Fact Check: Muslims in boats are not travelling to West Bengal from Bangladesh

Meanwhile, a video showing a group of boats carrying hundreds of people is going viral with the claims that the people seen transported in the boats are mullahs from Bangladesh who are coming to West Bengal and the government is not taking any action and that President's Rule should be imposed in the area. The viral posts are shared with the captions like “*बांग्लादेश से मुल्ले पहुंच रहे है बंगाल* *मोदी सरकार अब तो राष्ट्रपति शासन लागू करो*”.

When translated, it claims, “Mullahs are reaching Bengal from Bangladesh. The Modi government should now impose President's rule”. In the video, we can also see a man wearing a yellow shirt talking, and he is heard saying that Biswa Ijtema is going to start on January 31 and even before that, a crowd of Muslims is arriving.

Here is the archive link of the Claim.

Fact Check:

The claim is False. The video is not related to India.

In the video, we can hear the person state ‘Biswa Ijtema’. So when we searched more about the event named ‘Biswa Ijtema’, we found a report published on apnews.com, which states that tens of thousands of people gathered on a riverbank near Bangladesh’s capital on January 31, 2025 to listen to sermons by Islamic scholars at the Biswa Ijtema, or global congregation of Muslim devotees. This is the first phase of Biswa Ijtema, while the second phase will be held Feb. 3-5, 2025, The third phase was held from February14 to16, 2025.

Biswa Ijtema is one of the largest gatherings of Muslim devotees, held on the sandy banks of the Turag River in Tongi, just north of Dhaka, the capital. The event dates back to the 1950s when the Tablighi Jamaat movement started hosting the event. On January 31, 2025, Muslims joined the weekly afternoon prayers as many more continued to stream toward the venue from across Bangladesh.

When we extracted the keyframes from the viral video and used them to search using Google reverse image search, we found some related videos with hundreds of people travelling in boats is with the caption “চরমোনাই #youtube #চরমনাই #দৃশ্য #সাগর”

A YouTube channel named Rahim shorts bd shared the same video on February 29, 2024, with the same caption “চরমোনাই #চরমোনাই #chormonai #shortvideo”

Same video was shared on Facebook with the caption “চরমোনাই বাৎসরিক মাহফিল ফাল্গুন ২৮.২৯.১” when translated states “Charmonai annual festival”

Taking cue from the captions from these posts, When we searched about the Charmoani annual mahfil, we found that it is a large-scale Islamic gathering that takes place annually in Charmoani, Bangladesh. The Charmonai Annual Mahfil is a large-scale Islamic gathering that takes place annually in Charmonai, Bangladesh. It's a major religious event where millions of Muslims, both domestically and internationally, converge for a three-day period of religious activities, discussions, and prayers. The gathering is known for its vast numbers of attendees who travel, often by boat, to participate.

Though we are unsure whether the video shows people gathering for Biswa Ijtema or Charmoani annual mahfil, we found that the video is online from February 2024 and does not show people coming into West Bengal.

Therefore, the viral video showing hundreds of people travelling in boats does not show people coming to West Bengal, India, from Bangladesh. It shows people going to the Charmonai annual festival, which is conducted in Bangladesh. It is not related to India. The claim is False.