In the month or so after the assassination of student leader Sharif Osman Hadi in Bangladesh, at least four Hindu men, namely Dipu Chandra Das, Amrit Mondal, Bajendra Biswas and Khokon Chandra Das were killed in sporadic incidents of violence in the country, adding to growing concerns over the safety of Hindu minorities under the interim government led by Muhammad Yunus.
In this context, a video, around 23 seconds in length, is viral on social media, showing a group of men viciously beating up a bearded man who is dressed in a robe generally worn by monks. The assailants take turns to punch, kick, and hit the victim with sticks, with a few onlookers witnessing the assault but not intervening. Users have circulated this video alleging that it shows a Hindu man being thrashed in Bangladesh.
X user Uma Shankar Rajput (@UmaShankar2054) posted the video on December 31. The caption, originally in Hindi, says: “No one is ready to take cognizance of the condition of Hindus in Bangladesh.” (Archive)
Several other users, like @divyang80ankit, @Amandee93778258, @SatyaSanatNews and others amplified the video with similar claims. (Archives: 1, 2, 3)
Screenshots below:
The video was also viral on Facebook, with the claim that it showed a Hindu man being assaulted in Bangladesh.
Fact Check
To verify the authenticity of the claims associated with the viral video, we broke down the clip into keyframes. A reverse image search on one such keyframe led us to the same video uploaded as an Instagram reel on December 21 by user @sagararjeet.
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The video is overlaid with a Hindi caption that says, “Baccha chor baba teen saal ka ladka chura liya Tanda railway station,” indicating that the man being assaulted was allegedly found trying to kidnap a child. The incident is from Tanda Urmar, a municipal town in Hoshiarpur district of Punjab.
We went through the Instagram timeline of Arjeet Sgaar and came across a few other videos which featured the same person, who was being assaulted in the viral video.
On December 16, the user uploaded a video showing a journalist reporting on the detainment of the person who was being beaten in the viral video, on charges of child theft.
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We found that the incident was also reported on by an Instagram page, the_voice_of_haryana, on December 16. The caption of the post, when translated into English, reads: “The incident is from Tanda Railway Station in Punjab, where some people are seen beating a monk It is alleged that the monk had tried to steal a child. As soon as this came out, people got angry and started beating the sadhu mercilessly.”
In conclusion, the viral video of the man being assaulted has no connection with the recent unrest in Bangladesh. On investigating, Alt News found that the incident is from the Tanda Railway Station, in the Hoshiarpur district of Punjab, and has been available on the internet since at least December 14. The saint was being beaten up by the crowd with sticks on allegations of child theft, and not because of his religious identity. The unrelated video, which is actually from Punjab, has been falsely circulated on social media by linking it with the violence against Hindu minorities in Bangladesh.
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