The viral video does not show humiliation on Hindu teacher in Bangladesh

This video shows municipal engineer Taufiq Islam being forced to resign by student protesters in Bangladesh, not an attack on Hindu teacher.

Amidst the ongoing crisis in Bangladesh social media is abuzz with many videos, images, and news alleging that there are big attacks against the minority Hindus in this context. 

A video going viral on social media shows group of young men stapling what appear to be cigarette packs to a middle-aged man’s shirt collar, then forcing him to drink from a glass and eventually pouring something from a bottle over him. The accompanying claim states that this man, a Hindu teacher in Bangladesh, was humiliated and forced to resign.

Let’s check the truth.

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Fact Check- 

We started our investigation by conducting a keyword and reverse image search on Google and the results led us to a report by bdnews24.com. As per the report, the incident occurred on 19 August, 2024, in Chapainawabganj municipality. According to the report, the man in the video is Taufiq Islam, the municipality’s executive engineer, who was pressured to resign by student protesters after finding two packs of cigarettes in his office drawer,  the student movement aims to create a “drug-free Bangladesh.

The action against him was spearheaded by Ismail Hossain Sirazi, a local leader of the students’ movement. Quoting municipal executive officer Mamun Aur Rashid, the bdnews24.com report adds that Islam fell ‘unconscious’ after the incident and was taken him to a hospital. The student activists had also forced two other municipal officials to write resignation letters on white papers, the report says.

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This indicates that the man in the video is not a Hindu teacher but Taufiq Islam, a municipal employee in Chapainawabganj, Bangladesh.

Moving forward, we have come across a video report on the incident uploaded by media outlet Swadesh Pratidin on 19 August. where the man leading the youth, Ismail Hossain Sirazi, claims that civic body officials had voluntarily resigned. 

We found several other reports from Bangladesh regarding the incident with same details. You can read them here and here 

So, it is clear that the viral video is not an attack on a Hindu in Bangladesh. The video shows a municipal engineer, Taufiq Islam, being heckled by student demonstrators in Bangladesh. It has no communal angle.

Conclusion- 

Fact crescendo found the claim made along with the viral video to be False. The viral video does not show humiliation on Hindu teacher in Bangladesh. The video shows a municipal engineer, Taufiq Islam, being heckled by student protestors in Bangladesh. It has no communal angle.