Fact Check: Video of student protest falsely shared as atrocity on Hindu girl in Bangladesh

Against this backdrop, a video of a girl with her hands and legs tied and mouth gagged is making rounds on social media as purported evidence of ongoing violence against Hindus in Bangladesh.

An X account, The Jaipur Dialogues, shared the video and wrote, “Hindu Women in Bangladesh! They are being Raped and Killed! Hindus are staring at a Genocide in Bangladesh. These images and videos make you feel so helpless!” (Archive)

Another X account, using the hashtags ‘#HindusAreNotSafeInBangladesh’ and ‘#HindusUnderAttack,’ shared the video and wrote, “Welcome to the new Bangladesh.” (Archive)

Fact Check

NewsMeter found that the claim is false. Two journalists from Bangladesh confirmed to NewsMeter that the video shows a symbolic protest by a student of the Jagannath University in Bangladesh.

Upon conducting a reverse image search, we found the video posted by the Facebook account JnU Short Stories on July 26.

The post stated that the video was from a street play and the girl is an ordinary student of the Jagannath University protesting against the suicide of another student, Abantika. However, the video went viral, falsely portraying the girl as a leader of the Chhatra League, linking it to the current student movement in Bangladesh.

The spread of this false information has caused significant emotional distress to the girl, potentially leading to trauma. The post draws a parallel between the girl’s situation and Abantika’s suicide, highlighting the potential consequences of such false accusations and urging people to stop spreading rumours.

Taking a cue from this, we conducted a keyword search and found a report published by the Bengali newspaper The Daily Ittefaq on March 17.

The report stated that Jagannath University students organised torch processions, lit candles, and performed street plays on campus to demand justice for Fairuz Sadaf Abantika, a student who had died by suicide.

Additionally, we found a video of the student procession demanding justice for Abantika, which was posted on March 18 by Channel 24 News, a news-based satellite television channel in Bangladesh.

For further confirmation, NewsMeter reached out to Abu Hanif, a student at Jagannath University and a university correspondent for Channel 24 News. He confirmed that the viral video was shot on March 17 and shows a play demanding justice for Abantika. Hanif also clarified, “The video is not connected to the current crisis in Bangladesh and does not show the abuse of a Hindu girl.”

Anupam Mallick Aditya, a Jagannath University reporter for Bdnews24, dismissed the claim of abuse against a Hindu girl as a rumour. He confirmed that the girl in the video is a student from the Music Department at the university. Aditya clarified that the video shows a symbolic protest by the girl demanding justice for Avantika, a post-graduate law student who committed suicide on March 15 due to harassment she faced within the university.

Hence, we conclude that the video does not show the abuse of a Hindu girl in Bangladesh. The claim is false.