Weeks of deadly clashes between protesters and security forces in Bangladesh culminated in Hasina resigning on August 3 and fleeing to India, ending her 15-year autocratic rule.
Following her abrupt resignation, there were numerous reports of attacks on religious minorities, including Hindu homes, temples and businesses (archived link).
Hindus are the largest religious minority in predominantly Muslim Bangladesh and are considered a loyal support base for Hasina’s Awami League party.
A similar false claim was shared elsewhere on X and Facebook. However, the owner of the property was misidentified.
Unfounded rumor
In a statement posted on his official Facebook page on August 9, Das said: “A news report about an attack on our house was recently broadcast in various media outlets, which is not true. No one should believe these rumors. I and my family are completely safe so far.” (archived link).
He continued to call for an end to the violence and said the country should “move forward together regardless of all religions.”
A reverse image search on Google for a key frame from the circulating video revealed that the house matches one in a longer footage posted on August 5 on the YouTube account of Prothom Alo, Bangladesh’s largest daily newspaper (archived link).
The Bengali caption of the video says that the house belonged to former cricketer and Awami League MP Mashrafe Bin Mortaza.
Below is a screenshot comparison of the video shared with the false claim (left) and the footage released by Prothom Alo (right) with the corresponding features highlighted by AFP:
A picture showing the same house was previously published in an article by local news channel Jago News 24 on June 24, 2021, which identified Mashrafe as the owner (archived link).
Below you can see a screenshot comparison of the burning house from the fake posts (left) and the image from Jago News 24 (right) with corresponding features marked:
Mehedi Hasan, police chief of Narail district, told AFP that the house in the video belonged to Mashrafe.
“It was attacked and burned down on August 5, but no charges have been filed in this regard,” he said.
