A video is being shared on social media in which police arrest a man while he and others are offering namaz on the street.

The video is being shared with the claim that it is from Bangladesh where the police arrested an Imam for praying on the street.

A social media user shared the video with the caption, “This is how Bangladeshi Police arrested the Maulana and kicked out all the namazi who were performing Namaz on road. (sic)”

An archive of the post can be seen here.

SouthCheck found that the claim was misleading. We found that the police arrested the imam for conducting funeral prayers for students killed during demonstrations over government job quotas.

There are ongoing protests in Bangladesh over the quota system that allocates up to 30 per cent of government jobs to relatives of veterans from Bangladesh’s 1971 war of independence against Pakistan. Those protesting are demanding to abolish the system as they claim that this system is discriminatory and favours supporters of PM Hasina’s Awami League party, which led the independence movement. They advocate for a merit-based system instead. Over 39 have been killed so far in the protests.

On doing a Google reverse image search, we found the same video uploaded on YouTube on July 17, 2024. The caption associated with the video when translated read, “Police attack during janaza”.

Taking a hint, we searched with appropriate keywords and found the same video uploaded by Al Jazeera on July 18, 2024. The caption associated with the video stated that the Bangladeshi police detained an imam for leading funeral prayers for students killed during demonstrations over government job quotas.

TRT World also uploaded the same video on July 19, 2024, suggesting the same.

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