Since at least February 9, a video has been circulating on social media claiming, “A so-called coordinator, who is a robber and extremist, set fire to a house while a mother was inside.” The video in question shows a burning house, with the sound of a man wailing in the background. Notably, Tariq Ahmed, President of the London Metropolitan Jubo League, and Khaled Ahmed Shaheen, its Organizational Secretary, also shared this video from their verified Facebook accounts.

Fact-check

An investigation by the Rumor Scanner team reveals that the circulated video is not recent; rather, it is an almost three-year-old clip being shared with misleading claims. Upon analyzing posts that disseminated the claim, no credible evidence supporting it was found. Further inquiry led to the discovery of a Facebook post from April 3, 2022, by an account named "Md. Jubayer," which shared a similar video with the caption, “Noakhali Basurhat: A mother was set on fire inside her house.” A comparison between the circulated video and the 2022 post confirms a strong resemblance, verifying that the footage is not from recent events but nearly three years old.

Further examination found another post from January 9, 2022, shared by a Facebook account named "Md. Shahadat Hossain." This video also features a man wailing, and his words match those heard in the recently circulated video. He claims that his mother was trapped inside a burning house. The video’s caption reads, “Condemn this act of brutality. In Bhola, criminals locked a mother inside a house and set it on fire due to Union Parishad election disputes. The son went live on Facebook, pleading for help.”

Following this lead, an investigation uncovered a Facebook Live broadcast by the page “Face the People-News” on January 8, 2022. The caption states, “#Mother_Set_On_Fire. Here is Russell. In Bhola, election-related violence led to his mother being locked inside a burning house by criminals. Russell, the grieving son, explains the horrifying event and its causes.” In the video, the individual identifies himself by his nickname, Russell Hossain, and states that on January 7, 2022, his house was set on fire due to political and electoral conflicts. However, it remains uncertain whether the video of the burning house and the background wailing were recorded simultaneously. Nonetheless, it is confirmed that both the footage and the background cries are at least two years old.

Therefore, the claim that a recent incident involved a so-called coordinator setting a house on fire while a mother was inside is false. The video being circulated is at least two years old and has been misleadingly presented as a new event.

Original News Source: https://rumorscanner.com/fact-check/old-video-claimed-recent-burned-by-coordinators/138438