In the wake of Bangladesh’s poor performance in the World Cup 2023, a video of Shakib Al Hasan being pulled, and thrashed by a mob is going viral on the internet. It is being claimed that the Bangladeshi Captain Shakib was mobbed by angry Bangladeshi fans on his return to the country. The viral video was also shared by some media portals claiming that the Bangladeshi skipper was ‘brutally beaten’/ ‘assaulted’ after the team’s World Cup debacle.
Journalist Anil Tiwari who writes for Qatari mouthpiece Aljazeera, as per his Twitter bio, tweeted, “Bangladeshi fans assaulted their captain Shakib Al Hasan. Just yesterday, they were celebrating India’s defeat. Utterly disgraceful behaviour.”
Here are some headlines from media portals making those claims alongside sharing the viral video.
A Cricket portal named OneCricket headlined (Archive) “[Watch] Shakib Al Hasan Gets ‘Brutally Beaten’ By Bangladesh Fans After Horrific World Cup Run”
Notably, Bangladesh performed badly and finished in the eighth spot in the recently concluded World Cup, falling way below the fans’ expectations. The Shakib Al Hasan-led side only managed to win 2 games and the skipper himself had an unforgettable outing. He had to bench himself in some games due to injury concerns.
However, the claims being made on the basis of the viral videos are fake. The video doing rounds on the internet is an old video. The said incident involving Shakib Al Hasan captured in the video took place in March this year, that is the video is 8 months old. It is not linked with Bangladesh’s poor performance at the World Cup or Shakib’s below-per-performance. Additionally, the Bangladeshi skipper was not assaulted or mobbed on his return to the country after the team’s World Cup debacle, as claimed on the internet.
The incident took place in Dubai on 16th March when Shakib Al Hasan went for a commercial event at a Jewelry store.
After his series against England in March this year, Shakib flew to Dubai to inaugurate a gold jewelry shop that was owned by Arav Khan. Khan is a Bangladeshi fugitive and wanted in the murder case of a police official.
At the time of the incident, Shakib was surrounded by fans who went out of control and he tried to rush out. However, in the chaos, he almost fell over while fans kept pulling his collar to stop him and take selfies with him. As seen from the video and confirmed by media reports of that time, he had no security around him to keep fans in check.
Regarding the Dubai incident involving Shakib, the Additional commissioner (detective) of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) told the media that the man (Robiul Islam) who uploaded the video is from Bangladesh. The Police official added that Islam had murdered a police officer and had taken an Indian passport. He noted that the accused then went on to live in Dubai and despite knowing his criminal past Shakib went to his event.
It is important to note here that Arav Khan’s original name is Robiul Islam. He hails from Kotalipara in Gopalganj and fled the country after charges of murder.
The officer added that as part of the investigation, the Bangladeshi Cricket team’s captain might also be quizzed.
Sharing reports and details of the original incident, several Twitter users called out the fake claims being made about Shakib Al Hasan. The users slammed individuals and media outlets for peddling these false claims, particularly those who connected the recent setback for Bangladesh with an older video depicting fans pulling his shirt, falsely portraying it as a case of him being manhandled or assaulted while attempting to take a selfie.
Some users accused that the fake claims were peddled by Kohli fans in Bangladesh. A Twitter user wrote, “I hope you recover from the hated of your own birthland. Fake voice alert. This is an 8-month-old video from Dubai where he went for promotion and fans wanted to take it photo with him. Crowd went out of control. Such a disgusting thing that it is morphed by a Bangladeshi Kohli fan.”