Video of man attacked at Indian train station falsely linked to anti-Hindu violence in Bangladesh
- Published on January 13, 2026 at 07:55
- 3 min read
- By Akshita KUMARI, AFP India
Indian media reported at least 11 Hindus have been killed since December 2025 in Bangladesh in incidents of alleged sectarian violence. But footage from a railway station does not show a mob attacking a Hindu man in the Muslim-majority country, as social media posts falsely claim. Visual clues in the video show it was filmed in neighbouring India, and railway police confirmed to AFP the man was assaulted on suspicion of child abduction but no official complaint was lodged against him.
"Condition of Hindus in Bangladesh. No one is ready to pay attention to the situation," reads a Hindi-language Facebook post shared on December 31, 2025, with hashtags including "Hindu Lives Matter" and "Save Bangladeshi Hindus".
The 23-second clip that racked up more than 11,000 views shows several men hitting a person in a saffron robe -- a common attire among Hindu monks.
The death of Sharif Osman Hadi in December 2025, a key student leader in the pro-democracy uprising that ousted Hasina, triggered another spate of violence in Bangladesh (archived link).
Several buildings in Dhaka were set on fire, including the offices of leading newspapers Prothom Alo and the Daily Star (archived link).
Critics have accused the publications of favouring neighbouring India, where Hasina has taken refuge since fleeing Bangladesh in the wake of the 2024 uprising.
Indian media also reported at least 11 Hindus have been killed in Bangladesh since December 2025, including the lynching of a Hindu garment worker Dipu Chandra Das after he was accused of blasphemy (archived here and here).
The clip was shared in similar posts on Facebook, Instagram and X, but visual evidence shows it was filmed in India, not Bangladesh.
Unrelated incident
A reverse image search on Google using keyframes from the falsely shared clip found a video showing the same scene shared on Instagram on December 20, 2025 (archived link).
Hindi-language text on the video reads, "Old man kidnapped a three-year-old boy at Tanda railway station".
Tanda is a town in Hoshiarpur district of India's northern Punjab state (archived link).
The Instagram handle shared multiple videos of the incident in December, one of which shows men hitting the alleged kidnapper (archived link).
A logo of "GIC Re" belonging to General Insurance Corporation of India -- which does not operate in Bangladesh -- can be seen on one of the steel benches in the clip (archived link).
Visuals in the footage also match the images of Tanda Urmar railway station as seen on Google Maps (archived link).
Further keyword search found another video of the same incident shared on the Instagram account of a local media outlet on December 16, 2025 with a caption, "People at Punjab's Tanda railway station were seen assaulting an old man who was accused of trying to abduct a child." (archived link)
Assistant sub-inspector Balwinder Singh of the Government Railway Police told AFP on January 9 locals hit the man after he was seen walking away with a child.
"They were suspicious he was trying to abduct the child. However no official complaint was filed," Singh added.
The Bangladeshi Chief Adviser's office also debunked the claim in a Facebook post on January 1, 2026 (archived link).
AFP has previously debunked misinformation on attacks targeting Hindus in Bangladesh.
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