Video of on-duty Bangladeshi army personnel performing Namaz circulated as Indian CRPF personnel’s video

Recently, a video has been circulated from multiple Indian accounts on various internet platforms with the caption ‘Viral Video of CRPF Personnel Performing Salah on Market Duty Wins Hearts.’ The caption of the circulated video claims that this is a scene of a member of the Indian CRPF force performing Namaz while on duty.

See the post circulated on Facebook with this claim here (Archive).

See the post circulated on YouTube with this claim here (Archive).

See the post circulated on Instagram with this claim here (Archive).

Fact Check

The Rumor Scanner team’s investigation reveals that the circulated video is not the scene of a member of India’s CRPF force performing Namaz, and the incident did not take place in India. In reality, a video of a member of the Bangladesh Army performing Namaz while on duty has been circulated with the discussed claim.

Investigating this matter, a video published on January 18 on the Facebook profile named Fahad Bhuiyan, a journalist working for the electronic media outlet NTV, was found. The video circulated with the discussed claim bears a resemblance to this video.

In the caption of the said video, the journalist who posted it stated as an eyewitness that this incident occurred on January 18. On that day, the Bangladesh Jatiotabadi Chatra Dal surrounded the Election Commission building in Agargaon, Dhaka, protesting against multiple issues related to the preparatory activities for the upcoming election. The person who posted it was working as a journalist at the mentioned location, and the army personnel in the circulated video was on duty there to maintain law and order. During the incident, at the time of Dhuhr prayer, that army personnel collected a chair and performed Namaz there.

That is, the incident in the circulated video took place in Bangladesh.

Subsequently, the same information was also confirmed from video reports published by multiple media outlets in Bangladesh (1, 2, 3, 4).

It is worth noting that CRPF or Central Reserve Police Force is a central armed police force under the Ministry of Home Affairs of India. CRPF assists states and union territories in maintaining law and order and internal security. It consists of the Central Reserve Police Force (Regular) and the Central Reserve Police Force (Auxiliary).

Therefore, a video of a Bangladeshi army personnel performing Namaz while on duty has been circulated with the claim that it is a scene of an Indian CRPF member performing Namaz while on duty; which is false.

Sources

• Fahad Bhuiyan – Facebook Post
• NTV News – Army personnel performed Namaz while on duty in front of the Election Commission
• Ekattor TV – Army personnel performing Namaz on the street while on duty
• Bangla Tribune – Army personnel performed Namaz on the street while performing duty in front of the Election Commission
• Jugantor –Facebook Post