Dhaka, Bangladesh – Inside of hours of Sheikh Hasina’s removing from energy after a student-led mass rebellion, studies started to appear in some Indian media shops that contributors of Hindu minorities in Bangladesh had been being focused by way of “Islamist forces”.
Articles and movies containing deceptive content material emerged throughout Indian media and social media platforms.
A video on The Instances Team-owned Reflect Now’s YouTube channel, titled Assault on Hindus in Bangladesh? Mass Murders, Killings by way of Mob, presentations pictures of violence and arson assaults on 4 homes, two of them were recognized to be owned by way of Muslims. The identify of the video is obviously deceptive as there used to be no mass murders reported within the incident. Native studies say probably the most homes belonged to Bangladesh’s freedom icon Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
The video additionally makes unsubstantiated claims, like “24 burnt alive by way of mob” and “Minorities on the centre of assaults”.
Al Jazeera has independently verified that most effective two Hindus were killed since Hasina’s ouster on Monday – one police officer and one activist with Hasina’s Awami League celebration.
Hindus represent about 8 p.c of Bangladesh’s 170 million other people and feature historically been robust supporters of the Awami League, which is most often seen as secular in comparison with the opposition coalition, which contains an Islamist celebration.
Many information studies of assaults on Hindus include outlandish claims similar to “a couple of crore [10 million] refugees are most probably to go into West Bengal quickly”, which used to be made in a Instances of India document that quoted Suvendu Adhikari, a senior chief of High Minister Narendra Modi’s governing Bharatiya Janata Birthday celebration (BJP).
The ANI information company, noticed just about Modi’s executive, quoted a scholar chief in India as pronouncing the mass rebellion used to be “orchestrated by way of the enemies of Bangladesh”.
An much more odd Instances of India article said that Jamaat-e-Islami, Bangladesh’s largest Islamist celebration, “introduced down Sheikh Hasina executive in Bangladesh”.
Folks stand guard in entrance of a police station that used to be vandalised on August 5, 2024, in Dhaka [Fatima Tuj Johora/AP Photo]
Political analyst Zahed Ur Rahman mentioned Indian media have reported via an “Islamophobic” lens.
“The scholar motion that fomented the mass rebellion involving other people from all walks of lifestyles is unanimously understood as a well-liked motion right here in Bangladesh. However Indian media by some means were decoding the entire state of affairs via their Islamophobic eye,” he informed Al Jazeera.
ISI and non secular claims
As Hasina fled the rustic on Monday, information articles in Indian media alleged that Bangladesh’s protests had been influenced by way of the Inter-Products and services Intelligence (ISI), a Pakistani undercover agent company, as it is looking for to show Bangladesh into an Islamic state with the make stronger of political events just like the Bangladesh Nationalist Birthday celebration (BNP) and its former political best friend Jamaat-e-Islami.
Some media shops even steered the Indian executive to organize for a possible refugee disaster, speculating that Hindus can be pushed out of Bangladesh.
Hypothesis suggesting an ISI and Chinese language connection to the preferred Bangladesh motion used to be a commonplace thread in social media posts by way of some commentators and media shops.
The diplomatic affairs editor of The Financial Instances, Dipanjan R Chaudhury, posted on X: “Jamaat-e-Islami in Bangladesh politics doesn’t bode smartly both for nation or India. Jamaat monitor report of marketing pass border terror … is a part of contemporary historical past.”
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The tv channel TV9 Gujarati with a million fans on X characterized the rebellion as a “coup”, declaring at the social media platform: “Is ISI in the back of the coup assault in Bangladesh? Is Jamaat-E-Islam in the back of the violent assaults?”
What’s the truth at the flooring?
Those articles by way of Indian media and posts in social media distinction sharply with factual studies chronicling the occasions that ended in the Hasina’s resignation. She fled to India, which had sponsored her.
Native media in Bangladesh reported that since Monday night time, a number of Hindu families throughout 20 of the rustic’s 64 districts were attacked and looted.
