On August 10, Hindus in Bangladesh took to the streets to protest the violence against the community after Sheikh Hasina’s exit from the country. Now, a video being widely shared on social media purports to show a Hindu temple being set on fire in Bangladesh by Muslims.
Sharing the viral clip on X, a user wrote, “Islamists torched a Hindu temple in Thakurgaon district of Bangladesh.” The viral clip was also shared widely on Threads and Facebook. The archive of one such post can be seen here.
India Today Fact Check found that the structure in the viral clip is not a Hindu temple, but a Sufi shrine in Bangladesh’s Jessore district. It was attacked on the night of August 5.
OUR PROBE
By reverse searching keyframes from the viral clip, we found a longer version of the video uploaded to Facebook on August 7. The caption of the video shared by “Sunni TV” read: “Was the movement made to break the Shrine?” Looking at this video closely, we found that the video was recorded on the night of August 5. At the 03:03 minutes mark, a smartwatch was visible which displayed the day and date — Monday, August 5.
We found another Facebook post from August 7 which featured the same video. Its caption (originally in Bangla) suggested that the structure was a shrine called Hazrat Garib Shah Mazar Sharif.
We saw a clearer picture of the shrine in a Facebook post from August 8. We translated text written on it using Google Lens. It read, “Hazrat Garib Shah Mazar Sharif.” It was thus clear that the structure that was vandalised was not a temple, but a Sufi shrine.
We also found a YouTube video shared on August 7, where spectators could be seen narrating how the shrine was attacked. We also found a news report which mentioned the attack on Hazrat Garib Shah Mazar.
WHERE IS THE MAZAAR LOCATED?
We searched the location on Google Maps and found that it is not located in Thakurgaon District as claimed in the viral posts. Instead, the shrine is located at Gorib Shah Road in the Jessore (also spelt as Jeshore) district of Bangladesh. The Google Maps screenshot can be seen below. Jessore is more than 400 kilometres away from Thakurgaon.
We also spoke to Tanvir, a Dhaka-based fact-checker working with Rumor Scanner, who corroborated that the incident took place on the night of August 5.
It is thus clear that a video of a Sufi shrine being attacked is being shared as that of a Hindu temple.
It’s noteworthy, however, that there are reports that mention how Hindu temples and Hindu homes were attacked in the violence that erupted after August 5.
