A video showing a group of men and women assault a woman is being shared with the claim that she is being attacked for being Hindu in Bangladesh, during the recent spate of anti-minority attacks following the fall of the Sheikh Hasina government.
BOOM found this claim to be false; our fact-check reveals that the video is from Brahmanbaria, Bangladesh, a district near the Tripura border, and the woman being attacked belongs to the Muslim community, and is a member of Chhatra League - the student wing of Sheikh Hasina's party Awami League.
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. According to a report published by news agency Reuters on 9 August 2024, hundreds of people took to the streets of the capital Dhaka on Friday (9 August) to protest against the violence against Hindus.
Sharing the viral video on X, verified user @ajaychauhan41 wrote, "There is no place for minority Hindus in the new Bangladesh."
Click here to view an archive of the post.
The same video was also shared on Facebook, with the caption, "In Bangladesh, a group of Muslims catch a Hindu girl and insult her! #SaveBangladeshHindus Save Hindus from genocide in Bangladesh."
Fact Check
BOOM's fact-check revealed that the incident occurred on August 7, 2024, near Brahmanbaria, and that the victim in the viral video is a Chhatra League leader, and that she belongs to the Muslim community.
To investigate the viral claim, we took key frames using the Invid tool and did a reverse image search on Google Lens. During this, we found a YouTube video whose Bengali caption translates in English as, "Chhatra League leader Brahmanbaria."
Taking a cue from this, we searched on Facebook with Bangla keywords. This led us to multiple posts including a brief version of the video. In this video, some people are seen beating the Chhatra League leader and attempting to throw her into a pond. Finally, some people rescue her and take her away from there in a rickshaw.
In its caption, the victim was described as the leader of Brahmanbaria Chhatra League. In some posts, she was also described as the Vice President of Chhatra League. According to a Facebook post, the incident took place on August 7, 2024.
BOOM contacted Piyush Kanti Acharya, a local journalist from Brahmanbaria, who clarified that the claim being made with the video is false. “The victim is not a Hindu. She is associated with Chhatra League, the student wing of the Awami League,” Piyush told BOOM.
Furthermore, BOOM also found the victim's identity card from the Upazila Parishad elections, where she was on duty as a polling agent. Her name further clarified thatat she belongs to the Muslim community. However, as a precaution, and in order to protect her privacy, we are not disclosing the victim's name in this article.
Additional inputs from BOOM Bangladesh fact-checker Tausif Akbar.