FACT CHECK: NOT A BANGLADESH MILITARY DETENTION FACILITY, BUT THE PARIS CATACOMBS

Wed 04 September 2024:

As numerous important figures were released from a secret detention facility maintained by the Bangladeshi military following the overthrow of dictatorial Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, online posters circulated a video of human bones in the Paris catacombs with an incorrect claim that it depicted the prison’s basement. The video was originally shared by a social media user who identified as an urban explorer.

“Who knows how many mothers’ sons ended up here? The underground (floor) of Aynaghar,” read the Bengali-language caption of a Facebook post that shared a video on August 7, 2024.

The video — viewed more than one million times — shows piles of bones in a narrow dark corridor.

Human Rights Watch said in 2023 that security forces committed “over 600 enforced disappearances” since Hasina took power in 2009.

Following Hasina’s ouster, several prominent figures, including the son of former Jamaat-e-Islami political party leader Al Azmi, rights activist Michael Chakma, and Bangladeshi barrister Ahmad Bin Quasem, were released from a secret prison run by the country’s army intelligence.

The false claim was also shared on YouTube and TikTok.

However, the video shows the Paris catacombs, the massive underground ossuary in the French capital.

A reverse image search in Google found the same video was published on social media platform X on June 17, 2024 (archived link).

A watermark “Samara Adventures” could be seen at the video’s four-second mark. The name led to a corresponding Instagram page that specialises in urban exploration, which published the same video on April 21, 2024 (archived link).

“Catacombs adventures,” the video’s caption read. “This one is not my most beautiful video, but you can feel the real catacombs vibes.”

Below is a screenshot comparison of the false video (left) and the Instagram video (right):

The same video was uploaded to a TikTok account with the same username on April 27 that also said it was filmed in the Paris catacombs (archived link).

The TikTok account also published other footage that appeared to show the Paris catacombs here and here (archived links here and here).

The Paris catacombs are one of the city’s most popular attractions and lure some 500,000 visitors a year, although some parts are not open to the public.