Disinformation and fake videos are being spread about attacks on Hindus in Bangladesh, says an article in Prothom Alo, one of the country’s leading dailies.
The article appeared on Friday, a day after the interim government led by Nobel laureate Dr Muhammad Yunus was sworn in following the sudden resignation of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her departure for Delhi on Monday.
“After the fall of the Sheikh Hasina government, the Awami League offices in various districts including Dhaka, the houses of Awami League leaders and their business establishments were attacked,” says the article.
“There also were incidents of attacks on the minority communities in various districts, particularly on the members of the Hindu community. The Indian government has formed a committee to keep watch on the situation in Bangladesh,” it adds.
It then goes on to cite Dismislab.com, an online fact check and media research platform, which said ‘they have found six posts with false information. These posts are particularly being spread on X (formerly Twitter), but are also finding place in mainstream media.”
For instance, “a post on X reports an attack on Nobogroho temple in Chattogram, but a latest image shows the establishment to remain undamaged,” it says with a screenshot of the post and a picture of the unharmed temple.
It then goes on to quote an “advisor of the temple’s committee,” Rony Biswas, as saying “We are on guard round the clock at the temple. So far nothing has happened.” However, there was a fire at the Awami League office behind the temple, Biswas added.
Similarly, “An X account run from India claims that the home of Bangladeshi cricketer Liton Das being burnt down. But Dismislab found this was not Liton Das’ house at all. It was the house of the former Narail-2 member of parliament Mashrafe Bin Mortuza. Liton Das himself on Facebook clarified the matter,” says the article.
Yet another video which claimed to show shops of Hindus set ablaze was actually that of a market fire that occurred in July and did not have any communal angle to it, the paper said.
In yet another instance, ‘an X account called Baba Banaras posted a video saying that a Bangladeshi Hindu person had been killed and hung from a statue. But Dismislab investigated and found the dead body was not of a Hindu, but of Shahidul Islam Hiron, the Jhenaidah Sadar upazila general secretary and Sadar upazila no. 9 Porahati union chairman,’ the report said.
On Friday, the day Prothom Alo published the report, ‘hundreds of people protested in the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka on Friday against violence targeting the country’s minority Hindus since former prime minister Sheikh Hasina quit and fled the country earlier this week,’ said a Reuters report.
A school teacher was killed and at least 45 people injured as homes, businesses, and temples of Hindus in Muslim-majority Bangladesh were targeted following Hasina’s resignation on Monday, it said.
Ironically, a section of a speech by Yunus where he said reports of rising attacks against Hindus and other minorities were part of a conspiracy, was put out on X with a caption saying he had admitted that such attacks were taking place by Islamists, and that he would resign if these attacks continued.
