Soon after erstwhile Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina resigned and left the country on August 5 following a month-long student-led protest, several videos of the ‘chaos’ in the neighbouring country emerged online. Social media users claimed that Hindus were being targeted and attacked in Bangladesh amid the crisis.
A video, which is being shared with a similar claim, shows a dead, disfigured man tied to a structure while a large crowd shouts slogans of “Allah-Hu-Akbar.” Verified user @SonOfBharat7 tweeted the video, claiming that an old Hindu man was attacked with “long swords” by Muslims who also inflicted 400 blows on him. He referred to Muslims as insects in his tweet and added that they just needed an excuse to shed blood. His tweet garnered over 350000 views. (Archive)
एक बूढ़े हिन्दू व्यक्ति पर
अल्ला हू अकबर बोलकर
लम्बी तलवारें लेकर टूट पड़े मुसलमान…..
400 वार किये उस बूढ़े व्यक्ति के जिश्म पे…सोचिये कितने बड़े मर्द हैं ये नपुंसक कीड़े 🐞
इन्हे सिर्फ खून बहाने का बहाना चाहिए..#Bangladesh #Hindu pic.twitter.com/DNGxHrrE8s— Deepak Sharma (@SonOfBharat7) August 5, 2024
Right-wing influencer @MrSinha_ had also tweeted the video with the same claim. Here is the archive to Google Cache. He later deleted it.
Several other users tweeted the video with the same claim. (Archives- 1, 2, 3, 4)
Fact Check
We spoke to a Bangladeshi journalist and ascertained that the man seen in this video was a Muslim man named Shahidul Islam Hiron. Upon a keyword search, we found that 75-year-old Hiron was an Awami League general secretary from Jhenaidah in south-western Bangladesh. According to a local report, Hiron and his driver, Akhtar, Hossain were hacked and burnt to death.
Eyewitnesses reportedly said that around noon on August 5, a mob vandalized Hiron’s house and in the process, Hiron fired at the crowd injuring several people. The mob went on to set fire to his house and injure his personal driver, Akhtar. Akhtar was taken to the local hospital where the doctor declared him dead.
On the other hand, Hiron, who was stuck on the third floor of the house, died in the fire. The mob broke into the house took out the body and hung it in Paira Chattar in the centre of the city. From there, the body was sent to the morgue of the local hospital. Other reports (1, 2) also corroborated this chain of events.
We also found a YouTube video filmed during the incident at Paira Chattar. The man filming the video also identified the deceased man as Hiron and also stated that Hiron had been burnt to death and brought to the scene. Here is a link to the video. Alt News will refrain from embedding the same due to its graphic nature.
We also geo-located the place where Hiron’s body was hung. The spot is called Paira Chattar. The place takes its name from a statue of a pigeon (Paira in Bengali) at the intersection. In the viral video, the foot of the statue is visible, confirming the location. Below is a comparison among an image from Wikipedia, a key frame from the YouTube video a key frame from the viral video.
Hence, a video of a Muslim Awami League leader burnt to death and hid body hung from a statue at an intersection in the Jhenaidah in Bangladesh is viral with the false claim that the deceased is a Hindu.
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