Bangladesh has prolonged the facility of commissioned military officers to implement legislation and order amid the absence of police forces after the autumn of Sheikh Hasina’s autocratic authorities on August 5, 2024. However footage of a scuffle amongst individuals wearing military fatigues doesn’t present troopers, as social media posts declare; the video was filmed in Myanmar and depicts preventing between two armed ethnic teams over territorial disputes in northern Shan state.
“Bangladesh Military meant a well-famed pressure in Bangladesh. Military has misplaced its honor underneath the patronage of unlawful authorities of Yunus gang,” reads the Bengali caption of a Fb post shared January 29, 2025.
The publish features a 13-second video of a gaggle of uniformed and armed individuals preventing every different.
Screenshot of the false publish taken March 3, 2025
The video surfaced on-line as Bangladesh military officers combed the country to enhance legislation and order amid a weak and largely absent police pressure for the reason that fall of Hasina’s authorities (archived link).
A student-led rebellion in August 2024 toppled Hasina, who now resides in India. An interim administration led by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus changed her (archived link).
The nation’s interim authorities initially gave the facility of magistracy to commissioned military officers for 60 days in September 2024. It has been extended twice since then (archived link).
A joint force comprising officers from the nation’s military, police, border guards and speedy motion battalion has been launching operations to recuperate firearms which have gone lacking from police stations for the reason that August revolution (archived link).
The video of military officers supposedly preventing one another has spread elsewhere on Facebook — however it was taken in Myanmar, not Bangladesh.
Ethnic clashes in Myanmar
A Google reverse image search utilizing keyframes from the clip discovered a clearer model of the video uploaded January 28, 2025 to YouTube (archived link).
The Burmese caption says “they’re preventing one another” and consists of #military, #navy and #Myanmar.
Additional key phrase searches discovered an extended video shared January 27 on Facebook (archived link).
A textual content overlay on the video reads: “Territorial dispute between KIA and TNLA (January 26, 2025, Mong Wee – KSSM)”.
Visuals beginning on the 6:07 mark of the Fb clip correspond with scenes from the footage shared in false posts.
Screenshot comparability between the clip shared in false posts (L) and the video uploaded on Fb
The Kachin Independence Army (KIA) and Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA) are main the struggle towards Myanmar’s navy junta in northeastern Kachin state and northern Shan state (archived hyperlinks here and here).
Native information outlet Mizzima reported the scuffle broke out close to a KIA checkpoint within the city of Namhpatka in Shan state over a territorial dispute between the 2 ethnic armed teams (archived link).
Individuals within the video shout “do not use your fingers”, “do not contact me” and “you all are drunk” in Burmese.
The badges on the uniforms match these sported by KIA and TNLA rebels (archived here and here).
Screenshot comparability of the Fb video (L) and a photograph of the KIA insignia revealed by The Diplomat, with parts highlighted by AFP
Screenshot comparability of the Fb video (L) and an AFP picture of KIA insignia, with corresponding parts highlighted by AFP
AFP has fact-checked different misinformation about Bangladesh here.
