Following the passage of the Waqf (Amendment) Act, 2025, in the first week of April, Muslims have been protesting against the newly enacted law across the country, including in West Bengal (here, here, and here). According to news reports (here, here), on 11 April 2025, these protests turned violent in Murshidabad district, West Bengal, resulting in Violence and riots. Reports (here, here, and here) indicate that three people lost their lives in the violence: two Hindus, Chandan Das and Hargobind Das, were killed in a mob attack, while a Muslim man died in police firing. According to reports, hundreds of people (mostly Hindus) affected by the violence in Murshidabad district crossed the Bhagirathi River. They sought refuge in the adjoining Malda district (here, here, and here). On 12 April 2025, the Calcutta High Court ordered the deployment of central forces to restore peace and order in the district (here).
Amidst this, a video is going viral on social media (here and here) showing a mob looting a shop and throwing items out of it. This is being shared with the claim that this incident is part of targeted violence against Hindus in West Bengal. Let’s verify the claim made in the post through this article.
Claim: The video shows a mob in West Bengal looting a shop.
Fact: The video shows an incident in Sylhet, Bangladesh, where a shop was looted and vandalised. The event took place at a Peoria food store, and the location is identified as near ICB Islami Bank Limited in Sylhet. Additionally, the West Bengal government’s cybercrime wing has also refuted the viral claim that the video is from West Bengal and stated that this incident has no connection to West Bengal. Hence, the claim made in the post is FALSE.
A reverse image search of the keyframes from the viral video led us to a Facebook post (archived) by Feni Shakti Magazine featuring a video of looting and vandalism dated 08 April 2025. The video showed a similar green-coloured signboard with text written in red font. The post’s caption claimed that “Sylhet’s traditional food manufacturing company Peoria has been looted! It’s as if there is no law in the country!”. We found that Sylhet is in Bangladesh, and Peoria is a company that sells Bangladeshi food products.
We also came across another video on YouTube, which appears to have been filmed at the same location as the viral video. In this video, the signage on the bank board was translated using Google Translate and found to read “Sylhet Branch.”
We noticed the letters “ICB” written on a signboard in the viral video. A Google search for ICB Bank helped us identify the location as ICB Islami Bank Limited in Sylhet, Bangladesh. A comparison between the viral video and the location in Bangladesh can be seen below.
Additionally, the West Bengal government’s cybercrime wing has also refuted the claim that the video is from West Bengal. It stated that the incident took place in the Sylhet region of Bangladesh, where a store of the well-known food brand Peoria was looted in April 2025. There is no connection between this event and West Bengal. (here, here)
To sum up, the viral video showing a shop being looted and vandalised is from Sylhet, Bangladesh, and has no connection to the violence in West Bengal.
