Fact check: False claims fuel ethnic tensions in Bangladesh

Bangladesh has plunged into chaos following the ouster of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on August 5, which came after weeks of riots.

Initially peaceful protests by students escalated into a broader movement demanding an end to Hasina's increasingly authoritarian leadership.  

After her resignation, crowds stormed the prime minister's palace, vandalizing it along with other state-owned buildings and homes of members of the governing Awami League party.

According to Indian and local media, attacks on houses, places of worship and businesses belonging to religious minorities took place across the country. Hindu temples were targeted in several cities, including Natore, Dhaka, Patuakhali, and Jessore. In response, several students and clerics reportedly gathered in front of the temples to protect them from mob violence.

Like its neighbor India, Bangladesh has a history of religious tensions between its Hindu and Muslim communities. In recent years, the Bangladeshi Hindu minority, which makes up 8% of the population, has been targeted by violent mobs several times. However, many reports about the attacks on Hindu temples and communities by Bangladeshi protesters were not true.

DW Fact Check has investigated a few viral cases.

Hindu cricketer's house 'set on fire'

Claim: "Bangladeshi Hindu cricketer Liton Das' house has been set on fire"

A post on X(formerly Twitter) alleged that the house of Liton Das, a famous Bangladeshi Hindu cricketer, had been set on fire, sharing a collage of two pictures as evidence.

In one image a young man can be seen sitting next to a Hindu place of worship and the other image shows a burning house. More than a million users have seen the post. The collage was also shared by numerous other accounts with similar claims. 

DW fact check: False

The man in the picture is indeed Liton Das, and a reverse image search shows that the image was taken from his official account. However, the burning mansion is not his home. A reverse search of that image leads to media reports about former Bangladesh cricket team captain Mashrafe Mortaza's house being set on fire by protesters.

DW also geolocated the house and confirmed it belonged to Mortaza, who became a target due to his political activities and close alliance with Hasina's Awami League party. The Muslim sportsman was a member of parliament, having won a seat for the second consecutive time as an Awami League candidate during the general elections held in Bangladesh earlier this year.

Claims about rape, sexual harassment of Hindu women

There are many claims circulating on various social media platforms about sexual violence against women from the Hindu minority in Bangladesh. Two have been shared multiple times and viewed thousands of times. But some are old, and some have been proven to be earlier events presented out of context, like this case.

Claim: A video shows Muslim men waving a Hindu woman's underwear

The post on X says, "Look carefully at these Bangladeshi Muslims: Hindu girls' bras were removed and then they were raped. Now he is roaming the streets with that bra shamelessly and presenting proof of his manhood." As of publication, the post had about 30,000 views.

DW fact check: False

The 23-second video shows protesters storming the prime minister's official residence. Many pictures and videos have been published online showing rioters looting  Hasina's belongings, including her clothes and underwear since she fled the country. In the last seconds of the video, a building with red-brown walls is visible, resembling Ganabhaban, the official residence of the Bangladeshi prime minister. 

A comparison of the building in the video and images of Ganabhaban from agency footage shows that the building is indeed the official residence of the former prime minister. In the photo below, the palm trees and window shapes match those seen in the last seconds of the video.

Another post on X shares a screenshot of a Telegram post with a picture of a woman being restrained, accompanied by Bengali text threatening Hindus and encouraging violence to drive them back to India.

Claim: A Hindu woman was sexually assaulted and gang-raped by a group of Muslim men at the University of Dhaka.

This post (warning: extreme, graphic violence) was published on August 2, three days before Hasina fled the country. But it has been increasingly shared by numerous other accounts in recent days, to date garnering more than 30,000 views.

The caption reads: "The so-called Jamaat-e-Islami quota protesters leaked a video of the gang rape of a Hindu girl to the Islamic army group. If Hasina's government falls, they have threatened to rape all Hindu girls out of their homes."

DW fact check: False

A reverse image search of that screenshot revealed that is has been shared in past years with claims of rape and sexual abuse, but from different regions. For example, it was attributed to a gang rape in the Indian province of Manipur in 2023, claiming to show Hindu men kidnapping and gang-raping a Christian girl. In 2021, it went viral in Indonesia, claiming to show an Indonesian migrant worker woman tortured and raped by five Bangladeshi citizens.

The Indian fact-checking platform Boom traced the video back to its origin in East Bengaluru's Ramamurthy Nagar in May 2021, where police arrested 12 Bangladeshi nationals, including three women, for the assault and rape of a 22-year-old.

AI images also used to stir emotions

The plethora of unverified social posts aimed at heightening ethnic tensions in Bangladesh haven't just used old or manipulated images and videos. Content generated by artificial intelligence has also played a role.

One AI-generated image is going viral on platforms like X and Facebook. It depicts a massive crowd gathered around a towering flagpole with the Bangladeshi flag waving at the top, under a hazy sky. The scene suggests a large-scale event or demonstration, symbolizing national pride and unity.

The image exhibits typical signs of AI generation. The figures on the pole have disfigured, abnormal legs and the perspective is off, with the vertical pole and the background crowd view appearing unusual. Additionally, the proportions of the people on the pole and those below do not match. Several pieces of rope seem to float in the air without connection.

Modified versions of this graphic have also been used to promote claims of ethnic violence. For instance, one version includes the words "ALL EYES ON BANGLADESH, SAVE HINDUS." Another AI-generated photomaking the rounds shows a burning Hindu temple with the superimposed "ALL EYES ON BANGLADESH HINDUS" text. The foreground depicts numerous bodies lying on the ground, with blood and debris, creating a scene of violence and destruction.

Andreas Wisskirchen contributed to this report.

Edited by: Rachel Baig