Fact Check: Video of B'desh man in burqa smuggling alcohol being shared amid ongoing hijab row
A video of a man disguised as a pregnant woman is doing the rounds of social media with the claim that he was caught by the police while trying to smuggle alcohol under a burqa. The video is circulating amid the ongoing burqa row in the country.
By Newsmeter Network Published on 11 Feb 2022 4:50 AM GMT
Hyderabad: A video of a man disguised as a pregnant woman is doing the rounds of social media with the claim that he was caught by the police while trying to smuggle alcohol under a burqa. The video is circulating amid the ongoing burqa row in the country.
Fact Check:
NewsMeter discovered that the police uniforms in the video are similar to the uniform of the Bangladesh police. Taking a cue from this, we performed a keyword search and found several videos and news reports of the incident that took place in March 2021. As the video has been on the internet before the hijab protests started in Karnataka, it is clear that the video is not linked to the protests.
Bangladesh media organizations Raozan News and Smile TV Bangla had published longer versions of the video. They reported that a man disguised as a pregnant woman was arrested for drug trafficking and sent to custody. Raozan News identified the location as Chattogram in Bangladesh.
Bangladesh news website Prothom Alo had reported that a man and woman in Raozan, Chittagong, were arrested by the police for disguising themselves as pregnant women to avoid detection while smuggling alcohol. They were arrested from Chittagong-Rangamati road near Jalilnagar CMP Mosque in Raozan municipality. They were searched and alcohol hidden inside a saline pouch was seized. It said 52 liters of liquor were recovered from them. A case was registered under the Narcotics Control Act as alcohol sale and consumption are restricted and regulated in Bangladesh.
This proves that the video is from Bangladesh where a man disguised as a pregnant woman was arrested for smuggling alcohol under a burqa. It is not linked to the ongoing hijab protests in Karnataka. Hence, the claim is false.
