A video showing a group of people retrieving a man’s body from water is being circulated with the claim that a Hindu man was killed for refusing to convert to Islam, and his body was found in a pond in Bangladesh. However, the truth is that this is an old video from August 2024, filmed in Comilla, Bangladesh. It shows an incident of a young man named Mahbub Alam Saikat who tragically drowned in a pond.
Sharing the video on X (Formerly Twitter) propagandist account @FarazPervaiz3 wrote, “A #Hindu Man’s Body Found in Pond; Islamist Kills Father for Refusing to Convert to #Islam in Bangladesh.”
Another propaganda account @ajaychauhan41 also shared the video and wrote, “#Hindu man’s body found in a pond; Islamists killed a Hindu man in Bangladesh for refusing to convert to #Islam.” (Translated from Hindi)
Several other users and Influencers have also shared the video and made similar claims. Their posts can be seen here, @niteeshakpandey, @LRMEENA91383442
The truth about the video of people retrieving a man’s body from water, Fact Check
As soon as the posts containing the video and claims came to our notice. Subsequently, we conducted research and analysis of the video. We found that the video was old and unrelated to religious hate crimes.
To verify the claims made by the users. We performed a reverse image search of some key frames from the viral video using Google Lens. This led us to several Facebook posts (1, 2,3,4) containing the same video. According to the Facebook posts, the video depicts the body of a Muslim man Mahbub Alam Saikat being retrieved in Comilla in August 2024.
Furthermore, taking cues from the Facebook posts, we ran relevant keyword searches. We found multiple reports regarding the incident. According to the reports (1, 2), a teenager named Mahbub Alam Saikat (13) died after drowning in Manoharganj upazila of Comilla. The deceased was the middle son of Md. Dulal Mia, a Saudi expatriate from Mirzapur Shuja’s house in Saikat Upazila.
Therefore, it is evident from verified sources that the video was not related to religious hate crimes against Hindus.
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— D-Intent Data (@dintentdata) December 30, 2024
ANALYSIS: Misleading
FACT: A video showing a group of people retrieving a man's body from water is being circulated with a misleading claim that a Hindu man was killed for refusing to convert to Islam, and his body was found in a pond in Bangladesh. (1/3) pic.twitter.com/AdJjjDJw4v
Intent
Influencers are circulating old videos from Bangladesh with misleading claims to set their narrative over the political unrest in Bangladesh.
Conclusion
Claim– A Hindu man was brutally killed and his body was found in a pond in Bangladesh.
Fact– The video depicts the body of a Muslim teenager Mahbub Alam Saikat being retrieved after he was drowned in a pond.
Related Article: Fact Check: Old video of man flogging a couple publicly falsely shared as Bangladesh – D-Intent Data