Al Jazeera reached out to resources in a few of these districts and came upon that the assaults on Hindu families weren’t pushed by way of non secular identification however by way of political affiliations.
Mustafizur Rahman Hiru, a rent-a-car motive force from the central district of Narsingdi, informed Al Jazeera that during his village, the 2 Hindu families focused had been house to native Awami League leaders.
“Folks had been offended as a result of those Hindu leaders had been bullying others when the Awami League used to be in energy. Now, with Hasina’s fall, they’re dealing with the backlash,” he mentioned.
A Bangladeshi scholar controls site visitors after police went on strike in Dhaka [Munir Uz Zaman/AFP]
In Jashore, a border district with India, a warehouse and residential belonging to Babul Saha, an area executive chairman who ran for administrative center at the Awami League price ticket, had been attacked.
Abdur Rab Haider, a resident of Jashore, informed Al Jazeera that no Hindu family have been attacked with out ties to the Awami League.
Rahman identified that Sajeeb Wazed Pleasure, Hasina’s son, who is living in the USA, has given a number of interviews to Indian media, spreading rumours and unverified claims about assaults on Hindus and alleged operations by way of the ISI.
“Indian media merrily jumped onto it and unfold Pleasure’s bogus claims,” Rahman informed Al Jazeera.
‘Assaults politically motivated, no longer communal’
In an interview with Al Jazeera, Gobindra Chandra Pramanik, a pacesetter of the Hindu group in Bangladesh, said that to his wisdom no Hindu families with out connections to the Awami League had been attacked.
“As a pacesetter of the Hindu group, I will be able to verify that those assaults had been politically motivated, no longer communal,” he mentioned. “Around the nation, 10 instances extra Muslim families affiliated with the Awami League had been attacked.”
Native media reported that since Monday night time, greater than 119 other people – basically Awami League leaders, activists and police – had been killed in mob violence. Qadaruddin Shishir, the fact-checking editor for the AFP information company, informed Al Jazeera that most effective two of the sufferers had been Hindus: one policeman and one Awami League activist.
Zafar Sobhan, editor of Bangladesh’s Dhaka Tribune newspaper, informed Al Jazeera that many of the Indian media “as a normal rule is clueless about Bangladesh”.
“I don’t love to characteristic to malice that which simply as simply will also be defined by way of incompetence. However the uniformity of the incorrect information this is robotically peddled within the Indian media means that they’re taking dictation from a commonplace supply,” he mentioned.
However an Indian educational rejected any allegation that the Indian media’s reporting has been Islamophobic.
Sreeradha Datta, a professor at OP Jindal College in Sonipat in northern India, informed Al Jazeera that the Indian media’s fear concerning the protection of Hindus underneath a non-Hasina management in Bangladesh stems from previous reviews slightly than Islamophobia.
Datta famous that all through earlier non-Awami League governments, such because the BNP-Jamaat alliance, “there used to be an building up in assaults on minorities, and this ancient context continues to steer present perceptions.”
The media’s reporting has led to fear in India with a number of outstanding Hindu non secular leaders and politicians calling for the security of Hindus.
Muslims protective Hindus
In the meantime, pictures of people, together with scholars from Muslim non secular faculties, status watch in entrance of Hindu temples and houses were extensively circulated on social media.
In Brahmanbaria, a district with probably the most biggest Hindu populations in Bangladesh, citizens, together with scholars, stepped up to offer protection to Hindu families.
Munshi Azizul Haque, an attire businessman from Brahmanbaria, informed Al Jazeera that they’re running to forestall any communal violence within the house. “We’ve noticed how Indian media are depicting assaults on minorities in Bangladesh on social media. The truth is reasonably other,” he mentioned.
Pramanik additionally stated that Hindu temples had been being safe.
Information of Bangladeshi scholars, together with from non secular faculties, volunteering to offer protection to Hindu temples were reported in the neighborhood for the reason that unrest started, and it’s been picked up by way of shops like Clarion India and The Twine.
