Following the violence in Murshidabad, West Bengal, over the Waqf Amendment Act, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee alleged that Bangladeshi criminals were involved in the unrest. She also held the BJP and the Border Security Force responsible for allegedly enabling these infiltrations. Although preliminary investigations reportedly hinted at a possible Bangladeshi link, no concrete evidence has surfaced to support these claims. Meanwhile, the Bangladesh government has categorically denied any involvement in the violence.
Amidst this political blame game, a video has gone viral on social media showing a large group of Muslim men boarding boats, accompanied by a man in a yellow shirt speaking in Bangla. Many users claim that Muslims are infiltrating into West Bengal from Bangladesh.
The video is shared on Facebook with a caption: बांग्लादेश से मुल्ले पहुंच रहे है पश्चिम बंगाल,मोदी सरकार अब तो राष्ट्रपति शासन लागू करो (English version: Mullas from Bangladesh are reaching West Bengal, Modi government should now impose President’s rule.)
Here’s the link to the above post. (Archive)
FACT CHECK
NewsMobile fact-checked the above claim, and found it to be MISLEADING.
Conducting a Reverse Image Search of the video keyframes, the NM team found the same visuals in a YouTube short, uploaded in February 2024, with the hashtag ‘Char Monai’ Further investigation revealed that the man in the yellow shirt is speaking about the upcoming Biswa Ijtema, a massive Islamic gathering in Bangladesh that began on January 31, 2025, on the banks of the Turag River.
However, the actual video predates the 2025 event. It was originally shot during the Char Monai Ijtema, a religious congregation held annually in the Barisal district of Bangladesh. In 2024, the event took place from February 26 to 28, drawing thousands of participants who arrived by boat. Additional social media posts from February 28, 2024, include extended versions of the same video, showing the boat procession from multiple angles.
Thus, we can conclusively say that the viral video claiming to show illegal infiltration from Bangladesh into West Bengal is actually from a religious event held in Bangladesh in February 2024.
