Video shows attack on Muslim shrine, not ‘Hindu temple in Bangladesh’

As religious tensions spiked in Bangladesh following the arrest of a Hindu leader, social media users in neighbouring India falsely claimed a video showed a group of “Sunni Bangladeshis” vandalising “Hindu temples”. The building shown in the circulating video is a Muslim shrine, the person who manages the site told AFP, adding those who attacked it had accused it of promoting “anti-Islamic” activities.

“1000s of Sunni Bangladeshis breaking Hindu Temples. While Hindus lining up at Decathlon, Zara, etc to buy Made in Bangladesh items,” read the English-language X post shared on December 2, 2024.

The accompanying video shows a group of men with sticks and bricks trying to tear down a structure.

Sunni Muslims are the largest sect within Islam and form the majority of Bangladesh’s population (archived link).

Religious relations have been turbulent in Bangladesh since a student-led August revolution forced long-time autocratic prime minister Sheikh Hasina to flee to neighbouring India.

On November 25, outspoken Hindu monk Chinmoy Krishna Das Brahmachari — the spokesman of a newly-formed Hindu group leading protests calling for the protection of the minority — was arrested on sedition charges (archived link).

He was denied bail by a court in Chittagong, Bangladesh’s second-largest city, leading to clashes between his supporters and security forces outside the court.

Three Hindu temples in the city were also attacked on November 29 (archived link).

The same video was shared with similar claims on X and Facebook by users based in Hindu-majority India who believed the video shows the destruction of a Hindu temple.

However, the structure in the clip is actually a Muslim shrine in Bangladesh.

Muslim shrine

AFP found a similar video showing men hitting the same structure with sticks shared on Facebook on August 30, 2024 (archived link).

The Bangla-language caption of the post said it shows a shrine built to honour Hazrat Baba Ali Pagla being “demolished”.

Below is a screenshot comparison of the video in the false post (left) and the clip shared on Facebook (right):

Local media Bdnews24 published a report on the incident on August 31 and said the shrine was built to honour Ali Pagla — a local religious leader — after his death (archived link).

The report also published images showing a similar scene seen in the false video and said the attack was led by a local Muslim cleric, who was later sacked by villagers over the incident.

Below is a screenshot comparison between the video in the false post (left) and images used in the news report (right), with similarities highlighted by AFP:

Eman Ali, Ali Pagla’s son who maintains the shrine, told AFP on December 9 that the structure in the video was a Muslim shrine and not a Hindu temple.

He said the attack took place on August 29 when Muslims from a nearby mosque “suddenly vandalised the shrine’s properties”.

Ali said the attackers claimed activities “against Islamic principles” had taken place at the shrine.