Delhi's viral 'police firing' video was shot in Dhaka

<p><em>Special Reporting from LSN News, adapted from today's Asia Behind the Headlines episode. <a href="https://youtu.be/Z2ZpZNiysU8" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Watch the video on YouTube.</a></em></p>

<p>One hundred and two thousand views. That is how far one post on X had travelled by Tuesday morning after claiming that India's capital was burning. Published on the evening of 1 November, it said four Congress workers had "reportedly" been killed and ten injured in Delhi Police firing, and that the situation remained tense. The timing was chosen for maximum effect: the opposition INDIA bloc was holding its "Chalo Dilli" rally at Delhi's Ramlila Maidan that day, demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar.</p>

<p>There was no firing. Delhi Police replied directly to the post the next morning: "Please refrain from spreading fake news. The video shared in this post originates from Bangladesh and has no connection to ongoing events in Delhi." The force added that disseminating malicious misinformation is a punishable offence and that legal action would be initiated against violators. According to the government's PIB Fact Check unit, Delhi Police confirmed that no firing took place and reported no related deaths or injuries. The police reply has itself now been seen more than 104,000 times.</p>

<h2>What the clip really shows</h2>

<p>Fact-checkers at BOOM traced the footage to Mirpur, in Dhaka. One of the clips carries the watermark of the Bangladeshi channel Mohona TV, which posted it on 1 November with a caption describing vandalism during a garment workers' protest in Mirpur. PIB Fact Check reached the same conclusion: the video captures a clash between garment workers and police in Mirpur, Dhaka.</p>

<p>That protest was real. On Sunday, 1 November, workers blocked the Mirpur-10 intersection, demanding that the minimum monthly wage be raised to 30,000 taka, more than double the current 12,500 taka. When police moved to clear the road, protesters threw bricks and stones; police responded with batons, tear gas, sound grenades and water cannon. A police vehicle was set on fire beneath the Mirpur-11 metro station, and at least 19 people were detained, according to The Business Standard.</p>

<p>The disruption reached well beyond one junction. The Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) said some 529 factories in the main industrial belts, including Mirpur, Ashulia, Gazipur and Savar, could not operate that Sunday. The government has formed a wage board to review the minimum wage for garment workers, a sector Al Jazeera describes as the backbone of Bangladesh's export-driven economy.</p>

<h2>Fakes from the other direction</h2>

<p>The fabricated massacre was not the only false content attached to the Delhi rally. India Today's fact-check team found an AI-generated "front page" of The Indian Express, supposedly reporting a massive surge in railway passengers ahead of the rally; detection tools concluded it was made with OpenAI's tools. A video of a vast crowd, shared as the Ramlila Maidan on the morning of 1 November, had in fact been posted by Congress leaders on 14 December 2025, from an earlier rally at the same ground.</p>

<p>BOOM found that drone footage of an enormous crowd, also circulated as the November rally, actually showed Buenos Aires after Argentina's 2022 World Cup win. One account posted it sarcastically, but other handles then shared it as real footage of the protest. Taken together, these posts were offered as proof of a giant turnout.</p>

<h2>Our read</h2>

<p>This is analysis. One rally attracted invented crowds and an invented massacre, and both travelled faster than the corrections. Meanwhile the real news inside the fake clip, a wage fight in the industry that underpins Bangladesh's export economy, with hundreds of factories idle and a wage board now in play, was lost in the edit.</p>

<p>The giveaway in this case was in plain sight: a Bangladeshi channel's logo in the corner of the frame. Before you share a protest video, check the logo in the corner.</p>

<h2>Sources</h2>

<ul>

<li><a href="https://x.com/Anushitiwari22/status/2116881984773648569" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Anushi Tiwari (@Anushitiwari22) on X, 1 Nov 2026</a></li>

<li><a href="https://x.com/DelhiPolice/status/2117063295631024232" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Delhi Police on X, 2 Nov 2026</a></li>

<li><a href="https://english.bharatexpress.com/fact-check/pib-fact-check-debunks-fake-video-claiming-delhi-police-firing-during-protests-306773" target="_blank" rel="noopener">PIB Fact Check via Bharat Express, 2 Nov 2026</a></li>

<li><a href="https://helloheadlines.com/story/14015" target="_blank" rel="noopener">BOOM, 2 Nov 2026</a></li>

<li><a href="https://www.indiatoday.in/fact-check/story/fact-check-fake-newspaper-clipping-old-video-other-false-posts-about-chalo-dilli-rally-3030125-2026-11-01" target="_blank" rel="noopener">India Today Fact Check, 1 Nov 2026</a></li>

<li><a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/11/1/bangladesh-forms-wage-board-amid-garment-worker-protests" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Al Jazeera, 1 Nov 2026</a></li>

<li><a href="https://en.prothomalo.com/bangladesh/city/ew7qoxljgp" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Prothom Alo, 1 Nov 2026</a></li>

<li><a href="https://www.tbsnews.net/bangladesh/crime/19-detained-after-garment-workers-clash-police-mirpur-1589781" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Business Standard, 1 Nov 2026</a></li>

<li><a href="https://www.thedailystar.net/top-news-center/news/police-charge-batons-during-clash-rmg-workers-mirpur-4312541" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Daily Star, 1 Nov 2026</a></li>

<li><a href="https://thefinancialexpress.com.bd/politics/wage-protesters-run-riot-in-and-around-dhaka-clash-with-police" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Financial Express, 1 Nov 2026</a></li>

<li><a href="https://www.opindia.com/news-updates/delhi-police-debunks-fake-news-about-congress-workers-killed-in-firing-video-from-bangladesh-shared-with-the-claim-that-india-is-burning/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">OpIndia, 2 Nov 2026</a></li>

</ul>