Facebook post from 2015 ascribing false quote to ex-Bangladesh PM Khaleda Zia viral

Several people have shared an image of former Bangladeshi PM Begum Khaleda Zia ascribing the alleged quote to her – “I regret the continuing of massacre of Hindus & Buddhists in Bangladesh, but Bangladesh is an Islamic Nation and not Secular. Now, the Muslims are in majority here. Under the circumstances, if Hindus & Buddhists want to live safely, they should either convert to Islam or go to India.” The image also has the text ‘This is why CAA’. It is circulating against the backdrop of the recent communal violence against the minority Hindu community in Bangladesh.

Alt News has received multiple requests to verify the alleged statement. It is also widespread on Facebook.

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Twitter user @ssingapuri had posted the viral image earlier in August.

Finally Begum Khalida Zia of Bangladesh proclaims!! If Hindus Buddhist want to live safely, either convert to Islam or move to India. How frank is that? pic.twitter.com/HqYopp8iXS

— Sandy Boy 🇮🇳(Sundeep) (@ssingapuri) August 18, 2021

In fact, the claim has been circulating on social media for the past few years.

FACT-CHECK

Readers should note if former Bangladeshi PM Begum Khaleda Zia had made this comment it would have been covered by regional and international media. No news outlet has reported that Zia made such a statement.

Further, Zia is associated with Bangladesh Nationalist Party. There is no party called ‘Bangla National Party’ as mentioned in the viral image.

The viral post was made by Facebook page Khabar24x7.com on July 20, 2015.

Alt News looked up the domain khabar24x7.com and found that no such website currently exists.

As per Big Domain Data, the domain was created in 2014. It was last hosted on Wix.com.

To sum it up, a false communal quote was attributed to former Bangladeshi PM Begum Khaleda Zia. The quote has been circulating on right-wing websites for several years now. The oldest we could find is from May 2014. Earlier in August, Alt News reported that hoardings with fake quotes attributed to prominent Muslims appeared in UP’s Pratapgarh. We found that some of those quotes date back a decade on social media.