Baseless claims ex-US envoy visited Bangladesh share forged document

An image appearing to show a list of passengers who used the VIP lounge of Dhaka's Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport was shared on Facebook in the early hours of August 6, 2025.

The purported list is annotated to highlight the date -- August 5 -- and the name of former US diplomat Peter Haas next to a departing flight he is alleged to have taken.

Haas served as the US ambassador to Bangladesh between January 2022 and July 2024.

"Peter Haas was in Bangladesh until he departed on Emirates' flight EK-583 today, August 5, 2025 at 19:10," reads part of the image's Bengali-language caption.

"But the National Citizens Party (NCP) has reported through various national media and social media that Peter Haas is in America. Such an extreme lie that reflects the terrible state of our media."

The NCP is a newly formed political party comprising many of the students who spearheaded the uprising that toppled former prime minister Sheikh Hasina's government in August 2024 (archived here and here).

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Screenshot of the false Facebook post captured on August 10, 2025, with a red X added by AFP

The image was also shared in similar Facebook and X posts, after a local television channel claimed four NCP leaders skipped state functions marking the first anniversary of the revolution to meet Haas at a hotel in Cox's Bazar on August 5 (archived here and here).

The purported meeting and the NCP leaders' decision to skip state functions was widely criticised, with some linking the supposed gathering as an indicator of US involvement in Hasina's ouster (archived link).

But Haas was in Washington at the time of the alleged meeting, according to multiple sources.

Golam Mortoza, press minister at Bangladesh's embassy in Washington, refuted the rumours in an August 5 statement on Facebook (archived link). 

"One of the two people who could be seen taking the photo, is Peter Haas, former US ambassador to Bangladesh," Mortoza said in a Bengali-language post.

"He is still in the USA this morning (9am Washington time, 5 August 2025). The picture is from last Friday (August 1)." 

A representative for Excelerate Energy, a US firm where Haas is currently an adviser, separately told AFP he has not travelled to Bangladesh since April 2025.

And NCP leader Nasiruddin Patwari told Bangladeshi newspaper The Business Standard: "The news circulating in the media about us having a meeting with Peter Haas is a rumour and baseless" (archived link).

Fabricated VIP list

S M Ragib Samad, executive director of the airport in Dhaka, told AFP the supposed VIP list is "completely fake" (archived link).

An analysis of the circulating image found several factual errors that indicate it has been forged.

The purported list does not use the official Bengali name for the Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh, using the word for "private" in place of "civil" (archived link).

The document also bears the signature of a "Sharier Chowdhury" who is supposedly an assistant director looking after aviation security, but no such person is listed on the airport's  list of officers (archived link). 

According to flight tracking website FlightAware, Emirates flight 583 bound for Dubai departed Dhaka on August 5 at 10:52 am -- not, as the false posts claimed, at 7:10 pm (archived link).

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Screenshot comparison of the falsely shared image (left) and the flight record on FlightAware (right), with the discrepancy in the departure time highlighted by AFP

There are also discrepancies with other flights listed on the document. For example, FlyDubai flight 502 is listed as having departed at 7:20 pm but in fact left Dhaka at 8:15 am (archived link).

The document also contains incorrectly spelled names, as well as incorrect job titles. Mohammad Mezbah Uddin Chowdhury, for example, is listed as a Ministry of Shipping officer even though he was transferred to another ministry on May 22, 2022 (archived link).

AFP has previously debunked other misinformation about Bangladesh's political unrest.