Relations between New Delhi and Dhaka remain tense as the strike by former Bangladesh leader Sheikh Hasina, with social media users in Muslim-majority countries sharing a video that they mistakenly claimed showed a mosque in neighbouring India. This clip depicts the burning compounds in Indonesia.
“The fire is in mosques all over India. Oh Allah, please save the Muslims of the world“The Bengali subtitles of Facebook posts are written.
It shares an 18-second video showing a building on fire that has been viewed thousands of times since it was uploaded on December 22, 2024.
The post surfaced after Hindu activists attempted to attack the Bangladesh consulate during a protest in Agartala, a small Indian city not far from the shared border between the two countries (Archive link).
Relations between the two countries were thwarted by a student-led uprising in August, where former Bangladesh dictator Sheikh Hasina now lives in India.
Public sentiment in 170 million Muslim majority countries continues to be piled up on their Hindus minority neighbors, the main international patron of Hasina during her 15-year reign.
Screenshot of fake posts, taken on March 3
The video is shared elsewhere on Facebook, as well as false claims.
But the building in the video is actually a mosque in Indonesia, and there is no official report on burning mosques in India.
Google reverse image search for key frames with clips and found a longer video showing similar scenes in an Instagram post (archive link) posted on December 8, 2024.
The Indonesian language title is “Luwuk Banggai Central Market Complex Fire”.
Comparison of screenshots of fake posts (left) and videos in Instagram
Further keyword searches resulted in similar clips (and links here and here) published by Indonesian media organization Kompastv and its marketplace in Central Sulawesi province.
Kompastv reported that on December 8, 2024, a fire hit the Luwuk Central Market, which quickly spread and destroyed the nearby mosque, surrounded by more than a hundred stalls and stalls.
Police said preliminary investigations showed that the fire could have been caused by a short circuit (a link to archive).
Google Maps Street View images correspond to scenes in False posts (archive links).
Comparison of screenshots of fake posts (left) and buildings seen in Google Maps Street View
AFP uncovered other false claims related to the unrest in Bangladesh.
