By Srijit Das
A viral video showing visuals of cattle slaughter inside a residential complex in Bangladesh is being shared by Indian social media users falsely claiming that it captures Bakrid celebrations this year in West Bengal.
BOOM found that the footage is old and from Bangladesh. The video was recorded in Mirpur, Dhaka, not in West Bengal as is being falsely claimed online.
The one minute and 21-seconds video shows a top angle view of a residential complex where several people are standing with umbrellas in a brick-red courtyard and carcasses of cattle can be seen lying around. The clip includes a narration by a woman whose face is not seen in the video. In the video, the woman is heard greeting others with "Eid Mubarak" while recording, stating that over 200 cows were slaughtered inside the complex, which has around 1,000 flats and 10 buildings. The woman also said that the slaughtered cows seen in the video were transported to the respective buildings via rickshaws.
The video was posted by a verified X handle with a caption, "These could be mistaken for scenes straight out of a Hollywood horror movie. In reality, it’s a bloodbath from the slaughter of innocent beings on the streets of West Bengal. Mamata G-hadan’s vote bank." (sic)
Click here to view the post and here for an archive.
Several other X users also shared the video with the same false claim.
Click here to view one such post and here for an archive.
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Fact Check
BOOM ran a reverse image search on one of the keyframes from the viral video and found that the video is not recent; it appeared in anInstagram post from July 2023.
We then observed that the buildings in the video resemble residential complexes in Dhaka, Bangladesh.
We also ran a keyword search in Bangla for some of the details the woman mentioned in the video about the residential complex having 10 buildings and one thousand flats and found a YouTube video with similar visuals of the buildings.
The video's caption stated that the buildings are located in Mirpur, Dhaka, Bangladesh, and the name of the project is the 'Swapnanagar Residential Flat Project'.
BOOM Bangladesh geolocated the buildings on Google Maps and found visuals shared by other Internet users from the residential complex that match those seen in the viral video. One can view the visuals here and here.
Here's a comparison between the visuals shared by Internet users from the Mirpur residential complex and the scenes from the viral video.
While we were not able to establish when exactly the video was shot we were able to geo-locate it to Mirpur, Dhaka, Bangladesh and thus rule out that it was shot in West Bengal, India.
(Additional reporting by Ameer Shakir, BOOM Bangladesh)
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