2019 Video of Temple Vandalism in Bangladesh Revived Amid Violence

The incident that took place in Bangladesh's Mirpur is from February 2019 and has been revived as a recent one.

A video of a person vandalising an idol in a temple is being shared on social media as a recent incident that took place in Bangladesh.

The claim comes on the back of of recent incidents of violence being reported from Bangladesh over allegations of desecration of the holy Quran during Durga puja in Comilla.

While reports of vandalism and arson have been emerging from parts of Bangladesh, this video is from February 2019 and has been revived as a recent one.

CLAIM

The claim, originally in Bengali, along with the video mentions, "Hindu temples were attacked again".

"In the central temple of Mirpur in Dhaka, a miscreant named Rashedul Hasan entered the main temple as Mithun Chakraborty to pray and dragged the idol to the ground and vandalised it," the claim added.

The video shared by Facebook user 'কৃষ্ণস্তু ভগবান্ স্বয়ম্' had been viewed over 9,000 times at the time of writing the article.

Several Facebook users shared video with a similar claim. (Note: Swipe right to see the images.)

WHAT WE FOUND OUT

On carefully hearing the viral video, we heard the reporter mentioning 'Ekattor, Dhaka' in at the end of the video.

We then searched on the YouTube handle of Ekattor TV, a Bangladesh-based media outlet, using keywords 'হিন্দু মন্দিরে হামলা' (Translated: Attack on Hindu temple) and came across the viral video being uploaded on their handle on 28 February 2019.

A closer look at the visuals also showed the date stamp of the CCTV footage as 28 February 2019.

Further, the description of the video mentioned that a man, identified as Mithun Chakraborty, had vandalised an idol at a temple located in Mirpur, Bangladesh.

Meanwhile, Atindra Sarkar, an assistant to the priest at the said temple, had then told another media outlet Jago News that while the man first introduced himself as Chakraborty, he later said identified himself as Rashedul Hasan.

Mirpur police had then reportedly arrested the man in question.

While it is true that a spate of incidents of violence have been reported from different parts of Bangladesh, this video is being shared out of context.

(Not convinced of a post or information you came across online and want it verified? Send us the details on WhatsApp at 9643651818, 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.)