Video From Bangladesh Shared as From India With a Reference to Pulwama Attack
The video is from Bangladesh when two accused, including a man disguised as a pregnant woman, were nabbed by police.
The video is being shared with a communal spin with a reference to the Pulwama attack in 2019.
(Photo: Altered by The Quint)
A video showing a man disguised as a woman, wearing a burqa, being checked by the police, is being shared on social media with a reference to the 2019 Pulwana attack in which nearly 40 Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel were killed.
The claim adds that the video is for the people who questioned 'how explosives reached Pulwama'.
However, we found that the video is from Raozan in Chattogram (also known as Chittagong) district in Bangladesh where a man disguised as a pregnant woman was nabbed by police in March while trying to smuggle alcohol.
Claim
The 30-second video is being shared with the claim in Marathi that loosely translates to, 'This video is for those who ask where the explosives in Pulwama came from'.
The video shared by a user on 23 September has over 12,000 views and 569 shares at the time of writing this article.
An archive of the post can be found here.
What We Found
We extracted several keyframes from the video using Google Chrome's InVid WeVerify extension and conducted a reverse image search on some of them.
A Yandex reverse image search result led us to an Instagram Reels video posted by a verified handle called 'Tarix Aliyev' on 19 July.
We looked with relevant keywords on YouTube and found the video posted by 'Smile TV Bangla' on 11 March. The video has 6.6 million views.
It mentioned that acting on a tip-off, Raozan police of Chattogram division in Bangladesh took the custody of two accused, including one disguised as a pregnant woman wearing a burqa, who were caught while smuggling alcohol.
It must be noted that according to Bangladesh's law, consumption of alcohol is restricted in the nation and one needs to obtain a licence to be allowed to drink.
Next, we also looked with relevant keywords in Bengali and found several news reports about the incident. According to 'CPlus TV Bangla', the incident happened on 9 March and the accused have been identified as Mohammed Sagar (20) and Amena Begum (19).
The duo were nabbed on 9 March.
Next, we found a video of the incident reported by a local channel called Raozan TV on the Facebook page of Raozan police station, Chattogram.
Screengrab from Facebook.
We also looked for the uniform of Chittagong police and found the uniform matched with the police personnel in the viral video.
Uniform of Chittagong police (L), Screengrab from viral video (R).
Clearly, a video from Bangladesh of two accused caught while smuggling alcohol, is being passed off on social media with reference to the deadly attack in Pulwama.
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