Similar posts spread mainly on Pakistan-based X accounts here and here and on Facebook as student protests against civil service hiring rules in Bangladesh spiralled into the country’s worst unrest in years.
Hasina is the daughter of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, who led Bangladesh to independence from Pakistan in 1971. The two South Asian countries have a lengthy history of animosity.
The posts were debunked by the Digital Forensics Research and Analytics Center (DFRAC), an India-based media organisation (archived link).
The number of arrests in days of violence in Bangladesh passed the 9,000 mark according to Prothom Alo, Bangladesh’s largest daily newspaper. At least 205 people have died, including several police officers, according to a separate AFP count of victims reported by police and hospitals.
India has called the protests an “internal” matter and as of July 29, 2024, there have been no official reports that Indian troops were sent to Bangladesh to support the government’s handling of the unrest.
On July 21, the Indian High Commission said it had helped facilitate the return of more than 4,500 Indian students from Bangladesh (archived link).
This followed an advisory for Indian nationals to avoid travel to Bangladesh, local media reported (archived link).
Old imagery
The expanse of water in the photo is Shaheed Squadron Leader Rizwan Lake next to Dhaka’s Tejgaon Airport, a Bangladesh Air Force base (archived link).
It is about 200 miles from the India-Bangladesh border, where the false posts claimed the image was captured.
Below is a screenshot comparison of the photo in the false posts (left) and the location on Google Maps (right):
The image appeared in a report about the protests in Bangladesh which credited it to a British activist Fiona Lali (archived links here and here).
AFP has not verified the location of the footage showing Indian military vehicles but it predates the protests by more than two years.
A reverse image search of the video’s keyframes on Google, followed by a keyword search, found the same clip published on Facebook on June 23, 2022 (archived link).
The superimposed text on the video translates in part as “Army” and “Long live India.”
Below is a screenshot comparison between the video in the false posts (left) and the 2022 clip (right):
The vehicle corresponds with other media images of Indian military trucks designed by automotive manufacturer Ashok Leyland as seen here and here (archived links here and here).
