Video from Bangladesh of man popping child’s balloons falsely shared with communal angle

A video of a man bursting all the balloons of a child balloon seller wearing a skullcap is being circulated on social media as an act of hate. The video shows the child pleading with the man to stop. Verified X user @pathan_sumaya shared the video saying, “A person who is doing brutality against a Muslim balloon seller or a crowd instead of helping takes a video?” (Archive)

Who is coward here?

A person who is doing brutality against a Muslim balloon seller or a crowd instead of helping takes a video? pic.twitter.com/EjbcSLoaZR

— §umaiya khan (@pathan_sumaya) January 26, 2026

X user @_shiblee also posted the video, saying that one should “not show our strength over the helpless”. Their post garnered close to 2 million views and over 2000 reposts. (Archive)

Where we have reached as humans!💔
We should hold and strengthen tired hands,
not show our strength over the helpless. pic.twitter.com/IhDaZFzC9h

— شبلی (@_shiblee) January 26, 2026

Several other users amplified the video with the same claim, portraying the man as a ‘Hindutva extremist’. (Archives- 1, 2, 3, 4, 5)

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Fact Check

A reverse image search of keyframes from the viral video led us to the full version. After popping the balloons, the man, who has been identified as Raju Bhai by the cameraperson, asks the child his age, to which the child replies that he is 12. He then asks how much the balloons were worth. The child says they were worth 1000 taka.

The man subsequently takes out a 1000-taka note, hands it to the child, and asks him to go and play. He also urges the child to focus on his studies instead of selling balloons for a living.

The conversation took place in Bangla, and the dialect indicated that it was from Bangladesh. While the word taka in Bangla can colloquially refer to Indian rupees, the currency shown in the video cannot be Indian, as Rs 1,000 notes notes are no longer in circulation. Moreover, the 1000-taka note visible in the video matches Bangladeshi currency.

We also found a YouTube channel named FOODBF, which posted a clip of the same incident on January 13. The description of the video has the hashtag Bangladesh. Other videos on the same channel star the man seen in the viral clip. The location of the channel is also set as Bangladesh.

As it stands, the viral clip, which was circulated as a purported act of hate, is actually a video from Bangladesh, in which the man pops the balloons but subsequently pays the child the full amount and asks him to go and play.