ANI Misidentifies Muslim Man From Bangladesh Searching For Missing Son As Hindu

Later, ANI clarified that the man did not belong to the Hindu minority community in Bangladesh.

Fact-Check: This claim is false as the person in the video is from the Muslim faith.

(Source: The Quint) 

A video showing a man, sitting on a road and being dragged by security personnel, with a photo frame of another person in his hand is being shared on social media platforms.

The claim: Those sharing wrote that it showed a Bangladeshi Hindu man protesting with a poster of his missing son.

Who shared it?: The claim was also made by the news agency, Asian News International (ANI).

An archive of the post can be found here. 

(Source: ANI/X/Screenshot) 

An archive of the post can be found here. 

(Source: X/Screenshot) 

(Archives of similar claims can be found here and here.)

Is this true?: No, the claim is false.

• ANI misidentified the person in the video as someone belonging to the Hindu community in Bangladesh.

• In reality, the man's name is Babul Hawaldar, belonging to the Muslim community. He was protesting with his son's photo whose name is Mohammed Sunny Hawaldar. The son has been missing since 2013.

What we found: At first, we broke down the video into multiple screenshots and ran a Google reverse image search on some of them.

• We came across a video report by Barta24 from 13 August. In this, the man in the viral video can be seen protesting alongside others.

• 2:04 minute of the video, the man spoke about himself in Bangla which we translated to English. He mentioned that his name was Babul Hawaldar and his son's name was Mohammed Sunny Hawaldar who has been missing since 2013.

Here is a comparison between the viral video and the Barta 24 report. 

(Source: Altered by The Quint) 

We also noticed that the man was wearing a skull cap in the news report. The same skull cap was also visible in his hands in the viral video. Below are the similarities.

Here is a comparison between the viral video and the Barta 24 report. 

(Source: Altered by The Quint) 

• Another report by Samakal News from 13 August also featured this man. In this report, the man stated that he was unaware what wrong his son had done, but was picked up from Durgapur in January 2013.

• A report by Prothomalo from 14 August stated that relatives of missing persons from various time periods across the country had come together in protest in Dhaka, Bangladesh. The man's picture was on the cover image of the report.

Here is a preview of the report.

(Source: Prothomalo/Screenshot) 

A journalist and fact-checker from Bangladesh named Shohanur Rahman took to their X account and clarified that the man in the video did not belong to a Hindu minority community in Bangladesh.

• He further stated that the person was a Muslim with the same name as mentioned in the above news reports.

• The man was protesting for his lost son, who had been missing since 2013.

• Lastly, the journalist added that the protest was not related to the current situation in Bangladesh.

ANI clarifies: After publishing their post and identifying the man as a Hindu from Bangladesh, ANI issued a correction and stated, "The below tweet has been deleted since this person is not from the minority Hindu community. Error regretted."

The news agency has previously been called out for spreading misleading communal misinformation around the Manipur viral video case as well. They misidentified an accused in the case as a person belonging to the Muslim community. You can read our story here.

Conclusion: ANI misidentified a person from the Muslim community as a Hindu minority person from Bangladesh and linked the video with the present situation in the country.

(Not convinced of a post or information you came across online and want it verified? Send us the details on WhatsApp at 9540511818 , or e-mail it to us at [e-mail] and we'll fact-check it for you. You can also read all our fact-checked stories here.)