was staged across various locations inside the Dhaka University campus marking the August revolution.

“The scene showing miscreants attacking on the artists is a performance staged to depict the force that does not believe in peace, coexistence and inclusion of different opinions and voices,” Shahman Moishan, the play’s director, told AFP on December 3.

EMEA Tribune is not involved in this news article, it is taken from our partners and or from the News Agencies. Copyright and Credit go to the News Agencies, email news@emeatribune.com Follow our WhatsApp verified Channel