Movies present unrest in Nepal and Indonesia, not Bangladesh

Three individuals had been shot lifeless after protests erupted in Bangladesh’s southeast border area with India over the alleged rape of a schoolgirl, however two movies exhibiting protests scenes circulating on social media are usually not from the south Asian nation. The clips had been the truth is taken throughout earlier demonstrations in Nepal and Indonesia.

“Attacking the military and Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) in violation of Part 144 and looting weapons,” reads the Bengali-language caption to a 4-second clip shared on Fb on September 28, 2025.

It exhibits individuals filming and following a person holding a weapon alongside a avenue.

The identical clip was shared alongside related claims elsewhere on Fb after protests by indigenous communities erupted in Bangladesh’s southeastern Khagrachari district over the alleged rape of a schoolgirl (archived hyperlink).

Three males had been shot lifeless and dozens injured within the unrest, which prompted authorities to impose a regulation banning “illegal meeting” for eight days till October 5 (archived hyperlink).

A second clip exhibiting one other chaotic nighttime protest scene, with explosions and police automobiles driving down a crowded avenue, additionally surfaced on September 27 on Fb. The submit claimed it depicted the unrest in Khagrachari.

The area has lengthy been a flashpoint between Indigenous communities and Bengali-speakers, with clashes breaking out over land and assets.

Bangladesh’s inside ministry chief claimed weapons from “exterior the nation” had been fuelling the violence, whereas the military’s public relations wing in an announcement accused the the United Folks’s Democratic Entrance (UPDF), a holdout insurgent faction, of instigating the violence and firing a whole bunch of photographs (archived hyperlink).

On October 1, native media reported that no proof of rape was discovered by a authorities medical board examination of the schoolgirl, however an indigenous group mentioned the medical report was “fabricated” (archived hyperlink).

Nonetheless, not one of the circulating clips had been taken in Bangladesh, they as a substitute present scenes from protests in Nepal and Indonesia.

A reverse picture search on Google utilizing keyframes from the primary falsely shared clip matches the start of an extended video on YouTube printed on September 27, 2025 (archived hyperlink).

The video’s caption hyperlinks the footage to Nepal’s “Gen Z” protests, which started with demonstrations in opposition to a social media ban on September 8 and erupted into wider discontent over corruption and finally ousted the Himalayan nation’s authorities (archived hyperlink).

AFP discovered the scene corresponds to Google Avenue View imagery of an space exterior a police station alongside Ring Street in Kathmandu (archived hyperlink).

The second falsely shared video corresponds to footage shared in a compilation on Instagram on August 30, 2025 (archived hyperlink).

The Indonesian-language caption states the footage exhibits a protest in Solo, a metropolis in central Java formally generally known as Surakarta, on August 29, 2025.

Additional key phrase and reverse picture search discovered one other YouTube video posted on August 29 captioned “chaos at Solo protest”, exhibiting the identical incident from a special angle (archived hyperlink).

Protests broke out throughout Indonesia in late-August, sparked by discontent over financial inequality and lavish perks for lawmakers and intensified by the killing of a younger supply driver by a paramilitary police unit (archived hyperlink). At the very least 10 individuals had been killed, and a whole bunch injured.

Buildings and roadside decorations seen within the circulating video correspond to Google Maps Avenue View imagery alongside Slamet Riyadi Avenue in Surakarta (archived hyperlink).