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A recurring pattern on Sri Lankan social media involves genuine footage from other countries being stripped of all contexts and reposted as recent local incidents. The goal is simple: provoke outrage.
A video showing two young men violently assaulting a third, his hands bound to a tree, has been circulating on Sri Lankan social media with the strong implication that it happened here, recently. It did not. Below is our fact-check.
Social Media Posts :
The video, showing a young man tied to a tree and being beaten by two assailants, spread rapidly across Sri Lankan social media, framed as a recent local incident.
Comments on the video reinforced the false Sri Lanka framing, with users responding as though it were a local crime. We investigated where and when this incident took place.
Fact-Check :
The video shows two young men assaulting another who is tied to a tree with his hands bound. No mainstream Sri Lankan media outlet or official source had confirmed any such incident occurring locally. We ran the footage through a Reverse Image Search.
The Video Is from Rajshahi, Bangladesh ; A Young Man Beaten Over a Theft Accusation
The reverse image search led directly to a Bangladeshi news report published on 11 May 2026. It identified the incident as having occurred in the Motihar Police jurisdiction of Rajshahi, Bangladesh on 10 May 2026. The victim, Mohammad Tushar, 18, a resident of the Kajla Bilpara area of Rajshahi was tied to a tree and beaten with clubs after being accused of theft. The full report is available here.
A Bangladeshi mainstream media outlet also reported on the incident, including the original video, available here.
Additional mainstream Bangladeshi media coverage of the incident is available here and here.
Those reports also confirmed that Motihar Police acted swiftly and arrested two suspects directly connected to the assault. The matter is now in the hands of Bangladeshi law enforcement. It has nothing to do with Sri Lanka.
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Conclusion :
The video circulating on Sri Lankan social media showing a young man tied to a tree and beaten was not filmed in Sri Lanka. It was a real incident , a brutal assault on 18-year-old Mohammad Tushar in Rajshahi, Bangladesh on 10 May 2026; that was stripped of its original context and repackaged to mislead Sri Lankan audiences.
Title: No, This Shocking Assault Video Is Not from Sri Lanka; It Was Filmed in Rajshahi, Bangladesh
Fact Check By: B.P. Hansani
Result: Misleading
