Devesh MISHRA, AFP
Relations between New Delhi and Dhaka have soured further after a recent spate of violence in Bangladesh, including the killing of a popular student leader who was an outspoken India critic. But a video shared on social media that purportedly depicts Bangladeshis fleeing from the Indian state of Assam in fact shows Muslims on their way to a religious assembly. The person who filmed the clip told AFP it shows pilgrims on their way to the North East Ijtema, a three-day gathering in the district of Dhubri in Assam.
“The video is from Assam, where Bangladeshis are leaving for their homeland, meaning they are migrating,” reads part of the Hindi-language X post shared on December 29, 2025.
The video, which shows a large group of people walking along a road, is superimposed with Hindi text that reads, “Dhubri, Assam”.
The video was also shared in similar Facebook and X posts as relations between New Delhi and Dhaka — which have deteriorated since ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina fled a pro-democracy uprising in 2024 and sought refuge in India — were strained further by a spate of violence in Bangladesh.
Bangladesh police said on December 28 that the alleged killers of popular student leader and vocal India critic Sharif Osman Hadi had fled across the border (archived link).
The Indian foreign ministry earlier said it rejects “false narratives” about New Delhi’s involvement in the killing.
The lynching of a Hindu garment worker by a mob accusing him of blasphemy on December 18 has also hit ties, with Indian officials demanding protection for all minorities (archived here and here).
The circulating video, however, does not show Bangladeshis in India’s Assam state fleeing across the border.
A reverse image search on Google using keyframes from the falsely shared video led to a longer version posted on Instagram on December 26, 2025 (archived link).
The video is included next to a different clip superimposed with the word “Ijtema”.
The user who posted the video, Assam-based content creator Sofikul Alam told AFP that he filmed the video while a large number of Muslims were heading to a religious gathering.
“I filmed this video on December 21, when lakhs (hundreds of thousands) of Muslims were heading to the Dhubri Ijtema religious gathering,” Alam said on January 4, 2026.
“This has been shared with false claims. It has nothing to do with Bangladesh,”
According to Assam’s The Sentinel newspaper, the three-day North East Ijtema, a large congregation of Muslims attended by hundreds of thousands of devotees from Assam, West Bengal and Meghalaya states, was held in Assam’s Dhubri district from December 21, 2025 and concluded with a mass prayer for global peace (archived link).
Similar videos showing people making their way to the gathering were also shared elsewhere on Facebook (archived here and here).
AFP has previously debunked false claims about Muslim migrants fleeing to Bangladesh.
— factcheck.afp.com
