Footage of crowds at a candlelight vigil in Bangladesh has emerged in social media posts falsely claiming to show protests in India seeking justice after the rape and murder of a doctor. The photographer who shot the video told AFP it showed a rally in the Bangladesh capital, Dhaka, to commemorate protesters killed in clashes that led to the ouster of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
“This protest last night has made history. People from all over Kolkata took to the streets,” one Facebook post who shared the video on September 5, 2024.
“It is impossible to stop this movement until Tilottama gets justice.”
‘Tilottama’ is a name given to a murdered Indian doctor on social media after a court asked local media not to reveal her identity.
The discovery of the bloodied body of the 31-year-old doctor at a government hospital in the eastern city of Kolkata on August 9 sparked nationwide protests and repeated strikes by doctors demanding safer conditions for women.
The one-minute video featured clips of drone footage of a large-scale candlelight vigil.
The video, which was also shared on Xcame to the surface when thousands of people joined a candlelight march in Kolkata on September 5, demanding justice for the murdered doctor (archived link).
Doctors have vowed to continue their protests and on September 10 turned down an invitation for talks from state Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.
Sexual violence against women is a widespread problem in India, with an average of nearly 90 rapes reported every day in the country of 1.4 billion people in 2022.
Bangladesh drone footage
A reverse search on Google turned up a video showing the same scene placed on X on August 9, weeks before the march in Kolkata.
According to the X-post, a vigil was held in the Uttara district of Bangladesh’s capital Dhaka (archived link).
Further keyword searches on Google yielded the original video that was shared on Instagram And Facebook by Bangladesh-based drone photographer Tamzid Islam Zihan (archived here And here).
He told AFP he recorded the video during the August 9 vigil commemorating protesters killed during the student-led uprising that toppled Hasina.
Below are screenshots of the video shared in fake posts (left) and the original video uploaded to Instagram (right):
Bangladesh NTV news And Company standard publish similar images of the vigil (archived here And here).
