Old video shared as a recent Rangpur incident; the real event is Nural Pagla's in Rajbari

A video has gone viral on social media claiming that the body of a leader of the banned Awami League was dug out of its grave and set on fire in Rangpur. Verification shows, however, that the video is not from recent times; it is footage of the incident in Goalanda, Rajbari last year, where the body of Nural Pagla was exhumed from the grave and burned.

A Facebook page named 'Suriya Bhai' posted a video on 5 November. Its caption reads, 'Jamaat-Shibir's Pakistani agents dug up the dead body of the vice-president of Rangpur district Awami League from the grave and set it on fire.'

By 1 pm on 7 November, the video had been viewed more than 219,000 times. The post also has several thousand reactions and shares.

Reviewing the comments on the post shows mixed reactions. One commenter wrote, 'It is not right to do anything out of over-enthusiasm. When a person dies, what enmity is there with the body?' Another said, 'Only Allah knows what will happen to them in the future.' Yet another commented, 'This is the old video of Nura Pagla's body.'

In the 48-second viral video, a few people are seen digging up a body from the ground. It is then carried away in a coffin. Towards the end of the video, there is a scene of fire.

A reverse image search was run on several key frames of the video. The search found a video posted on 6 September last year by a Facebook page named 'The News'. Published with the caption 'Sensational video of Nural Pagla's body being dug up and burned', that video matches the viral one.

The viral video also matches several other videos posted last year with almost the same caption.

Further searches with relevant keywords found a video shared on 6 September last year on the BBC Bangla Facebook page. Its caption said the attack on the shrine of a man known as Nural Pagla in Goalanda, Rajbari, and the exhumation and burning of his body from the grave had triggered widespread discussion and criticism.

The search also found a report published on 5 September 2025 on the website of private television channel DBC Bangla, titled 'Angry crowd digs up body from grave and burns it in Rajbari'.

The report said Nurul Haque, also known as Nural Pagla, of Goalanda upazila in Rajbari had been buried on a platform built a few feet above the ground. Claiming this was against Sharia and hurt religious sentiments, an agitated crowd dug up his body from the grave and set it on fire in the Padma Mor area.

According to the report, the incident took place after noon on 5 September 2025. At the time, two double-cabin pickups of the police and the vehicle of the upazila nirbahi officer (UNO) were vandalised. On receiving the news, police and army personnel reached the spot and brought the situation under control. Rajbari Additional Superintendent of Police Md Sharif Al Rajib confirmed the incident.

The report further said Nurul Haque had built a shrine at his own house in ward 5 of Goalanda municipality. On 23 March 1993, he left the area after giving a written bond, and later returned to the shrine and resumed his activities. He died on 23 August of old-age illness. That night, after two janazas, he was buried in a special manner a few feet above the ground. The report noted that the platform of the grave had been painted in the likeness of the holy Kaaba.

Reports on the incident were also published in several other national dailies. Those reports too named Goalanda in Rajbari as the place of the incident.

Taken together, the verification makes it clear that the video being shared with the claim that the body of a banned Awami League leader was dug up from the grave and burned in Rangpur is not recent. In reality, it is the video of the 5 September 2025 incident in Goalanda, Rajbari, in which the body of Nurul Haque, also known as Nural Pagla, was exhumed and burned. That old video is being presented as a recent incident in Rangpur.

At the same time, several other unverified claims are also circulating on social media — a video claiming a procession of the banned Awami League after Jumu'ah prayers, claims that eight workers were killed in Ashulia and five in Hemayetpur during garment workers' protests, and a claim that the entire Sajek area in Rangamati is under the control of a force called the 'Jumma Liberation Army (JLA)' following a gunfight. No verifiable information has been found in support of these claims.