In the midst of ongoing protests in Bangladesh, a video is being circulated that allegedly shows students in Bangladesh holding Pakistan flags and chanting pro-Pakistani slogans, including calls for direct action (here & here). In this article, we check the claims made in the post.
Claim: A video showing Muslim students in Bangladesh holding Pakistan flags and chanting pro-Pakistan slogans.
Fact: These visuals are from Pakistan Independence Day celebrations in Toronto, Canada. The locations visible in the viral video confirm its Canadian origin, and related YouTube videos verify that these celebrations took place in August 2023. Hence the claim made in the post is FALSE.
A reverse image search of screenshots from the viral video led us to YouTube videos where people are seen dancing to music while holding Pakistan flags, similar to the viral clip (here & here). In these YouTube videos, we can identify a few individuals who also appear in the viral video. For instance, a comparison of screenshots from both the viral video and the YouTube videos reveals the same woman in a green dress and another woman with blonde hair in both videos.
These YouTube videos, uploaded in August 2023, depict people dancing to music. According to the descriptions, they capture the celebration of Pakistan Independence Day on Gerrard Street in Toronto, Canada. A Google Street View (here & here) of Gerrard Street shows shops with signs like “Lahore Tikka House” and “Desi Burger,” both of which are visible in the viral video and the location appears to be the same as in the viral video. This confirms that the viral footage is not from Bangladesh but from Canada.
Building on this, further searches uncovered similar videos showing Pakistan Independence Day celebrations on Gerrard Street in Toronto (here & here). It appears that these celebrations occur at this location annually. Notably, none of these YouTube videos feature people chanting slogans in Bengali.
Additionally, some DJs who performed on Gerrard Street in August 2023 shared videos on their Instagram accounts (here & here). The woman mentioned earlier is also visible in these videos, further confirming that the viral footage is related to Pakistan Independence Day celebrations. Importantly, all these videos show people enjoying the music, and none contain any Bengali slogans or slogans related to Bangladesh.
Slogans are digitally added:
Furthermore, according to an India Today report, the Bengali slogans heard in the viral video are: “Bhuru kaata Pamela, aar korish na jhamela. Aar korish na jhamela, Bhuru kaata Pamela. Pakistan-er Khaleda, Pakistan-e chole jaa. Pakistan-e chole jaa, Pakistan-er Khaleda.”
The translation of these slogans is: “O eyebrow less Pamela, stop causing trouble, stop causing trouble, stop causing trouble, O eyebrow less Pamela. You are Pakistan’s Khaleda; you should go to Pakistan. You should go to Pakistan, Pakistan’s Khaleda.”
Awami League supporters have long used this slogan against Khaleda Zia, the former Prime Minister of Bangladesh and a rival of Sheikh Hasina. This strongly suggests that the slogans were digitally added to the viral footage, as it is highly unlikely that protesters in Bangladesh, who are upset with Sheikh Hasina, would chant slogans against Khaleda Zia, who, according to reports, is expected to perform well in the upcoming elections.
All this evidence indicates that the viral video is from Canada and is not related to the current unrest in Bangladesh. And most likely, the audio has been digitally added to the footage
To sum up, old footage of Pakistan Independence Day celebrations in Canada is being misrepresented as images of Bangladeshi protesters holding Pakistan flags.
