Lynching Of Awami League Leader Going Viral With Misleading Communal Claims.

A very disturbing video of violence in Bangladesh has become viral on social media. The video shows a dead man hanging from a statue and being brutally beaten. It is claimed that the man is a Hindu and was tortured by Muslims in Bangladesh. 

Sharing the video on Facebook, the user wrote, “Very disturbing visuals received via dm from #Bangladesh.

An old Hindu man is lynched and hanged on a statue. Islamists were seen raising AIIah-Hu-Akbar slogans around him… 

The world must see this… The real face of Islamists…😡😡😡

#BangladeshViolence #AllEyesOnBangladeshiHindus”

Facebook Link | Archived Link.

However, as we investigated, we came to know that the viral video had been shared with false communal claims. Here’s the fact check.

Fact Check 

We started our investigation by taking some screenshots from the viral video and conducting a reverse image search. As a result, we found a YouTube link with Bengali captions saying that Awami League leader Hiran Chairman had been killed and hanged by the people in Jhenaidah. The thumbnail photo accompanying the link was the same as the screenshot of the viral video.

But when we clicked on the link, we saw that the video was not available on YouTube.

We used this caption as a resource and searched for keywords in Bengali on YouTube and found a video uploaded on August 5 with captions in Bengali. According to the caption, Awami League leader Hiran Chairman was killed and hanged by the people in Jhenaidah.

YouTube Link | Archived Link

The video was taken from a distance and had a voiceover in Bengali saying, “The well-known Hiran Chairman has been killed and hanged. Thousands of people have come out to see his body”. At the 0.44 timestamp, the video was zoomed in, and then the head part of the person in the viral video could be seen in that YouTube video. In addition, a photo of a person was attached to the bottom of the screen of the YouTube video.

We did a reverse image search of that photo and then found a tweet made on August 6 on an X handle that contained this photo as well as the viral video. According to the caption of the tweet, the man is Awami League member Shahidul Islam Hiran. After Sheikh Hasina was ousted, Shahidul Islam Hiran’s house was burnt down and his body was hung in the city centre. He was 75 years old. The driver of Shahidul Islam Hiran was also killed.

Twitter Link | Archived Link 

Moving forward, using relevant keywords we found a report published on the website Corporate Songbad on 6 August 2024. A blurred screenshot of the viral video, along with a photo of Shahidul Islam Hiran, was attached to the report.

According to the report, “Shahidul Islam Hiran(75), general secretary of Jhinaidah Sadar Upazila Awami League and chairman of local Porahati Sangha was killed. The mob attacked his house in Stadiumpara and set it on fire. After that, they took his body to Piara Chattar and hanged his body there.

Earlier, when the crowd surrounded Hiran’s house, Shahidul Islam Hiran opened fire with his licensed gun and pistol. About 25 people were injured. The injured were admitted to Jhenaidah Sadar Hospital. Akhtar Hossain, the driver of Hiran’s car, was killed in the afternoon.

Archived Link

Similar reports can be read here and here. 

Archived Link 1

Archived Link 2

It became clear that the person in the viral video was Shahidul Islam Hiran, general secretary of Jhenaidah Sadar Upazila Awami League and chairman of the local Porahati Sangha. He was not a Hindu.

Conclusion 

From our investigation, we can say that the claim is misleading. The video doesn’t show a Hindu man being tortured by Muslims in Bangladesh. The person in the viral video was Shahidul Islam Hiran, general secretary of Jhenaidah Sadar Upazila Awami League and chairman of the local Porahati Sangha, whose dead body was hung in Piara Chattar. This incident has no communal aspect.