Dhaka, Bangladesh – Inside of hours of Sheikh Hasina’s removing from energy next a student-led accumulation rebellion, experiences started to appear in some Indian media retailers that participants of Hindu minorities in Bangladesh have been being focused by means of “Islamist forces”.
Articles and movies containing deceptive content material emerged throughout Indian media and social media platforms.
A video on The Instances Crew-owned Reflect Now’s YouTube channel, titled Assault on Hindus in Bangladesh? Aggregate Murders, Killings by means of Mob, displays photos of violence and arson assaults on 4 properties, two of them had been known to be owned by means of Muslims. The name of the video is obviously deceptive as there used to be negative accumulation murders reported within the incident. Native experiences say one of the crucial properties belonged to Bangladesh’s liberty icon Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
The video additionally makes unsubstantiated claims, like “24 burnt alive by mob” and “Minorities at the centre of attacks”.
Al Jazeera has independently verified that most effective two Hindus had been killed since Hasina’s ouster on Monday – one police officer and one activist with Hasina’s Awami League birthday party.
Hindus represent about 8 p.c of Bangladesh’s 170 million folk and feature historically been sturdy supporters of the Awami League, which is normally considered as secular when compared with the opposition coalition, which contains an Islamist birthday party.
Many information experiences of assaults on Hindus comprise outlandish claims reminiscent of “more than one crore [10 million] refugees are likely to enter West Bengal soon”, which used to be made in a Instances of Bharat file that quoted Suvendu Adhikari, a senior chief of High Minister Narendra Modi’s governing Bharatiya Janata Celebration (BJP).
The ANI information company, unhidden alike to Modi’s govt, quoted a scholar chief in Bharat as announcing the accumulation rebellion used to be “orchestrated by the enemies of Bangladesh”.
An much more unusual Instances of Bharat article said that Jamaat-e-Islami, Bangladesh’s largest Islamist birthday party, “brought down Sheikh Hasina government in Bangladesh”.
Political analyst Zahed Ur Rahman stated Indian media have reported thru an “Islamophobic” lens.
“The student movement that fomented the mass uprising involving people from all walks of life is unanimously understood as a popular movement here in Bangladesh. But Indian media somehow have been interpreting the whole scenario through their Islamophobic eye,” he advised Al Jazeera.
ISI and spiritual claims
As Hasina fled the rustic on Monday, information articles in Indian media alleged that Bangladesh’s protests have been influenced by means of the Inter-Services and products Prudence (ISI), a Pakistani secret agent company, as it is looking for to show Bangladesh into an Islamic surrounding with the aid of political events just like the Bangladesh Nationalist Celebration (BNP) and its former political best friend Jamaat-e-Islami.
Some media retailers even instructed the Indian govt to arrange for a possible refugee emergency, speculating that Hindus can be pushed out of Bangladesh.
Hypothesis suggesting an ISI and Chinese language connection to the frequent Bangladesh motion used to be a habitual story in social media posts by means of some commentators and media retailers.
The diplomatic affairs writer of The Financial Instances, Dipanjan R Chaudhury, posted on X: “Jamaat-e-Islami in Bangladesh politics doesn’t bode well either for country or India. Jamaat track record of promoting cross border terror … is part of recent history.”
The tv channel TV9 Gujarati with a million fans on X characterized the rebellion as a “coup”, mentioning at the social media platform: “Is ISI behind the coup attack in Bangladesh? Is Jamaat-E-Islam behind the violent attacks?”
What’s the fact at the grassland?
Those articles by means of Indian media and posts in social media distinction sharply with factual experiences chronicling the occasions that resulted in the Hasina’s departure. She fled to Bharat, 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 had been attacked and looted.
Al Jazeera reached out to assets in a few of these districts and came upon that the assaults on Hindu families weren’t pushed by means of non secular id however by means of political affiliations.
Mustafizur Rahman Hiru, a rent-a-car driving force from the central district of Narsingdi, advised Al Jazeera that during his village, the 2 Hindu families focused have been house to native Awami League leaders.
“People were angry because these Hindu leaders were bullying others when the Awami League was in power. Now, with Hasina’s fall, they are facing the backlash,” he stated.
In Jashore, a border district with Bharat, a storagefacility and residential belonging to Babul Saha, a neighborhood govt chairman who ran for place of business at the Awami League price tag, have been attacked.
Abdur Rab Haider, a resident of Jashore, advised Al Jazeera that negative 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 means of the ISI.
“Indian media merrily jumped onto it and spread Joy’s bogus claims,” Rahman advised Al Jazeera.
‘Attacks politically motivated, not communal’
In an interview with Al Jazeera, Gobindra Chandra Pramanik, a pacesetter of the Hindu folk in Bangladesh, said that to his wisdom negative Hindu families with out connections to the Awami League have been attacked.
“As a leader of the Hindu community, I can confirm that these attacks were politically motivated, not communal,” he stated. “Across the country, 10 times more Muslim households affiliated with the Awami League were attacked.”
Native media reported that since Monday night time, greater than 119 folk – essentially Awami League leaders, activists and police – have been killed in mob violence. Qadaruddin Shishir, the fact-checking writer for the AFP information company, advised Al Jazeera that most effective two of the sufferers have been Hindus: one policeman and one Awami League activist.
Zafar Sobhan, writer of Bangladesh’s Dhaka Tribune newspaper, advised Al Jazeera that lots of the Indian media “as a general rule is clueless about Bangladesh”.
