A video showing a woman signing a piece of paper while being surrounded by a large group of people is being shared with the false claim that it shows a Hindu government official being forced to resign by members of the Bangladesh National Party and Jamaat-e-Islam, following the collapse of the Sheikh Hasina government in Bangladesh.
BOOM found that the video shows the resignation of Amena Begum, the principal of Kabi Nazrul College, Dhaka, who belongs to the Muslim community - after being pressurised by student protesters.
Bangladesh had slid into massive unrest and political chaos after Sheikh Hasina resigned and fled the country surreptitiously on August 5. Reports of violence against the minorities have surfaced amidst massive law and order breakdown, vandalism, looting and killings of members of the previous regime of Awami League. Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged economist and Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, who took charge as the head of Bangladesh's interim government on August 8, to ensure safety of Hindus and other minorities.
The 52-second clip was shared widely on X, with the following viral caption, "In Bangladesh, the terrorists of Jamaat-e-Islami & BNP are now forcing Hindu government officials to write resignation letters and throwing them out of government service. Besides, they are still massacring Hindus and kidnapping and raping women."
Click here and here to view archives of the above tweets.
Fact Check
BOOM went through the replies to the viral tweets, and came across multiple responses claiming that the person in the video was a Muslim woman named Amena Begum, who is seen being forced to resign as the Principal of Kabi Nazrul Government College in Dhaka, by student protesters.
Taking cue from this, we did a keyword search in Bangla and came across multiple news reports on the incident. An article by Jago News 24 provided more details on the incident, and also carried an image that very closely resembled the scenario witnessed in the viral video.
"Kabi Nazrul Government College Principal Amena Begum resigned while facing pressure from students. On August 11, students protesting against discrimination had protested to have her resign," the article read.
The article mentions, citing Mehedi, a coordinator for the anti-discrimination student movement, that four students of the college were killed and hundreds were injured while protesting against the discriminatory quota system. "As the head of the educational institution, she did not inquire about the injured and killed students. Besides, she was at the leadership level of the corrupt and autocratic Awami League. Accused of various irregularities and corruption in the college. In the face of our demands, the corrupt principal Amena Begum was forced to resign," Mehedi was quoted as saying.
An article by news outlet Kalbela contained another image, which showed the exact same woman, wearing the same clothes, being surrounded by people. The article also contained a copy of her written resignation.
Looking through the search results of the Bangla keyword search, we also came across multiple videos posted on YouTube, which matched the video going viral (view them here, here and here).
Furthermore, we found a Facebook page under the name of Kabi Nazrul Govt. College, which contained an image confirming that Amena Begum is in fact the principal of the institution.
This confirms that the person in the viral video is Amena Begum, who's name further indicates that she belongs to the Muslim community, and is not a Hindu, as claimed by the viral posts.
