Old Pakistan video circulated as Bangladesh incident; verification reveals the real facts

A video has spread on social media claiming that Hindu women and religious minorities are being tortured in Bangladesh. Verification has shown that the video is not of any incident in Bangladesh.

The video was shared from an X account named 'Sakina Khan', claiming that even though women make up 50 per cent of Bangladesh's total population, they face such a situation. Noting that women's representation at the policy-making level of the country is close to 3 per cent, the post asked who would then make laws to protect women's rights, and said the world should see the real situation in Bangladesh.

In the circulated video, a woman is seen being dragged along a road by her hair. Several men and women are seen beating her at the time.

A search using relevant keywords found no information in any Bangladeshi media or reliable source supporting the claim.

Later, searching with several key frames of the video, the exact same video was found on an X account named 'SSG of Pti'. In a post made on 1 April 2024 in Urdu, it was claimed that a woman was being tortured as punishment for not joining work. The incident was said to be in the Kasur constituency of Pakistan's Punjab province, where people of an influential landowner dragged the woman and tortured her.

However, a comment from the verified X account of the Punjab Police of Pakistan was found in the comments of that post. In the comment, they said the incident took place in Sialkot in January 2022 and the accused were arrested and immediate action was taken. They asked people not to mislead the public by attaching a false caption to old news.

In addition, the video also matches a video shared by another account in 2022. In the caption of the video shared on 9 January, it was said that an elderly woman named Munawar was severely tortured by influential people in Sialkot, Pakistan, over a land dispute. The incident took place in Palura Kalan area under Kotli Syed Amir police station in Sialkot.

A search also found a report in the Pakistani media outlet Dawn titled 'Nine arrested for torture of woman in Sialkot'. According to the report published on 10 January 2022, police filed a case against 15 people over the torture of a woman in Palura Kalan village of Sialkot district following a land dispute. Nine people were arrested in the incident.

According to the report, there was a dispute between two sides over land. Members of the two sides had argued several times before over the matter. On the previous Saturday, two women from the opposing sides, Munawar Kanwal and Nasrin Bibi, argued again. At one stage, Nasrin, along with her relatives, tortured Munawar. A cousin of Nasrin dragged Munawar by her hair along the village road. At the time, the accused, including women, slapped, punched and kicked her and also hit her with an iron rod.

The report further said the matter came to police attention after a video of the torture spread on social media. In the incident, Inspector General of Police Rao Sardar Ali Khan sought a report from the regional police officer of Gujranwala and directed Sialkot police to arrest the accused quickly. Later, on Munawar's complaint, police of Kotli Syed Amir police station filed a case against 15 people. Among them, nine people, including Arif, Timur Kasim, Noor Hossain, Haider Ali, Mubashir Ali, Jishan Ali, Asad Ali, Sajjad Hossain and Yasmin Bibi, were arrested.

Taken together, the verification makes it clear that the video circulated claiming torture of Hindu women and religious minorities in Bangladesh is not an incident in Bangladesh. In fact, the video shows the torture of a woman named Munawar Kanwal in January 2022 in Punjab province of Pakistan following a land dispute.