A video is being shared on social media (here, here, and here) claiming to show a Muslim man being beaten with a baton by a few people on a boat in a lake. The post is being shared with claims that the incident took place in India. Let’s verify the claim made in the post in this article.
Claim: The video shows a Muslim man being beaten with a baton by a few people in India.
Fact: The video does not show an incident in India. Bangladeshi media reports confirm that it actually depicts a mob attack on alleged robbers near the Kirtinasha River in Shariatpur, Bangladesh, on the night of 28 February 2025. During the incident, a gang attempting a robbery fled by speedboat, opened fire, and hurled hand bombs at locals. Residents blocked their escape, captured gang members, and beat them before police and army personnel intervened. Hence, the claim made in the post is FALSE.
A reverse image search of keyframes from the viral video led us to the same clip uploaded on a Facebook page belonging to a Bangladeshi user. The caption indicated that the incident is from Bangladesh.
Taking cues from the Facebook post, we searched using relevant Bangla keywords. We found multiple media reports (here, here) from March 2025, including a fact-check article by Bangladeshi outlet Prothom Alo dated 21 October 2025. According to these reports, the incident was a mob attack on alleged dacoits near the Kirtinasha River in Shariatpur, Bangladesh, on the night of 28 February 2025. The incident began around 11:00 p.m. when a gang attempted to loot a bulk carrier in the Rajarchar area of Madaripur. After facing resistance, they tried to escape towards Shariatpur by speedboat.
Following mosque announcements, locals blocked the gang’s escape route on the Kirtinasha River, after which the robbers opened fire and hurled hand bombs, injuring several people. An angry mob later captured seven members of the gang and beat them severely before police and army personnel intervened. Two suspects were declared dead at Shariatpur Sadar Hospital, while the remaining five were shifted to Dhaka in critical condition, and police confirmed the seizure of the speedboat and recovery of weapons used in the incident (here, here). However, media reports do not mention the names of the robbers, and their identities remain unverified.
After the incident, when the same video went viral with the false claim that a Student League worker was kidnapped and beaten to death in the Buriganga, the Chief Adviser’s Press Wing of the Bangladesh government clarified that the claim was false, confirming that the video is from Bangladesh and not India.
To sum up, a video of a mob attack on alleged robbers in Bangladesh is shared with a communal narrative, linking it to India.