“I don’t like to attribute to malice that which just as easily can be explained by incompetence. But the uniformity of the misinformation that is routinely peddled in the Indian media suggests that they are taking dictation from a common source,” he stated.
However an Indian instructional unwanted any allegation that the Indian media’s reporting has been Islamophobic.
Sreeradha Datta, a trainer at OP Jindal College in Sonipat in northern Bharat, advised Al Jazeera that the Indian media’s worry in regards to the protection of Hindus beneath a non-Hasina management in Bangladesh stems from generation studies in lieu than Islamophobia.
Datta famous that throughout earlier non-Awami League governments, such because the BNP-Jamaat alliance, “there was an increase in attacks on minorities, and this historical context continues to influence current perceptions.”
The media’s reporting has brought about worry in Bharat with a number of chief Hindu non secular leaders and politicians calling for the safety of Hindus.
Muslims protective Hindus
In the meantime, photographs of people, together with scholars from Muslim non secular faculties, status attend to in entrance of Hindu temples and houses had been broadly circulated on social media.
In Brahmanbaria, a district with one of the crucial 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, advised Al Jazeera that they’re operating to restrain any communal violence within the segment. “We’ve seen how Indian media are depicting attacks on minorities in Bangladesh on social media. The reality is quite different,” he stated.
Pramanik additionally said that Hindu temples have been being secure.
Information of Bangladeshi scholars, together with from non secular faculties, volunteering to offer protection to Hindu temples had been reported in the community because the unrest started, and it’s been picked up by means of retailers like Clarion Bharat and The Twine.
Those websites ran headlines mentioning “Muslims Stand Guard at Temples, Call to Protect Minorities” and “Students Stand Guard Outside Temples and Churches in Wake of Attacks.”
Siddharth Varadarajan, forming writer of The Twine, advised Al Jazeera that moment there’s reputable and authentic worry about experiences of assaults on Hindu parks of prayer, companies and houses throughout greater than two lot districts in Bangladesh, the Indian media also are exaggerating the size and extent of those incidents.
Additionally, he stated, there’s a division of the Indian media this is the use of the Bangladesh status to spice up anti-Muslim rhetoric “in carrier of the BJP and [its ideological parent] RSS’s schedule.
“For them, the ouster of Hasina is an Islamist conspiracy hatched in collaboration with Pakistan and China and that the target is India and Hindus,” he stated.
Naresh Fernandez, writer of the Indian information portal Scroll.in, stated Hindutva (right-wing Hindu nationalism) supporters in Bharat are the use of the status in Bangladesh “as a screen on which to project their own anxieties, fantasies and conspiracy theories to serve their narrow political purposes”.
“They are claiming that Hasina’s fall was actually engineered by international forces and that this is a rehearsal for a similar regime change to be effected in India,” Fernandez advised Al Jazeera.
He stated, then again, that Hindutva supporters are rightfully involved in regards to the protection of minorities in Bangladesh on this duration of emergency, “a concern that they fail to demonstrate about minorities in India”.
‘Delhi’s intent to destabilise Dhaka’
Political analyst Farid Erkizia Bakht, in the meantime, steered that incorrect information unfold by means of Indian media displays Unutilized Delhi’s intent to destabilise Dhaka. He famous that Bharat has misplaced its maximum significance best friend within the subcontinent and is deeply involved in regards to the course of the incoming management.
Varadarajan additionally echoed the sentiment.
“The frequent rebellion which unseated Hasina stuck Unutilized Delhi by means of awe, and the federal government is now scrambling to formulate a coherent and rational coverage within the face of the fresh status.
“It cannot welcome the student-led protest and bottom-up expression of people power or dismiss the change as a ‘coup’ or an ‘anti-India conspiracy’ either as the Hindutva right wing on social media is saying,” he stated.
“For now, New Delhi will be in a wait-and-watch mode. The focus will be on ensuring the safety of Indian nationals in Bangladesh and monitoring the situation of minorities there,” he added.
Bangladeshi activist and writer Aupam Debashis Roy advised Al Jazeera that there have been assaults on Hindu minorities however the numbers had been overblown and Bangladesh is being portrayed as being taken over by means of “Islamist forces”, which isn’t true, he stated.
The character of the soon-to-be-formed intervening time govt may not be “radical Islamist” in nature, Roy stated. “But the BJP-leaning media wants to spread the world that Bangladesh is going to be in the hands of Islamists because it supports their [the BJP’s] narrative … built around previous laws like CAA and NRC,” Roy stated, regarding Bharat’s citizenship regulation and nationwide check in of electorate, that have been criticised as being directed in opposition to Muslims.
“They want to show that Bangladesh is a place for radical Islamists and Hindus and minorities are not safe here. I think that’s why the BJP-leaning Indian media is spreading misinformation about attacks on minorities and an Islamist force taking over Bangladesh,” he added.
US-based Bangladeshi political commentator Shafquat Rabbee Anik stated the violence going on in Bangladesh is a results of the “collapse of the police force,” which is “mostly due to popular reprisal against excesses committed by them throughout the last 15 years”.
As soon as Nobel Amusement Prize-winning economist Muhammad Yunus formally turns into the chief of the intervening time govt, that may tranquility unwell “Indian nerves”, Anik predicted.
“For one, it will be very hard to portray Yunus as an Islamist trying to take away the rights of the minorities and women.”