Video shows detention of members of Bangladesh paramilitary forces, not Burmese rebels
A video, viewed thousands of times on social media, shows the detention of members of Bangladesh paramilitary forces, contrary to posts claiming they are from minority rebel groups in neighboring Myanmar. The video aired on local media about the arrest of Ansar Bahini (also known as Bangladesh Ansar and Rural Defense Forces) in local media reports in August 2024.
“Recently the Bangladesh Army claimed that they arrested 15 AA Arakan Army members,” a Facebook video title shared on July 15, 2025.
The video, viewed over 24,000 times, shows a group of men in military uniforms sitting on the floor, with their hands raising their heads. The group was surrounded by armed soldiers and bystanders.
The Arakan army is a minority rebel group that fights Myanmar in the Suptive toctive Link. They claim December 2024 (the archived link) has complete control over key areas along the Bangladesh border.
The region has become the main front for Myanmar’s highly broken civil war, capturing countless ethnic rebels and pro-democratic fighters (to the junta) (reserved link) in the 2021 coup.
According to UN data, in Rakhine alone, more than 3.5 million people are internally displaced in Myanmar.
Screenshots of the screenshot were captured on July 24, 2025 and added the AFP’s red X
The same clips were shared in similar Facebook and X posts.
But the video did not show the arrest of members of the Alaka Army.
Ansar protests
The combination of reverse image searches uses key frames from wrongly shared videos and keyword searches, resulting in the same video (archive link) posted on Instagram on August 26, 2024.
In the Instagram video, someone can be heard saying in Bengali, “Hey, man, take the rope. Tie them all.”
Further keyword searches found that the clip was also released by local news media radio station Padma Padma on the same day, involving the arrest of the Bangladesh army of paramilitary Ansar troops (archive link).
RTV Bangladesh (archive link) published similar videos shot from different angles.
According to the Dhaka Tribune, Ansar Bahini – also known as Bangladesh Ansar and the Rural Defence Force – is a paramilitary auxiliary force managed by the Archield Link.
The force has about 6 million members and is responsible for preserving internal security and law enforcement in Bangladesh.
Screenshots compare wrongly shared videos (left) and clips published by Radio Padma News (right)
According to the Daily Star, Ansar members have been demanding that the force be abolished and will send members for six months of unpaid leave after three consecutive years of work (archive link).
The report said that despite the guarantee of abolishing mandatory unpaid leave from the interim government of Bangladesh, there was a conflict between students and Ansar members who blocked a major government building.
A careful analysis of the fake shared video also shows that individuals sitting on the floor wearing uniforms correspond to those worn by Ansar members, as shown in the Ansar protest photos provided on the Getty Images website (archive link) in August 2024.
Comparison of screenshots of Radio Padma News Clip (left) and Getty Images Photo (right), AFP highlights and enlarges the similarities
AFP previously revealed other misinformation related to the Araka army and the unrest in Myanmar.
