Fact Check: Journalist Palki Sharma says India involved in murder of Bangladesh student leader Osman Hadi? No, video is AI-manipulated

Meanwhile, a video of Firstpost’s journalist Palki Sharma has been circulating on social media. The video shows her allegedly reporting about India meddling with Bangladesh’s internal affairs and India’s involvement in the killing of Osman Hadi.

“Bangladesh today stands at a critical democratic crossroads. The recent killing of Osman Hadi in Bangladesh has raised serious questions, as indications increasingly point toward India's possible involvement. The ongoing protest in Bangladesh says that India always meddles in Bangladesh's affairs. This concern does not emerge in isolation; India has already been held accountable in Canada in the case of the targeted killing of Sikh leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar, where credible evidence was presented by Canadian authorities. The Bangladesh incident now adds another layer to these growing concerns. Such cross-border targeted killings raise fundamental questions about democratic conduct and respect for international norms. When a state is repeatedly linked to covert actions beyond its borders, it inevitably places its democratic credentials under scrutiny,” Sharma could be heard allegedly saying in the video.

Sharing the video, an X user, Ammar Solangi, based in Pakistan, wrote, “Palki Sharma displays rare courage to question India’s trans border terrorism and target killings. Unfortunately, Pakistan has no journalist like Palki Sharma. Enviable audacity and delivery. (sic)” (Archive)

Fact Check

NewsMeter found that the claim is false, as the video has been manipulated using AI.

We searched for the latest Bangladesh report by Sharma on the YouTube channel of Firstpost and came across a report that premiered on December 19, titled ‘Indian ‘Speared’ to Death by Bangladeshi Patrol Boat.’

In the video, Sharma discusses the Yunus-led interim government in Dhaka, alleging that it is fostering anti-India sentiment through provocative rhetoric and contributing to instability in Bangladesh. She talks of growing tensions between the two nations, citing a fatal incident in which Bangladeshi forces allegedly killed an Indian fisherman, while noting that the Indian Coast Guard has responded to border incursions with legal detentions. She also expresses doubts about the fairness of upcoming elections under the current leadership, particularly as the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) prepares for the return of exiled leader Tariq Rahman.

However, we did not find her speaking about Osman Hadi’s killing or any of the content seen in the viral clip, which raised doubts that the video could be manipulated using AI.

Discrepancies in the video

The video is a sophisticated production with voice cloning and lip-syncing, but on minutely observing, we noticed unnatural movements of lips in a few frames.

What are the results of AI-detection tools?

We extracted the audio from the video and subjected it to analysis on Deepfake-O-Meter; two of its detectors found that the audio is likely AI-generated, with the confidence scores of 83.6 and 67.3 per cent, respectively.