Local media in Bangladesh have recently reported cases of physical abuse in schools, but footage of a boy hanging upside down is not from a madrasa in the South Asian country, as online posts claim. The clip was filmed in Pakistan and led to the arrest of a teacher in June 2019, police said at the time.

Warning: graphic visuals

“How inhumane can it be for something to make this possible! This is how tickets to heaven are given in some madrasas in Bangladesh,” reads a Bengali-language Facebook post on April 27, 2025.

It includes graphic footage of a crying child suspended head down while other students read books inside a madrasa, an educational institution with a curriculum combining Islamic theology and general sciences (archived link).

Similar posts spread on Facebook following reports of teachers physically assaulting students in madrasas in Bangladesh including an incident that allegedly led to the death of a young boy (archived here and here).

But the circulating video is old and not taken in Bangladesh.

A reverse image search of keyframes found it earlier posted on the Facebook account of Pakistan’s Express News television channel on June 29, 2019 (archived link).

“Man arrested for torturing a child hanging upside down in madrasa,” reads the post’s Urdu-language caption.

Subsequent keyword searches found similar visuals embedded in Geo News and The Express Tribune reports in June 2019 (archived link).

The incident occurred several months prior after which there was a settlement between the parties involved, according to The Express Tribune report.

Police in Pakistan’s Rawalpindi city said they conducted an investigation when the clip went viral and arrested the teacher who allegedly tied the child up (archived link).

AFP reached out to the police but a representative said no update could be provided as the case is old.