Spiritual tensions soared in Bangladesh within the chaotic aftermath of autocratic chief Sheikh Hasina’s toppling, with Hindus focused in assaults based mostly on the minority religion’s perceived help for her get together. A video shared on-line, nevertheless, doesn’t present a Hindu temple vandalised within the Muslim-majority nation, as social media posts claimed. The clip has circulated since August 2021 in experiences a couple of mob ransacking a temple in Pakistan.
“The plight of Bangladesh Hindu temples. The place are worldwide human rights and the Indian authorities?” learn a Hindi-language X post that shared the video on December 8.
“Rohingyas and Bangladeshi intruders ought to be thrown out of India and all commerce and cricket matches ought to be stopped.”
The put up, which racked greater than 34,000 views, reveals footage of a mob smashing up a room embellished with Hindu deities.
Screenshot of the false X put up, captured on December 12, 2024
The footage circulated on X and Facebook after supporters of an arrested Hindu chief in Bangladesh clashed with safety forces on November 29 (archived link).
Outspoken Hindu monk Chinmoy Krishna Das Brahmachari was arrested for allegedly disrespecting the Bangladeshi flag throughout a rally and denied bail, the Occasions of India reported (archived link).
Spiritual relations have been turbulent within the Muslim-majority nation since a student-led revolution compelled long-time autocratic prime minister Sheikh Hasina to flee to India in August.
The chaotic aftermath of Hasina’s ouster noticed a string of reprisals on Hindus — seen by some as disproportionate supporters of her authorities — in addition to assaults on Muslim Sufi shrines by Islamist hardliners.
The federal government in neighbouring India — a Hindu-majority nation — additionally sounded the alarm over the assaults.
The video shared on-line, nevertheless, was filmed in Pakistan years earlier than Sheikh Hasina’s ouster.
Ransacked temple
A reverse picture search on Google utilizing keyframes from the video led to a report revealed by Pakistani newspaper Daybreak on August 5, 2021 (archived link).
The article, which included a screenshot from the video and embedded an X post sharing the footage, is headlined: “Mob ransacks temple after minor boy will get bail in desecration case”.
A whole bunch of individuals attacked the Hindu temple in Bhong, a city in Pakistan’s Punjab province, after a neighborhood courtroom granted bail to a nine-year-old Hindu boy accused of urinating in a seminary, in line with the report.
Beneath is the screenshot comparability of the falsely shared video (left) and a screenshot revealed in Daybreak’s article (proper):
Screenshot comparability of the falsely shared video (left) and a screenshot revealed in Daybreak’s article (proper)
The Times of India, Hindustan Times and India Today additionally revealed the footage in experiences in regards to the assault (archived here, here and here).
Pakistan’s then-prime minister Imran Khan condemned the incident on X, saying he had spoken to the provincial police chief to make sure culprits’ arrests. He additionally mentioned the federal government would restore the temple (archived link).
AFP has fact-checked a spate of misinformation round anti-Hindu assaults in Bangladesh following Hasina’s ouster, together with photographs falsely shared as a Hindu temple set on fireplace, a Hindu woman protesting the violence and Islamic clerics praying in a Hindu temple.
