Fact Check: Old images of Buddhist statues vandalism falsely shared as recent incident in Bangladesh

Hyderabad: After Bangladesh prime minister Sheikh Hasina quit and fled the country, many unconfirmed reports of crimes against Hindus, which is a minority community in Bangladesh, began to make rounds.

Now, three images have been circulating with the claim that they show vandalism of Buddhist statues amid the ongoing turmoil in the country.

The first image shows a man attacking a Buddha statue, the second features children dressed as Buddhist monks witnessing the destruction and the third shows the decapitated Buddhist statues.

Taking a dig at the Dalit-Muslim brotherhood, an X user shared the images using the #BangladeshHindus and wrote, “Beautiful picture of Jai Mim Jai Bhim brotherhood from Bangladesh....” (Archive)

Fact Check

NewsMeter found that the claim is misleading as the images are at least from 2012.

Image 1

Upon conducting a reverse image search, we found several pictures, including the first image, posted by a Facebook account ‘Buddhism’ in October 2023. According to the post, the images show an attack on the houses and monasteries of Buddhists in Bangladesh on September 29-30, 2012. (Archive)

We also found the first image posted by a Facebook account in October 2019. (Archive)

An X account posted the three images in July 2020, claiming to show the condition of Buddhism in Bangladesh. (Archive)

Image 2

A reverse image search of the second image led to a blog post published on November 5, 2012. According to the blog, the image shows a burned temple at Ramu in the Cox’s Bazar District of Bangladesh. (Archive)

We also found the second image published on the website Dharma Buddhist Community, 11 years ago. This website also stated that the image shows a burned temple at Ramu in the Cox’s Bazar District of Bangladesh.

Image 3

Another reverse image search led us to the third image posted by a Facebook account in May 2013, stating Muslims torched Buddhist temples in Bangladesh.

We also found the third image in a report published on October 13, 2012, on the website named Onlanka, a Sri Lankan news web portal. The report discussed the challenges faced by Buddhists with a focus on perceived threats and discrimination in different regions, including Bangladesh.

We also found similar images of the beheaded Buddha statues published by Getty Images and Istock in 2013 and 2014. Getty Images mentioned that the images show idols damaged after Muslim mobs attacked the houses and temples of Buddhists in Ramu, Bangladesh in 2012. Istock stated that temples were attacked by extremist Muslims and the statues of Buddha were destroyed in a small village close to Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh.

According to a CNN report from September 30, 2012, Muslim protesters in Bangladesh attacked Buddhist shrines and homes – some of which were set on fire – after a photo of a partially burned Quran was posted on Facebook.

The protesters chanted anti-Buddhist slogans, accusing a Buddhist boy of burning the Quran. The violence began in Ramu, a town in Cox’s Bazar, located south of Dhaka, and quickly spread to nearby areas.

NewsMeter could not verify the exact year of the first image. However, we confirm that the three images are old and the second and third have been on the Internet at least since 2012.