Claim: A photograph shows Bangladeshi student protesters waving the Pakistani flag after Hasina Wajid’s resignation as prime minister in August 2024.
Fact: The image shows protesters waving the Pakistani flag, alongside the Bangladeshi and Palestinian flags, at the Brooklyn Bridge in New York City. This image was taken at a pro-Palestine protest in 2023.
On 5 August 2024, Bangladesh’s former prime minister Sheikh Hasina Wajid resigned and fled the country, ending her 15-year rule over Bangladesh after mass student protests erupted all over the country.
Around this time, several social media posts shared an image claiming that it shows Bangladeshi students raising the Pakistani flag along with the Bangladeshi and Palestinian flags.
Fact or Fiction?
Through a reverse image search, Soch Fact Check found that this photograph was shared as early as November 2023 as well, which proves it was not taken in July or August 2024 during the recent protests in Bangladesh.
We also found this video on YouTube published by a channel called LLN NYC, short for Loud Labs New York. Titled “Palestine Protestors Shut Down Brooklyn Bridge NYC 10.28.23”, it was shared on YouTube on 29 October 2023. At the 3:55 marker you can see the same moment which is shown in the photograph in the claim.
Another video, linked in the description of this clip, shows 1 hour 23 minute-long live coverage of the pro-Palestine protest in New York, which took place in October 2023.
News outlets such as the New York Times and Fox News also reported on this protest on the Brooklyn Bridge. The Fox News report also includes a picture of the moments before protestors climb up the bridge to wave the Pakistani, Bangladeshi and Palestinian flags together.
Virality
On Instagram, we found the image shared here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.
On Facebook, we found the claim here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.
Conclusion: A photograph of the Pakistani, Bangladeshi and Palestinian flags being waved together is from a pro-Palestine protest at the Brooklyn Bridge. It was taken in 2023 and has nothing to do with the recent student protests in Bangladesh
—
Background image in cover photo: New Statesman
To appeal against our fact-check, please send an email to appeals@sochfactcheck.com