Those websites ran headlines declaring “Muslims Stand Guard at Temples, Name to Give protection to Minorities” and “Scholars Stand Guard Outdoor Temples and Church buildings in Wake of Assaults.”
Siddharth Varadarajan, founding editor of The Twine, informed Al Jazeera that whilst there’s legit and authentic fear about studies of assaults on Hindu puts of worship, companies and houses throughout greater than two dozen districts in Bangladesh, the Indian media also are exaggerating the size and extent of those incidents.
Additionally, he mentioned, there’s a phase of the Indian media this is the use of the Bangladesh state of affairs to spice up anti-Muslim rhetoric “in carrier of the BJP and [its ideological parent] RSS’s time table.
“For them, the ouster of Hasina is an Islamist conspiracy hatched in collaboration with Pakistan and China and that the objective is India and Hindus,” he mentioned.
Naresh Fernandez, editor of the Indian information portal Scroll.in, mentioned Hindutva (right-wing Hindu nationalism) supporters in India are the use of the location in Bangladesh “as a display screen on which to undertaking their very own anxieties, fantasies and conspiracy theories to serve their slender political functions”.
“They’re claiming that Hasina’s fall used to be in truth engineered by way of global forces and that it is a practice session for the same regime exchange to be effected in India,” Fernandez informed Al Jazeera.
He mentioned, alternatively, that Hindutva supporters are rightfully involved concerning the protection of minorities in Bangladesh on this duration of disaster, “a priority that they fail to reveal about minorities in India”.
‘Delhi’s intent to destabilise Dhaka’
Political analyst Farid Erkizia Bakht, in the meantime, recommended that incorrect information unfold by way of Indian media displays New Delhi’s intent to destabilise Dhaka. He famous that India has misplaced its most respected best friend within the subcontinent and is deeply involved concerning the course of the incoming management.
Varadarajan additionally echoed the sentiment.
“The preferred rebellion which unseated Hasina stuck New Delhi by way of marvel, and the federal government is now scrambling to formulate a coherent and rational coverage within the face of the brand new state of affairs.
“It can’t welcome the student-led protest and bottom-up expression of other people energy or push aside the exchange as a ‘coup’ or an ‘anti-India conspiracy’ both because the Hindutva correct wing on social media is pronouncing,” he mentioned.
“For now, New Delhi can be in a wait-and-watch mode. The focal point can be on making sure the protection of Indian nationals in Bangladesh and tracking the location of minorities there,” he added.
Bangladeshi activist and writer Aupam Debashis Roy informed Al Jazeera that there have been assaults on Hindu minorities however the numbers were overblown and Bangladesh is being portrayed as being taken over by way of “Islamist forces”, which isn’t true, he mentioned.
The character of the soon-to-be-formed meantime executive might not be “radical Islamist” in nature, Roy mentioned. “However the BJP-leaning media desires to unfold the arena that Bangladesh goes to be within the palms of Islamists as it helps their [the BJP’s] narrative … constructed round earlier rules like CAA and NRC,” Roy mentioned, relating to India’s citizenship legislation and nationwide sign in of voters, that have been criticised as being directed in opposition to Muslims.
“They wish to display that Bangladesh is a spot for radical Islamists and Hindus and minorities don’t seem to be secure right here. I feel that’s why the BJP-leaning Indian media is spreading incorrect information about assaults on minorities and an Islamist power taking up Bangladesh,” he added.
US-based Bangladeshi political commentator Shafquat Rabbee Anik mentioned the violence happening in Bangladesh is a results of the “cave in of the police power,” which is “most commonly because of common reprisal in opposition to excesses dedicated by way of them all through the remaining 15 years”.
As soon as Nobel Peace Prize-winning economist Muhammad Yunus formally turns into the chief of the meantime executive, that may chill out “Indian nerves”, Anik predicted.
“For one, it is going to be very exhausting to painting Yunus as an Islamist attempting to remove the rights of the minorities and girls.”
