A video, which is being shared with a similar claim, shows a dead, disfigured man tied to a structure while a large crowd shouts slogans of “Allah-Hu-Akbar.” Verified user @SonOfBharat7 tweeted the video, claiming that an old Hindu man was attacked with “long swords” by Muslims who also inflicted 400 blows on him. He referred to Muslims as insects in his tweet and added that they just needed an excuse to shed blood. His tweet garnered over 350000 views. (Archive)

एक बूढ़े हिन्दू व्यक्ति पर
अल्ला हू अकबर बोलकर
लम्बी तलवारें लेकर टूट पड़े मुसलमान…..
400 वार किये उस बूढ़े व्यक्ति के जिश्म पे…

सोचिये कितने बड़े मर्द हैं ये नपुंसक कीड़े
इन्हे सिर्फ खून बहाने का बहाना चाहिए..#Bangladesh #Hindu pic.twitter.com/DNGxHrrE8s

— Deepak Sharma (@SonOfBharat7) August 5, 2024

Right-wing influencer @MrSinha_ had also tweeted the video with the same claim. Here is the archive to Google Cache. He later deleted it.

Several other users tweeted the video with the same claim. (Archives- 1, 2, 3, 4)

Fact Check

We spoke to a Bangladeshi journalist and ascertained that the man seen in this video was a Muslim man named Shahidul Islam Hiron. Upon a keyword search, we found that 75-year-old Hiron was an Awami League general secretary from Jhenaidah in south-western Bangladesh. According to a local report, Hiron and his driver, Akhtar, Hossain were hacked and burnt to death.

Eyewitnesses reportedly said that around noon on August 5, a mob vandalized Hiron’s house and in the process, Hiron fired at the crowd injuring several people. The mob went on to set fire to his house and injure his personal driver, Akhtar. Akhtar was taken to the local hospital where the doctor declared him dead.

On the other hand, Hiron, who was stuck on the third floor of the house, died in the fire. The mob broke into the house took out the body and hung it in Paira Chattar in the centre of the city. From there, the body was sent to the morgue of the local hospital. Other reports (1, 2) also corroborated this chain of events.

We also found a YouTube video filmed during the incident at Paira Chattar. The man filming the video also identified the deceased man as Hiron and also stated that Hiron had been burnt to death and brought to the scene. Here is a link to the video. Alt News will refrain from embedding the same due to its graphic nature.

We also geo-located the place where Hiron’s body was hung. The spot is called Paira Chattar. The place takes its name from a statue of a pigeon (Paira in Bengali) at the intersection. In the viral video, the foot of the statue is visible, confirming the location. Below is a comparison among an image from Wikipedia, a key frame from the YouTube video a key frame from the viral video.

Hence, a video of a Muslim Awami League leader burnt to death and hid body hung from a statue at an intersection in the Jhenaidah in Bangladesh is viral with the false claim that the deceased is a Hindu.

The post Awami League leader Shahidul Islam Hiron killed in Bangladesh: Video falsely viral as Muslims attacking Hindu man appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Shinjinee Majumder.

At around 11 a.m. on Monday, January 23, plainclothes police officers detained Kha, a correspondent for the privately owned broadcaster Deepto TV and privately owned newspaper Dainik Projonmo Ekattor, according to multiple news reports and Supriya Rani Kha, the journalist’s wife, who spoke with CPJ by phone. Kha was detained after reporting on a land dispute in the Khalishakhali area of the southwestern Satkhira district.

Police arrested Kha and two others, alleging they were involved in an attempted bomb blast in coordination with landless people in the area, and authorities initially denied that Kha was in custody, according to those sources.

When the journalist appeared in court the following day, he was unable to stand properly and told his wife that police severely beat him, electrocuted him, and threatened to kill him if he continued reporting on landless people, Supriya Rani Kha told CPJ.

During that hearing, the court ordered Kha to be held in the Satkhira jail while his case is investigated. Supriya Rani Kha said that police have not provided copies of the first information reports in Kha’s case, which would show the specific allegations against him.

“Bangladeshi authorities’ arrest and alleged maltreatment of journalist Raghunath Kha constitute only the latest attack on press freedom in the country, where law enforcement continues to retaliate against journalists with raging impunity,” said Beh Lih Yi, CPJ’s Asia program coordinator. “Authorities must immediately and unconditionally release Kha, drop all cases against him, and conduct a swift investigation into claims that police physically abused him.”

Authorities did not produce Kha in court until about 5 p.m. on Tuesday, his wife said, in apparent violation of Bangladesh’s code of criminal procedure, which provides that police must present an arrested person before a magistrate within 24 hours.

Supriya Rani Kha told CPJ that she believes authorities targeted her husband in retaliation for his reporting highlighting the struggles of landless people in their conflict with land grabbers allegedly supported by police.

In recent months, Satkhira Police Superintendent Kazi Moniruzzaman repeatedly threatened Kha with arrest and legal retaliation in retaliation for his reporting, his wife said, adding that the journalist submitted a written complaint sometime about those threats to Moinul Haque, the deputy inspector-general of the Khulna division police, which oversees the Satkhira branch of the force.

No action was taken against Moniruzzaman, Supriya Rani Kha told CPJ. CPJ emailed Moniruzzaman and Haque and sent them requests for comment via messaging app, but did not receive any replies.

CPJ has previously documented similar allegations of alleged police abuse of detained journalists in Bangladesh. Journalist Shahidul Alam, who was awarded CPJ’s International Press Freedom Award in 2020, told CPJ that police officers beat him in custody. Cartoonist Kabir Kishore told CPJ that authorities beat him and electrocuted his colleague Mushtaq Ahmed, who died in jail.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.