As India gears up for crucial state elections in April 2026, footage of a crowd fleeing what appears to be gunfire has surfaced in posts that falsely claim it depicts violence in West Bengal. However, the video is from Bangladesh’s capital Dhaka, where protests erupted after the death of a student leader in February.
“The Indian Army has begun driving out Mamata Banerjee’s goons,” says a Hindi-language X post shared on April 7, 2026, referring to the chief minister of West Bengal and echoing accusations from critics that her party engages in political violence.
“Everyone will be held accountable,” the post adds.
The state is a crucial election battleground, which Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party has never governed.
Elections will be held in two phases on April 23 and 29, with counting scheduled for May 4 (archived link).
Screenshot of the false post captured on April 8, 2026, with a red X added by AFP
The video was also shared on X and Facebook with similar claims.
West Bengal has a long history of election-related violence, with the Union Home Ministry announcing in February that it will deploy 480 companies of paramilitary forces in the state before the vote (archived link).
However, there have been no official announcements about the Indian Army being sent to the state.
AFP reached out to the Indian Army, but a response was not forthcoming.
Bangladesh protest
The circulating video is also unrelated.
A close inspection found some of the people shown in the clip were holding the national flag of Bangladesh or wearing headbands with the emblem.
Screenshot of the falsely shared video, with the Bangladesh flags highlighted by AFP
A reverse image search on Google using the clip’s keyframes surfaced an earlier version on the YouTube page of Bangladeshi media organisation Ajker Patrika on February 6, 2026 (archived link).
“Protesters are running away from the police chase,” says the caption.
Screenshot comparison of the falsely shared video (L) and YouTube video from February 6, 2026
A further reverse image search found a Facebook post that shared a similar video, which indicated the location of the incident as the Shahbagh neighbourhood of Bangladesh’s capital Dhaka (archived link).
AFP confirmed the location by matching pillars visible in the clip with Google Maps street imagery of a highway in Shahbagh (archived link).
Screenshot comparison of the video in the false post (L) and Google Street view imagery of Shahbag area, Dhaka
Local media at the time reported activists blocked Dhaka’s Shahbagh intersection after clashes with the police, demanding justice for the killing of Sharif Osman bin Hadi (archived link).
Hadi, a leader of the radical group Inquilab Moncho — which played a significant role in protests against ousted former premier Sheikh Hasina — was shot by unidentified assailants in Dhaka on December 12, 2025.
More of our reporting on Indian elections can be found here.
