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Twitter Verified Fake Account Shared Tripura Video Linking It To Bangladesh Violence
Writer: Jakir Hassan
A journalist at heart loves the in-depth work of reporting, writing, editing, research, and data analysis. A digital and social media enthusiast.
Tripura, 19 Oct 2021 12:08 PM GMT | Updated 19 Oct 2021 12:51 PM GMT
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Creatives : Jakir Hassan
A journalist at heart loves the in-depth work of reporting, writing, editing, research, and data analysis. A digital and social media enthusiast.
A verified account on Twitter that turned out to be fake shared a video claiming that a Muslim mob set a Hindu village on fire in Pirganj Upazila of Rangpur district, Bangladesh.
Ongoing communal violence in Bangladesh against the minority Hindu community has led to at least six dead and hundreds injured. The violence broke last week after an alleged incident of blasphemy of the Quran during Durga Puja celebrations.
Amidst this, a video is being shared on social media claiming that a Muslim mob set a Hindu village on fire in Pirganj Upazila of Rangpur district. The video shows a structure burning and a team of firemen extinguishing the fire. The structure is a Durga pandal because the idol of the goddess Durga can be spotted in the video.
Bangladesh Hindu Unity Council, a verified Twitter account of a non-profitable organization based out of Bangladesh, posted the video and captioned, "The situation in Rangpur is dire at the moment. Homes and temples of Hindus have been burnt down. Muslim mob has set fire to a Hindu village in Pirganj Upazila of Rangpur district."
At the time of writing this report, the post has garnered over 278K views with over 32K retweets.
Anand Ranganathan, an author and the consulting editor & columnist at Swarajya, an Indian right-wing monthly print magazine and news portal, posted the video via Twitter and captioned, "Now Hindu homes being systematically burnt in Bangladesh. Will we wait till we have to airlift the last Hindu like we did from Afghanistan? We forget: Bangladesh & Pakistan will soon go the way of Afghanistan. It is their wish, their destiny. What is ours?".
EastMojo, a verified Facebook account of a digital news media from northeast India, posted the video and titled, "Arsonists torch 29 Hindu homes in Bangladesh amid ongoing violence."
The video is viral on Twitter and Facebook with a similar claim.
Claim:
The viral video is of a village burnt down in Bangladesh.
Fact Check:
The Logical Indian Fact Check team verified the claim and found it to be false. The video is from Karatichhara village in the Dhalai district of Tripura, where a fire broke on the night of 12-13 October during the Durga puja celebrations.
We extracted different keyframes from the viral video using the InVid tool and conducted a Google reverse image search.
It led us to a report published on 14 October by Time 8, a news channel based in Guwahati. They reported that the incident occurred at Maracherra market in the Dhalai district of Tripura. At least four shops, including the Durga Puja pandal, were gutted in fire, leading to estimated damage of Rs 16 lakh.
Taking a clue from the above report, we searched on the internet using specific keywords. It led us to a video report by Today Tripura 24X7 posted on their Facebook page on 13 October. Their report carried the exact shared video and a text in Bangla, an English translation of which read that the incident occurred in the Maracherra market.
Other Facebook pages such as Social Tripura Network and PB 24 News did a video report on the incident.
We also looked at the video carefully and compared the uniform of the fire brigade to see whether it matched Bangladesh's. We found that the uniform worn by the firefighters in the video is Khaki coloured, whereas the uniform of firefighters in Bangladesh is entirely different.
We also found that the Twitter account claiming to be the official handle of Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist Christian Unity Council is fake. The Facebook page of the organization had issued a clarification on 16 July. They posted a screengrab of the fake Twitter handle and captioned, "Above Account claiming official Twitter account of Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist Christian Unity Council (BHBCUC) is totally false. This is for information of all concern that Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist Christian Unity Council has no connection with this Twitter Account."
Taking action against the concerned matter, Twitter has now taken down the fake Twitter handle active in the name of the Bangladesh Hindu Unity Council.
In conclusion, it is true that in Bangladesh, targeted violence against the minority Hindu community is ongoing, but this shared video has no relation to any of it. The video is from Karatichhara village in the Dhalai district of Tripura, where a fire broke on the night of 12-13 October during the Durga puja celebrations.
Alt News has done a fact check the same claim.
If you have any news that you believe needs to be fact-checked, please email us at factcheck@thelogicalindian.com or WhatsApp at 6364000343.
Also Read: Sudarshan News Shares Video Of Teacher Punishing His Student With False Communal Narrative
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