As Muslim-majority Bangladesh sees a spate of revenge attacks on its small Hindu community, a video has been shared online falsely claiming to show a documentary showing the country’s destruction of a century-old mosque in neighboring India. A member of the political party that hosted the event told AFP that he was actually in India to celebrate the 32nd anniversary of the destruction of the mosque.
“Big screens are being installed in Bangladesh showing the demolition of Babri Masjid to promote the Muslim community to the Hindus and cause harm blood!” read a Hindi-language Facebook post shared on December 18, 2024.
The post included a four-minute, nine-second video showing a crowd watching a documentary about the Babri Masjid, the 16th-century mosque that was vandalized by tens of thousands of supporters of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and other Hindus. groups in 1992 to pave the way for the temple (archived link).
Screenshot of fake post, taken on December 18, 2024
Interfaith relations have been tumultuous in Bangladesh since a student-led revolution in August toppled former independent prime minister Sheikh Hasina, who fled to neighboring India.
A video appeared with similar claims on Facebook as well X 32 years after the demolition of the Babri Masjid on December 6.
However, the experiment seen in the fake video actually happened Mumbra, Maharashtra in western India.
Testing in India
A reverse keyframe image search on Google followed by a keyword search found the same video published on the official YouTube account of the Maharashtra arm of the Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI) on December 6 (archived link).
SDPI is the political wing of the Popular Front of India, a party that was banned in 2022 for alleged “terrorist” links (archived link).
“Babri Masjid Timeline Show | SDPI Mumbra at Darul Falah | A Historical Journey,” reads its headline.
Below is a screenshot comparison of the video from the fake post (left) and the clip shared on SDPI’s YouTube account (right):
A comparison of the video screenshot of the fake post (left) and the clip shared on SDPI’s YouTube account (right):
SDPI flags — a red and green banner with a star and the party’s name — can be seen in the video.
Below is a comparison of the flag as seen in the clip (left) and the 2021 convention in the AFP archives (right) (archived link):
Comparison of the SDPI flag seen at the start of the video (left) and the same banner seen at the 2021 rally in AFP archives (right)
Azhar Tamboli, a member of the National It works The SDPI Committee confirmed to AFP that the video shows a documentary screening organized by the SDPI in Mumbra.
“The Babri Masjid Timeline exhibition was organized for the public near the Darul Falah Mosque located at Accord Naka in the Mumbra area of ​​Thane, Maharashtra on December 6, to mark the 32nd anniversary of the demolition of the Babri Masjid,” he told AFP on December 20. 2024.
Similar videos taken at different levels were shared by SDPI on other social media sites such as Instagram and X (archived link here and here).
Images on Google Street View show that the test took place in Mumbra, and the Darul Falah mosque can be seen in the background (link saved).
Below is a screenshot comparison between the scene from the photos (left) and the scene from Google Street View (right) with the corresponding features highlighted by AFP:
A screenshot comparison between the scene from the photos (left) and an image of the area in Google Street View (right) with corresponding features highlighted by AFP.
AFP released some false information related to religious relations in Bangladesh after Hasina’s ouster here and here.