Video of a Shrine Being Torched in Bangladesh Shared With False Communal Claims
The video shows some people setting a shrine on fire in Bangladesh's Jashore.
As the political unrest in Bangladesh continues, a video is now being shared on the internet to claim that it shows Muslims recently torching a Hindu temple in the country's Thakurgaon district.
What do viral posts say?: An X (formerly Twitter) user named 'Hindutva Knight' shared the video with a caption saying, "Islamists torched a Hindu temple in Thakurgaon district of Bangladesh."
An archive of the post can be found here.
(Source: X/Screenshot)
The post had garnered nearly three lakh views on the platform. (More archives of similar claims can be found here, here, and here.)
Is this claim true?: No, the video actually shows people setting a shrine of 'Hazrat Garib Shah' on fire in Bangladesh's Jashore.
Hints in the viral video: We noticed a watermark on the bottom of the viral video that said "সুন্নী TV."
The video had a watermark.
(Source: Viral Video/Screenshot/Altered by The Quint)
Next, we searched for the text on social media platforms and came across a Facebook handle with the same name.
On going through the account, we found the same visuals uploaded on 7 August with a caption in Bangla that said, "Was the movement made to break the shrine?? #Mazar #MazarSharif #Mazar #Mazarer #Sunni #Sunni_TV."
On passing a visual from the video available on Facebook through Google Translate, it showed that words such as "Hazrat Garib Shah" and "Rah: Mazar Sharif" were written on the shrine.
The structure carried words such as 'Hazrat Garib Shah'.
(Source: Facebook video/Screenshot/Altered by The Quint)
Other sources: Team WebQoof performed a keyword search on YouTube using the Bangla translation of the words "Hazrat Garib Shah Mazar Sharif bangladesh".
This directed us to a video uploaded on an unverified YouTube channel named 'Nesaria Salehia Studio', which showed visuals of the same shrine.
Its title when translated to English said, "Hazrat Garib Shah Rah: Jamaat party vandalised Mazar Sharif. Local people can visit it."
Geolocating the place: We used the same keywords on Google Maps and found visuals available of the shrine that was shared in February 2023 using the 'street view' option. The location was identified as 'Jashore, Khulna Division'.
Comparing visuals: When we compared a keyframe from the viral video to a visual available on Google Maps, we could conclude that both of them showed the same shrine.
A comparison clearly shows the similarities.
(Source: Google Maps/Screenshot/Altered by The Quint)
Conclusion: It is evident that the video is being shared with a false communal colour.
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