Bangladesh newspaper targeted by false death toll as violence rages on

"The number of martyrs has exceeded 900. Source: Prothom Alo," read a Bengali-language Facebook post shared on July 22 in a group with more than 115,000 members.

The post surfaced as protests over employment quotas sparked widespread unrest in Bangladesh, with demonstrations against politicised admission quotas for sought-after government jobs snowballing into some of the worst unrest of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's tenure.

A curfew was imposed and soldiers deployed across the South Asian country. A nationwide internet blackout drastically restricted the flow of information.

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Screenshot of the false post taken on July 23

With around 18 million young people in Bangladesh out of work, according to government figures, the June reintroduction of the quota scheme -- halted since 2018 -- deeply upset graduates facing an acute jobs crisis.

Faced with mounting protests, the Supreme Court curtailed the number of reserved jobs from 56 percent of all positions to seven percent, mostly for the children and grandchildren of "freedom fighters" from the 1971 war.

Similar Facebook posts racked up thousands of shares here and here.

Baseless figure

AFP found no reports on Prothom Alo's website, Facebook page or YouTube channel that pegged the number of dead in the unrest at 900 (archived here, here and here).

The newspaper's print edition on July 25 reported the death toll was 201.

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Screenshot of Prothom Alo's front page from July 25, with the reported death toll highlighted by AFP

An AFP count of victims reported by police and hospitals found at least 193 people had died, as of July 25. 

AFP journalists obtained that figure by contacting individual hospitals, who provided the number of people killed in the unrest based on information from the police or the patient's relatives. In other cases, deaths were confirmed directly by police.

Prothom Alo's executive editor Sajjad Sharif refuted the claims shared on social media.

"The latest death count is 187 which was reported only in our printed paper today," he told AFP on July 23 -- although the newspaper later updated that toll to 201.

"We had to stop updating our website and social media handles due to the blackout on July 19. Currently, we are only publishing printed copies of our paper."

He said the newspaper contacted local hospitals to obtain the death toll.