Fact Check: Old image of bleeding man linked to violence in Comilla
An image of a bleeding man is being widely shared on social media with the claim that he is a Muslim who was killed in Comilla, Bangladesh.
By Tejal Sinha Published on 22 Oct 2021 10:00 AM GMT
Hyderabad: An image of a bleeding man is being widely shared on social media with the claim that he is a Muslim who was killed in Comilla, Bangladesh.
"(Hafiz Rabiul Islam Comilla) Brother, he is gone, InshaAllah we will meet on the Day of Resurrection. We will take revenge for your blood, if we can't take it, we will tell the child," says the caption of the viral post when translated from Bengali.
Fact Check
The claim made through the viral post is misleading.
NewsMeter performed a Google reverse image search which led us to a report published on May 5, 2015 by bd24live, a Bangla online news portal. The report was about the clash that took place between Hefazat-e-Islam activists and security forces on the intervening night of May 5 and 6, 2013, at Shapla Chattar of Motijheel area in Dhaka.
"On this day in 2013, the members of the law enforcement forces jumped on the millions of Hefazat-e-Islam scholars and ulama from all over the country at Shapla Chattar in the capital. On that night, demonism was carried out on the Gumanta scholars. The exact number of those killed on that day could not be ascertained even today. Around 15,000 to 20,000 members of the RAB, police and BGB carried out a surprise operation in the dark night of May 5, disrupting power supply at midnight during Hefazat-e-Islam's peaceful program around Shapla Chattar in the capital Motijheel," the report said.
The team then found a blog by Priyo boi titled 'Mass killing on protestors in Dhaka on May 5, 2013'. The blog had many disturbing pictures of the incident including the viral picture.
The series of the pictures from this incident was also seen in the website of The Milli Gazette titled 'Mass killing of protesters in Dhaka at night by armed joint military - civil forces'.
The team lastly found detailed information related to the midnight massacre in Dhaka in a report by Citizens International. The team found all the pictures of the incident that was also published by the above websites.
The viral image can be seen in the page 10 of the document with a caption that read, "Two activists injured by joint attack of Police and Awami League". The document also says, "According to the witnesses of the incident, the clash between the Awami League and Hefajat men broke out in Baitul Mukarram area around 1:30 pm when they brought separate processions in the area. A chase and counter-chase broke out between the workers of the two organisations as they brought out their processions. Police fired several hundred gunshots and teargas shells to suppress the demonstrators."
It is therefore evident that the claim made through the viral post is misleading as the viral image of a clash between the Awami League and Hefajat men in 2013 is being shared as violence in Comilla.
