Old video of student rally falsely shared as Hindus protesting in Bangladesh after PM ouster
- Published on August 20, 2024 at 09:15
- 3 min read
- By Sachin BAGHEL, AFP India
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"Saffron floods the streets of Dhaka. Hindus of Bangladesh have taken to the streets to protest against the attacks on them," read the Hindi-language caption of a video shared on social media platform X.
The post has been viewed over 95,000 times since it was published on August 10 and contained a video that shows a huge crowd of people, mostly clad in orange, marching in the streets.
The false claim has spread as more than 1,000 Hindus gathered demanding Bangladesh's new interim government, led by Nobel peace laureate Muhammad Yunus, to urgently protect members of their faith from harm (archived link).
There were numerous reports of attacks against Hindus after Hasina -- who had been in power since 2009 -- resigned and fled to India on August 5 following a student-led uprising.
Hindus are the largest minority ethnic group in Bangladesh and are considered a steadfast support base for Hasina's party, the Awami League (archived link).
The false claim was also shared in another post on X and Facebook.
But the video is old and does not show a protest by Hindus in Bangladesh.
2023 student rally
A reverse image search found a video showing the same scene was uploaded to YouTube on September 2, 2023 (archived link).
The Bengali caption said the video shows a "massive procession" in Dhaka led by a leader from the Awami League, Fahmi Gulandaz Babel.
Below is a screenshot comparison of the video in the false post (left) and the YouTube video (right).
Babel also uploaded pictures showing the same parade on September 1, 2023 on his Facebook account (archived link).
The caption said the rally was held by the Bangladesh Chhatra League -- a student political wing of Awami League founded by Hasina's father, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman -- to commemorate Rahman and his wife Sheikh Fazilatunnesa Mujib.
Bangladeshi outlet Channel 24 uploaded a video on September 1, 2023 showing a similar scene (archived link).
The Dhaka Tribune also reported on the same day that Hasina addressed the parade and called on party members to be vigilant against any conspiracy to obstruct the progress of Bangladesh (archived link).
AFP has previously debunked other misinformation related to the Bangladesh unrest here, here and here.
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