Amid the ongoing unrest in Bangladesh (here, here), a video showing people kneeling in a line on the road, seemingly offering Namaz (prayers), is being widely shared across social media platforms with the claim that Hindus in Bangladesh are being held hostage and forced to convert to Islam (here, here, here, & here). The video also shows some individuals standing around those offering prayers, and holding sticks. In this article, we fact-check the claim made in this post.
Claim: Video showing visuals of Hindus being held hostage and forced to convert to Islam in Bangladesh amid the ongoing 2024 unrest in the country.
Fact: The viral video shows protesters offering Namaz on a road in Dhaka, Bangladesh, during an anti-quota protest. According to reports, on 16 July 2024, students from various private universities protested against the reservation system in Bangladesh by blocking the road in front of Bashundhara Gate in Dhaka. During this protest, the students offered Zuhr Namaz (the second prayer performed in the afternoon) on the road. Hence the claim made in the post is FALSE.
Bangladesh has witnessed deadly protests that began in July 2024 as an anti-quota movement. Recently, these mass protests have evolved into a major anti-government uprising. The situation escalated when Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina resigned and fled the country. Protesters forcefully entered her official residence in Dhaka, looting and vandalizing the premises (here & here).
Reports indicate that mobs attacked the homes and businesses of minorities, particularly Hindus, looting their valuables (here). There are also reports of Hindu homes and temples being vandalized and set on fire (here).
According to recent reports, hundreds of people protested in Bangladesh’s capital, Dhaka, on 09 August 2024, and later in other parts of the country, against violence targeting the minority Hindu community since former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina quit and fled on 05 August 2024 (here, here, & here).
To gather more details about this viral video, we conducted a reverse image search using keyframes from the footage. This search led us to an extended version of the viral video uploaded on YouTube by a Bangladeshi media outlet called ‘SOMOY TV Bulletin’ on 16 July 2024. The caption of the video states that the protesting students were offering their Zuhr prayers (one of the five daily prayers performed by Muslims) in Bashundhara, Dhaka, Bangladesh. Similar videos can be seen here (archived here ) and here (archived here ), stating that the visuals show students offering Zuhr Namaz on the roads during the reservation agitation on 16 July 2024 in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Zuhr Namaz is the second prayer offered in the afternoon.
A relevant keyword search led us to this SomoyNews TV report, featuring a keyframe from the viral video published on 16 July 2024. According to the report, students from various private universities protested by blocking the road in front of Bashundhara Gate in the capital, Dhaka, on 16 July 2024. After protesting for an hour, some of the students sat in a row and offered Zuhr Namaz, while the rest of the students standing nearby continued sloganeering and protesting.
Reports by Dhaka Press, Probashirdiganta, and Bangladesh Moments, dated 16 July 2024, also confirm that the visuals in the viral video show protesting students offering Zuhr Namaz(prayers) during the protest on 16 July 2024 at Bashundhara Gate in Dhaka.
To sum up, a video of protesters offering Namaz on a road in Bangladesh is being shared with a false communal narrative
