A video featuring an elderly man sitting on the street with a picture of another man hanging from his neck is being widely shared on social media. In the clip, the elderly man, surrounded by men in military uniform, can be heard saying in Bengali: “I will die, but I want justice. I want justice for my child. Where is my child? I want justice. I have gone from door to door, from office to office. No one listened. Today, I have come here since morning…” The clip is being shared on social media with the claim that the man seen in the video is a Bangladeshi Hindu whose son is missing.
Several incidents of attacks on minorities have been reported from across Bangladesh in the wake of the ouster of erstwhile Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. The head of the new interim government, Mohammad Yunus, has asserted that stopping such atrocities is a priority.
The video is being shared in that context.
News agency ANI first posted the video in question and later deleted their tweet. The caption said: “Bangladesh: A member of the minority Hindu community protesting with a poster of his missing son says “I will give my life but I want justice for my child. Where is my child? I have been going from door to door to inquire about my child but no one is listening to me”. This tweet and the information contained in it were amplified by several news outlets and social media users. (Archive)
News outlets such as Jagran, Hindustan, NDTV India, Mirror Now, too, reported on the desperate search of a Hindu man for his son. Most of the reports carried the video tweeted by ANI.
Click to view slideshow.BALA (@erbmjha) was among individual X (Twitter) users who amplified the claim. They tweeted the clip on August 13 with the following caption: “‘I will give my life but I want justice for my child. Where is my child? I have been going from door to door to inquire about my child but no one is listening to me’. A helpless Hindu father had no choice left but to plead on road for justice for his missing son in Bangladesh💔” The tweet has received over 6.34 Lakh views and has been retweeted over 5,100 times. (Archive)
The above user (@erbmjha) has been found posting misinformation several times in the past.
“I will give my life but I want justice for my child. Where is my child? I have been going from door to door to inquire about my child but no one is listening to me”
A helpless Hindu father had no choice left but to plead on road for justice for his missing son in Bangladesh💔 pic.twitter.com/N6kCzMLYXG
— BALA (@erbmjha) August 13, 2024
Several other users such as @MrSinha_, @VIKRAMPRATAPSIN, @RealBababanaras shared the viral video with the same claim. The tweets were subsequently deleted.
Click to view slideshow.Fact Check
We noticed that after deleting their previous tweet, ANI issued a corrigendum sharing a screenshot of their deleted tweets with the following caption: “Correction: The below tweet has been deleted since this person is not from the minority Hindu community. Error regretted”.
Correction: The below tweet has been deleted since this person is not from the minority Hindu community. Error regretted. pic.twitter.com/EY8FBnJc1g
— ANI (@ANI) August 13, 2024
To find more details, we broke down the video into several key frames and ran a reverse image search on some of them. This led us to a Facebook Live that was posted by a Bangladeshi news outlet Barta24. The video was posted with a title in Bengali that can be translated as: “‘Return our loved ones, break the secret detention centres’ – Road blocked by family members of the disappeared during a human chain protest”. The elderly man seen in the viral video can be seen in this Facebook Live sitting on the street raising slogans of ‘Return our loved ones’, and ‘Free them’ alongside others. He could also be seen wearing a skull cap.
At the 1:45 mark of the video, the reporter asks the elderly man whose picture he is carrying and how that person went missing. He responds, “This is my older son Mohammed Sunny Hawladar and I am Babul Hawladar”. He further says that his elder son, Sunny, who was by profession a daily labourer and also a supporter of BNP (the erstwhile Opposition party in Bangladesh when Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League was in power) was taken away on January 10, 2013 and has been missing since. The man also says that he has been running from pillar to post for years trying to file a case. However, he was only met with rejection and threats that if he kept on persisting, both he and his younger son would be taken away in a similar fashion.
In the video, the reporter can be seen talking to other participants of the sit-in protest who share similar stories of missing family members.
Therefore, it is clear that this protest is not related to the minority protests.
🔴Live! ‘স্বজনদের ফিরিয়ে দাও, আয়নাঘর ভেঙে দাও’- সড়ক অবরুদ্ধ করে গুম হওয়া স্বজনদের পেতে মানববন্ধন। সরাসরি….
Posted by Barta24 on Tuesday 13 August 2024
We also found a news report by Prothom Alo from August 14 titled: “Demanding justice of those involved in the disappearance to the chief advisor”. The report carried an image of the protesters in which the elderly man seen in the viral video can also be seen.
The report mentioned that around 3 pm on August 13 family members of several missing persons gathered in front of the state guest house Jamuna on Hare Road with pictures and banners of their missing relatives. They demanded the return of their relatives who had gone missing when the Awami League party was in power. They also called for the immediate release of those still detained in ‘Ainaghar’ (secret detention centres).
Therefore, it is clear that the viral video of the elderly man does not show a Bangladeshi Hindu. The man in the video belongs to the Muslim community and was protesting against the disappearance of his son over a decade ago. The whole matter is unrelated to the ongoing crisis and attacks on minorities. A tweet with the false claim — that the man was a Hindu — by news agency ANI triggered incorrect reports and tweets by several outlets and individual X users. By the time ANI deleted the tweet and published a corrigendum, the false claim had gone viral.
Incidentally, a rally was organized by the minority communities in Bangladesh on August 13 at the same spot with an eight-point charter of demands. Mohammed Yunus met the chief coordinator of the protest rally, Prasenjit Kumar Halder, at the state guest house, Jamuna, on the same day. Following this, it was decided that the protests would remain suspended for three days.
The post Bangladeshi man in search of his son: False ‘Hindu’ claim by ANI triggers misinformation, media misreports appeared first on Alt News.
This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Oishani Bhattacharya.
Oishani Bhattacharya | Radio Free (2024-08-14T16:24:23+00:00) Bangladeshi man in search of his son: False ‘Hindu’ claim by ANI triggers misinformation, media misreports. Retrieved from https://www.radiofree.org/2024/08/14/bangladeshi-man-in-search-of-his-son-false-hindu-claim-by-ani-triggers-misinformation-media-misreports/
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