Bangladesh ruling party shares fabricated newspaper article ahead of election

Former general secretary of the Awami League's Student League Siddique Nazmul Alam posted a screenshot of the fabricated article on Facebook on September 1.

It appears to show the cover of Pakistan's Dawn newspaper, dated September 5, 1978, featuring a photo of Ziaur Rahman.

Rahman was president of Bangladesh from 1977 to 1981 and founded the Bangladesh National Party (BNP) -- now the country's main opposition force.

"Return to the Pak era," the headline reads.

Bangladesh -- formerly East Pakistan -- gained independence from Pakistan in 1971 after a war marked by horrific abuses that Bangladesh says killed as many as three million people and displaced many more.

In his Facebook post, Alam wrote: "On 1st September 1978, Murderer Ziaur Rahman established BNP. The ideology was to take Bangladesh in parallel with fraternal state Pakistan. Dawn Newspaper, Pakistan. 5 September 1978 Tuesday."

Bangladesh's current Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who heads the Awami League, has long accused Rahman of orchestrating the murder of her father -- the country's founding leader who was killed in a military coup in 1975, nearly four years after he led Bangladesh to independence.

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Screenshot of the fabricated article posted on Facebook, taken on December 28, 2023

The fabricated news report was shared by various Awami League supporters, including on Facebook pages and at an October rally, where an image of the article was brandished by Shamim Osman, member of parliament for the Narayanganj district (archived link).

The BNP has called for a boycott of January's general elections in which the 76-year-old Hasina is all but assured of winning a fifth term, saying no election will be free and fair with her in power (archived link).

Police responded to mass protests in October by arresting thousands of opposition officials and activists over charges of violence, after at least 11 people were killed and hundreds of vehicles torched, according to official data.

Phantom report

Archives of Dawn that the newspaper provided to AFP show the front cover on September 5, 1978 did not show the "Return to the Pak era" article shared on social media.

There is no trace of such a headline or article in any of the newspaper's 24-page issue from that day.

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The front page of the Dawn of Sept 5, 1978

Dawn's news editor Hassan Belal Zaidi said the article shared on Facebook was fabricated.

"Neither the headline nor the typeface/font seems to align with the Dawn's style from that era," he told AFP on October 25.

Meanwhile, a Pakistani flag appears to have been digitally inserted to the picture of Rahman in the fabricated article.

A version of the photo in reports by Channel i online and Roar media and in a biography of Rahman show a striped background without Pakistan's crescent flag (archived here and here).

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The 2016 book 'President Zia of Bangladesh : A Political Biography' by a Bangladeshi journalist Mahfuz Ullah features the photo with caption: "Zia announcing the formation of the Bangladesh Jatiyatabadi Dal (Bangladesh Nationalist Party- BNP) on Sept 1, 1978. Mashiur Rahman Jadu Miah is on his right."

On September 1, Rahman held a press conference to announce the BNP's formation, according to a copy of Bangladesh's Daily Ittefaq from September 2, 1978 seen by AFP.