[Disclaimer: Viral video depicts extreme violence. Only screenshots are used as identifiers.]
A mosque and a few shops were reportedly vandalised and set ablaze at Panisagar sub-division in North Tripura during a VHP rally on Tuesday evening against communal violence in Bangladesh. Web portal India Tomorrow reported that at least 12 mosques in five districts have been vandalized and holy books have been torched since October 22.
A day prior to this report, Twitter user @prof_shak posted a 30-second video that shows two men fatally attacking another with sharp knives. The user claim that the video is from Tripura.
Alt News has received several requests to fact-check this claim on our WhatsApp helpline number (+91 76000 11160).
VIDEO-VERIFICATION
In the third week of October, Alt News had debunked this video when it was viral with the claim that it is from the recent communal violence in Bangladesh.
Reverse-searching the video’s stills did not yield any results. We reached out to Sohan Rahman, a fact-checking journalist associated with Bangladesh-based media outlet Rumor Scanner. Rahman identified the incident and shared a report from the month of May by YouTube channel Bilashi TV.
Bilashi TV has also not included the video in its report due to its violent nature. However, it has used a still. The identical still can be spotted in the viral video.
As per Bilashi TV’s report, Shahin Uddin was murdered by Manik and Monir in Dhaka’s Pallabi area. He was taken to Shaheed Suhrawardy Medical College after the police arrived but the hospital declared him dead.
On May 16, Daily Star reported this incident. Kazi Wazed Ali, officer-in-charge of Pallabi police station, said that 40-year-old Uddin was attacked in front of his house around 4:45 pm and injured with lethal weapons, leaving him dead on the spot.
In a follow-up story, Daily Star reported that three more individuals were arrested in this case including MA Awal, a former lawmaker from Lakshmipur-1 constituency and leader of Bangladesh Tarikat Federation. Ali told Daily Star that Awal had a long-standing dispute over land with the victim.
To sum it up, this video is not from Tripura. However, multiple instances of communal violence have taken place in the Panisagar sub-division, including the alleged vandalisation of 12 mosques.
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