A video showing a man with a garland made of shoes around his neck is going viral on social media (here, here, and here). The post is being shared with claims that the man is a Hindu teacher in Bangladesh who was assaulted with a shoe garland by Muslims despite serving for 40 years. Let’s verify the claim made in the post in this article.
Claim: The video shows a Hindu teacher in Bangladesh being assaulted with a garland of shoes by Muslims.
Fact: The video does not show a Hindu teacher in Bangladesh being assaulted with a shoe garland by Muslims. It shows a Muslim man, Dr Ahmed Ali, a retired community medical officer from Tekati village, who was assaulted and paraded with a shoe garland on 15 June 2025 in Beruli Bazar, Rajbari, after allegedly making derogatory remarks about Prophet Muhammad. Hence, the claim made in the post is FALSE.
A reverse image search of keyframes from the viral video led us to several Bangladeshi media reports (here, here, and here) that featured the same visuals from the viral clip. According to these reports, the incident occurred on 15 June 2025 in Beruli Bazar, located in Baliakandi upazila of Rajbari, Bangladesh. Ahmed Ali, a retired community medical officer from Tekati village, was allegedly assaulted by a mob for making derogatory remarks about Prophet Muhammad at a local tea shop. He was later paraded with a shoe garland. Police and army personnel intervened, rescued him, and brought the situation under control. Ahmed Ali is reportedly receiving treatment in police custody, and legal proceedings are ongoing.
We also found a Facebook post (archived) dated 29 June 2025 by the Chief Adviser’s Press Wing of the Bangladesh government. Debunking the viral post, it clarified that the claim of a Hindu teacher being assaulted with a shoe garland by Muslims is inaccurate. It stated that the incident was not an act of religious persecution against the Hindu community but a localised issue stemming from accusations of religious defamation, which was later misrepresented online as communal violence.
We also found an X post (archived) by Bangladeshi fact-checker Shohanur Rahman dated 27 June 2025, who shared the viral photo and clarified that the claim is fake.
To sum up, a video of a retired medical officer being assaulted in Bangladesh over alleged remarks on Prophet Muhammad is shared with a false communal narrative.
