Video of student’s arrest in Bangladesh falsely shared as slain Hindu man’s ‘last moments’
Videos of the attack on a Hindu minority textile worker accused of blasphemy in Bangladesh have been widely shared online and sparked outrage in neighboring India, but footage of a man being led away by police does not show his final moments. The video actually surfaced a month before Dipu Chandra Das’ assassination, and Dhaka police told AFP that the man seen in the video was actually a student from a nearby university who was later released.
“The last video of Dipu Chandra Das before his death, surrounded by Bangladeshi police,” reads an X post shared on December 22, 2025.
The post shares a video of a group of police dragging a man through a crowd. The Hindi text superimposed on the video repeats this statement.
The video also includes two photos of Dipu Chandra Das, a Hindu garment factory worker who was killed following blasphemy allegations in Mymensingh, north of the capital Dhaka, on December 18 (archived link).
Screenshot of the fake post captured on December 24, 2025, with a red X added by AFP
Fueled in part by growing anti-Indian sentiment in Bangladesh, Das’ assassination coincided with a wave of violence sparked by the death of Sharif Osman Hadi, a key student leader in the 2024 pro-democracy uprising.
The Bangladesh Rapid Action Battalion said there was no evidence of blasphemy in the case and arrested ten people in connection with Das’ murder (archived link).
The incident also sparked protests in neighboring India, where authorities demanded protection for all minorities in Bangladesh (archived link).
Posts sharing the purported video of Das’ final moments also appeared on Facebook, Instagram, Threads and X.
But Dhaka Metropolitan Police Deputy Commissioner Masud Alam told AFP on December 28 that the man in the video was not Das.
“My police colleagues caught him smelling a protester. But we released him after learning that he was a student at the nearby Dhaka college,” Alam said.
A Google reverse image search using key frames from the falsely shared video revealed that the same video had surfaced in news reports a month before Das’ death.
Bangladeshi media outlet Bhorer Kagoj posted the video on its Facebook and YouTube pages on November 18, 2025 with a title in Bengali that reads: “What happened to this Dhaka College student?” (archived link).
Comparison of screenshots of the video shared in the fake post (L) and the video posted on Facebook
Another Bangladeshi media outlet, NPB News, shared a longer version of the footage on its Facebook page, which shows the man repeatedly saying that he is a student of Dhaka College and is not involved in the protests (archived link).
At one point, he identifies himself as Abdul Momin, while the jersey he wears has the Dhaka College logo on the front and the word “Momin” on the back.
Screenshot of the Facebook video with details highlighted by AFP in red
Keyword searches uncovered a Nov. 17 article from the Prothom Alo news site that police clashed with protesters who were planning to demolish what remains of the residence of Bangladesh’s founding father, Sheikh Mujibir Rahman (archived link).
The protests followed the verdict in the case against her daughter and ousted former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina for crimes against humanity committed during last year’s mass uprising.
The AFP has already denied misinformation about the unrest in Bangladesh.
