Footage of Myanmar ethnic group scuffle misrepresented as Bangladesh army infighting

Bangladesh has extended the power of commissioned army officials to enforce law and order amid the absence of police forces after the fall of Sheikh Hasina’s autocratic government on August 5, 2024. But footage of a scuffle among people dressed in army fatigues does not show soldiers, as social media posts claim; the video was filmed in Myanmar and depicts fighting between two armed ethnic groups over territorial disputes in northern Shan state.

“Bangladesh Army meant a well-famed force in Bangladesh. Army has lost its honor under the patronage of illegal government of Yunus gang,” reads the Bengali caption of a Facebook post shared January 29, 2025.

The post includes a 13-second video of a group of uniformed and armed people fighting each other.

The video surfaced online as Bangladesh army officials combed the country to improve law and order amid a weak and largely absent police force since the fall of Hasina’s government (archived link).

A student-led uprising in August 2024 toppled Hasina, who now resides in India. An interim administration led by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus replaced her (archived link).

The country’s interim government initially gave the power of magistracy to commissioned army officers for 60 days in September 2024. It has been extended twice since then (archived link).

A joint force comprising officials from the country’s army, police, border guards and rapid action battalion has been launching operations to recover firearms that have gone missing from police stations since the August revolution (archived link).

The video of army officials supposedly fighting each other has spread elsewhere on Facebook — but it was taken in Myanmar, not Bangladesh.

Ethnic clashes in Myanmar

A Google reverse image search using keyframes from the clip found a clearer version of the video uploaded January 28, 2025 to YouTube (archived link).

The Burmese caption says “they’re fighting each other” and includes #army, #military and #Myanmar.

Further keyword searches found a longer video shared January 27 on Facebook (archived link).

A text overlay on the video reads: “Territorial dispute between KIA and TNLA (January 26, 2025, Mong Wee – KSSM)”.

Visuals starting at the 6:07 mark of the Facebook clip correspond with scenes from the footage shared in false posts.

The Kachin Independence Army (KIA) and Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA) are leading the fight against Myanmar’s military junta in northeastern Kachin state and northern Shan state (archived links here and here).

Local news outlet Mizzima reported the scuffle broke out near a KIA checkpoint in the town of Namhpatka in Shan state over a territorial dispute between the two ethnic armed groups (archived link).

People in the video shout “don’t use your hands”, “don’t touch me” and “you all are drunk” in Burmese.

The badges on the uniforms match those sported by KIA and TNLA rebels (archived here and here).

AFP has fact-checked other misinformation about Bangladesh here.