Fake Indian news makes Hindus in Bangladesh more vulnerable

Disinformation swirls about alleged persecution of religious minorities

- Rohini Mohan

India Correspondent BENGALURU - A flurry of disinformation has emerged from India about the alleged persecution of religious minorities in neighbouring Bangladesh, hampering Dhaka's attempts to restore stability after weeks of protests that saw over 550 killed and the country's prime minister ousted.

The fake content is going viral.

In one such example, a dimly lit, blurry video of a woman from Bangladesh that was posted on the X social media platform on Aug 10 – with captions alleging that a "Hindu woman" was being gang-raped by an "Islamic mob" was shared by thousands of Indian social media users. This sparked a string of hashtags calling for minority Hindus in Muslim-majority Bangladesh to be saved in the wake of the student-led protests that ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina and forced her to flee to India by helicopter on Aug 5.

But it later emerged that the woman was not a Hindu, and that the footage did not pertain to an incident of sexual assault. The video was actually filmed during clashes between Bangladeshi protesters angered by a preferential government job quota system and members of the student wing of Mrs Hasina's Awami League party.

The fake videos and images have sown more division in restive Bangladesh, its community leaders told The Straits Times.

For instance, many posts shared an image of a house on fire, falsely claiming that it was Hindu Bangladeshi cricketer Liton Das's home.

In fact, it was former Bangladeshi cricket captain and Awami League MP Mashrafe Mortaza's house.

Similarly, a video of an arson attack on the Raj Prasad Restaurant and Resort in Satkhira, Bangladesh, was shared with the false claim that a Hindu temple had been set ablaze.