A video of people protesting on a road has gone viral with the claim that it shows Bangladeshi Muslims taking out a rally in Assam demanding a separate country.

A social media user shared the video and wrote, “Bangladeshi Muslims in Assam started a rally for Separate Country for them. Then Assam govt …” (Archive)

SouthCheck found that the claim was false.

On doing a Google reverse image search, we found the same video uploaded on YouTube on July 2, 2017.

The caption associated with the video stated that Muslims in Assam were protesting and demanding to lift the status of ‘doubtful citizens and voters tag’ imposed by the Assam government on many Muslims. During the protest, the police personnel resorted to lathi charges in the Kharbuja, Goalpara district of Assam, which killed a 22-year-old. The deceased was identified as Yakub Ali from Khutamari village under Kumri police station Goalpara.

We also found a screenshot of the video published by NewsClick on July 2, 2017.

The report associated with the screenshot suggested that Yakub Ali, a 22-year-old Muslim man, was killed after police opened fire on protesters in Kharboja Village, Goalpara District, Assam. The demonstrators were marching towards National Highway 37 protesting the alleged harassment by Border Police and Foreigners Tribunal accusing them of being D (doubtful) voters. The event was led by Nazrul Islam and two other activists.

We also found that the incident was reported by The Scroll.

According to the report, Yakub Ali had visited his home for Eid in Khutamari village in Assam’s Goalpara district. He had participated in a protest against the alleged harassment of Muslims by the State by falsely accusing them of being illegal migrants, or ‘D voters’. The protest turned violent which killed Yakub Ali.

Hence, we can ascertain that the viral claim is false.