A video circulating online, which shows densely crowded ferries, has been misrepresented with claims that thousands of Hindus are fleeing Bangladesh due to attacks by extremists. In reality, this video is not a recent occurrence; it has been available on the internet since at least May 2024. The footage depicts Bangladeshi citizens travelling back to their homes to celebrate the Eid festival, rather than a mass exodus of Hindus from the country.
Sharing the video on X (Formerly Twitter) an account @hodajannat wrote. Bangladesh, Thousands of Hindus are trying to flee their homeland Bangladesh due to the massacres committed against them by Islamists. (translated from Arabic).
Another user @r98709422840891 has also shared the video and wrote, Urgent Important. “The Great Migration” Thousands of Hindus because of the brutal acts of Islamists in Bangladesh after the victory of their Islamic Revolution in this country and the attack and harassment of Hindus and the killing of a number of them. All together decided to leave this land immediately. (Translated from Arabic).
Several other users and influencers have also disseminated the same video and made similar claims. Their posts can be seen here @firstnewsq8, @hafryatmediaa, @kalbaae
The truth about the viral video of crowded ferries, Fact Check
As soon as the posts containing footage depicting crowded ferries came to our notice. We conducted research and analysis of the video and found that the video is old. And has nothing to do with religious immigration from Bangladesh to another country.
To verify the claims made by the users. We performed a reverse image search of some key frames from the viral video on Google Lens. This led us to several social media posts containing the same visuals. According to the initial posts, The footage actually depicts Bangladeshi citizens travelling back to their homes to celebrate the Eid festival, rather than a mass exodus of Hindus from the country.
The video actually shows Bangladeshi people travelling back to their homes to celebrate the Eid festival, not a mass exodus of Hindus. Furthermore, similar images can be found on Getty Images(1, 2) uploaded in July 2022.
Hence, it is evident from D-Intent Data’s Fact Check that the viral video depicting crowded ferries is not recent but old footage showing people returning to their homes to celebrate the Eid festival. However, we couldn’t verify the exact date of the footage but it is clear that the video is not recent and has nothing to do with the ongoing crisis in Bangladesh.
Intent
Social media users and influencers are circulating old videos from different events with misleading claims. To set their narrative over the ongoing violence in Bangladesh.
Conclusion
Claim – Crowded ferries are showing a mass exodus of Bangladesh Hindus as they face violent attacks by extremists in Bangladesh.
Fact- The video is old and has been available online since at least May 2024. According to initial posts, the video depicts Bangladeshi people travelling back to their homes to celebrate their festival.
Related Article: Fact Check: Video of the restaurant set on fire in Bangladesh falsely shared as a temple (dintentdata.com)
