A photo of a woman in tears in front of a burnt house went viral on social media claiming it to be from the recent attacks on the Hindu community in Bangladesh. Newschecker’s investigation found the image is from 2017 and is falsely linked to the recent violence during Durga Puja in Bangladesh.
The image shared with a Bengali caption reads, “Purnima Rani said the attackers entered the house and wanted to know where her two young daughters were. Then broke into the house and took away the money and cows. Set the house on fire. (Rangpur, Prothom Alo).”
Facebook users shared the image with hashtags such as ‘SaveBangladeshiHindus’ which were widely used along with several images and videos showing attacks on Durga pandals.
Renowned Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasrin tweeted an article by Navbharat Times that carried the viral photo in its report on the recent attacks on Hindus in Bangladesh.
The writer also tweeted the viral image with the caption, “Cry, the beloved country,” on October 18, amidst several reports of communal attacks in Bangladesh.
Fact check / Verification
To investigate the claim, Newschecker ran a reverse image search on Google which led us to reports from Deutsche Welle -A German-based media organization and a website called Struggle for Hindu Existence both the portals have carried the viral image dated November 2017.
According to the reports, in November 2017, a man named Titu Chandra Roy from Rangpur, Bangladesh shared an offensive post that hurt the Muslim religious sentiments. Following this, several Hindu houses were burnt on November 10, 2017, in Rangpur. One person was killed in the incident.
The viral image carried by DW has been attributed to bdnews24 -a Bangladeshi news portal with captions that read, “An attack on a Hindu neighborhood in Gangachara, Rangpur, centered on a Hindu youth’s post on Facebook about the Prophet of Islam. One person was also killed in that incident on November 10, 2017”
Further, we found that the claim shared with the viral image is originally from a news report by Prothom Alo -a Bangladeshi daily newspaper. Covering the recent violence in Bangladesh the publication reported on a woman named Purnima Rani, whose house was attacked in the communal violence last week.
Newschecker has also debunked the claim in Bengali. You can read the article here.
Conclusion:
An old photo of a woman crying in front of her burnt house was falsely shared claiming recent attacks on the Hindu community in Bangladesh.
Result: Misleading
Our sources:
If you would like us to fact check a claim, give feedback or lodge a complaint, WhatsApp us at 9999499044 or email us at checkthis@newschecker.in. You can also visit the Contact Us page and fill the form.
