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| - Bangladesh was plunged into an unprecedented crisis with erstwhile Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina ousted on August 5 after a month-long nationwide student protest. Incidents of attacks on minority Hindus have been reported from several parts of the country. An interim government led by Nobel Laureate Muhammad Yunus is expected to be sworn in on August 8.
Against this backdrop, a video has gone viral on social media which users claim shows the looting of a shopping outlet in Bangladesh owned by a Hindu. Several Right-wing accounts have shared the video with the same claim. User @VoiceofHindu71, who has been fact-checked several times by Alt News, shared the video and garnered over 670000 views. (Archive)
Looting From a Hindu Shop in Chittagong Market.. #AllEyesOnBangladeshiHindus pic.twitter.com/TjR7mBvAMp
— Voice of Bangladeshi Hindus 🇧🇩 (@VoiceofHindu71) August 6, 2024
@visegrad24, another verified account which frequently amplifies misinformation, also tweeted the video with the same claim. This tweet garnered over 200000 views. (Archive)
Islamists in Bangladesh incite a crowd to loot a Hindu-owned store in the Chittagong Market.
Hindus are losing lives, homes and property due to the Islamist attacks against them after the government was overthrown yesterday.
🇧🇩🇮🇳 pic.twitter.com/b2fqpbFwuZ
— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) August 6, 2024
Several other users shared the same video. (Archives- 1, 2, 3, 4)
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Fact Check
We noticed several people were carrying bags with the brand name Yellow. We also noticed a black hoarding where the letters YELL can be seen.
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In the viral video, we also noticed a shop named ‘On Fire’. Using Google Maps, we geo-located the incident to Mohammadpur, Dhaka. The store being looted was one of the many outlets of a luxury Bangladeshi brand named Yellow.
YELLOW, whose parent brand is BEXIMCO, has 19 stores across Bangaldesh and an online platform serving Bangladesh and Canada. Their products include clothing, fragrances, accessories, home textiles, ceramics, paintings, and books. The Bangladesh Export Import Company Limited or BEXIMCO Group is the largest private sector group in Bangladesh founded in the 1970s by two brothers – Ahmed Sohail Fasihur Rahman and Salman Fazlur Rahman.
Salman Fazlur Rahman held the position of an adviser (private industry and investment) to former Prime Minister of Bangladesh Sheikh Hasina, with the status of a cabinet minister.
Before Hasina resigned on Monday, August 5, Rahman fled the country on Sunday. Rioters reportedly broke into the home of Salman F Rahman, Hasina’s financial adviser, looting artwork and household items and setting vehicles on fire. In the video, a woman is heard saying, “Take whatever you can. Take everything. You are doing great work. Very good, very good.”
Several Yellow stores across the country were attacked. In Dhanmondi, protesters set a YELLOW showroom on fire. According to eyewitnesses, even fire service personnel were initially deterred by the protesters. Later in the evening, they returned and attempted to extinguish the fire. Another Facebook post showed a Yellow outlet in Halishahar being looted.
Hence, a viral video of a YELLOW store in Mohammadpur, Dhaka, being looted is falsely amplified as visuals of a Hindu-owned establishment being looted. In reality, Yellow is a brand owned by Bangladeshi billionaire and Sheikh Hasina’s aide, Salman Fazlur Rahman.
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