A viral video circulating on social media shows a person visiting grocery stores and urging shop owners not to sell Indian products. In the video the person is heard saying in Bengali, "Boycott Indian Products Campaign."
Indian social media users are claiming that, after the formation of the new government in Bangladesh, Muslim shopkeepers are being encouraged to boycott and stop selling Indian goods.
However, BOOM found that the Bangladesh government has not made any such appeal. The viral video is originally from a protest organised by Bangladesh's political party 'Gana Adhikar Parishad' in February 2024.
Since the resignation of Sheikh Hasina as Bangladesh's prime minister on August 5, 2024, there has been widespread violence in the country. Targeted attacks have been reported against members of the former ruling party, Awami League, and religious minorities. Homes, places of worship, and businesses belonging to religious minorities have been attacked in different parts of Bangladesh.
On August 8, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had also appealed to economist and Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, who became the head of the interim government of Bangladesh, to ensure the safety of Hindus and other minorities.
Sharing the video on X, a user wrote, 'The new government of Bangladesh has started its official campaign to boycott Indian products. BNP leaders went around the cities and asked shopkeepers to stop selling Indian products like Parachute Oil, Dabur Honey, Ujala Washing Powder etc. They have also mentioned boycotting Adani.' The post further read, 'The Indian government should now understand that a bigger threat than Pakistan is emerging from Bangladesh on our eastern border and Bangladesh should be responded to in its own language.'
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Similarly, a user on Facebook wrote, “As soon as the new government is formed in Bangladesh, all the Muslim shopkeepers are being strictly warned that if there is any Indian product in your shop, either destroy it or it should not be visible anywhere in the shop. This is a Muslim country which hates Hindus so much and there are more Muslims living in India than them. Secular people should now say that this is right. What would Bhaijaan say?”
Fact-check
To verify the claim, BOOM used the InVid tool to perform a reverse image search on key frames from the viral video. They found the video shared on February 22, 2024, by a Facebook user named Tamanna Ferdous Shikha. The video shows an appeal to shopkeepers not to sell Indian products. The caption in Bengali, when translated to Hindi, roughly means, "A warning was given not to go to shops and sell Indian products."
According to the information given on Shikha 's Facebook account, she is the leader of the Gana Adhikar Parishad (Gono Odhikar Parishad) party.
Using this information, a Google search with Bengali keywords led to the Facebook account of the man seen in the video. His name is Mohammad Tariq Rahman, and he is a member of the Gana Adhikar Parishad.
As per a report by the Bangladeshi news outlet New Age, the Gana Adhikar Parishad is a political party in Bangladesh that was founded in October 2021.
When BOOM reached out to Mohammad Tariq for further clarification, he said, "The person in the video is me. This is an incident from February 2024, which was part of a campaign to boycott Indian products in the country. This incident took place in the market adjoining the Dhaka Judge Court."
Moreover, general elections were held in Bangladesh in January 2024, where Sheikh Hasina won a fourth term. According to an Al Jazeera report, the opposition boycotted the elections and launched a large "India Out" campaign, accusing India of interfering with Bangladeshi politics. The #BoycottIndia campaign started in mid-January. Many photos and videos related to this campaign have been shared on Mohammad Tariq Rahman's Facebook account.
On February 19, 2024, a post on his account listed Indian products that were being called for a boycott.
In a post on February 21, this year, Tariq can be seen holding the same poster listing Indian products. The Bangla caption in the post read, "Boycott Indian products.
Bangladeshi news outlets such as Protho Malo and Ajker Patrika had also carried reports of a campaign to boycott Indian products by members of the Gana Adhikar Parishad party in February-March 2024. The then Prime Minister of Bangladesh Sheikh Hasina had condemned the 'boycott Indian products' campaign being run by the opposition parties.
Between February and March 2024, Bangladeshi news outlets like Protho Malo and Ajker Patrika reported that the Gana Adhikar Parishad party was leading a campaign to boycott Indian products.
At the time, the Prime Minister of Bangladesh,
Sheikh Hasina, had criticised this campaign by the opposition parties.
