As deadly unrest hits Bangladesh, a photo of the prime minister Sheikh Hasina holding a security meeting circulated in Facebook posts that falsely claimed that the Indian high commissioner was present in Dhaka. The posts suggested that the photo showed evidence of Indian interference in Bangladesh’s affairs. However, a man identified in the photo as the Indian high commissioner is in fact Hasina’s national security adviser. An official list No Indian officials were included among the details collected by AFP from those attending the meeting.
“Why is the Indian High Commissioner present at such an important meeting with the leaders of the three armed forces?” read one Bengali text. Facebook post who shared the photo on July 23.
“(I) want to know from the animal children of #AnimalLeague,” it added, referring to Hasina’s Awami League party.
The photo shows Hasina meeting with eight people. The man on her left is marked with a red circle.
The photo spread online as student protests over civil service hiring rules in Bangladesh spiraled into deadly unrest.
At least 193 people, including several police officers, were killed in the violence, according to an AFP report from police and hospitals, in one of the biggest shakeups in Hasina’s 15-year tenure.
Delhi, which has a largely warm working relationship with Hasina, has refrained from commenting on the unrest, calling it a “internal” matter (archived link).
India has advised citizens living in Bangladesh to avoid local travel and said it helped Indian nationals return home (archived here And here).
The photo circulated in similar posts on Facebook And Wires in which the question was asked why the Indian High Commissioner was allowed to attend the meeting.
Safety Advisor
Search keywords on Google and Facebook found the photo shared on the official Facebook page of the Awami League on July 22 (archived link).
“Bangabandhu’s daughter, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, on Sunday (July 21, 2024) met the Prime Minister’s Security Advisor, the Chief of the three Armed Forces, the Cabinet Secretary and the Chief of Defence Staff, Ministry of Defence, and gave instructions on the overall security situation in the country,” the report said.
“Bangabandhu” (friend of Bengal) is an affectionate reference to Sheikh Hasina’s father and the country’s founder, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
Below is a screenshot of the photo shared in fake posts (left) and posted on the Awami League’s Facebook page (right):
The prime minister’s office provided AFP with a list of those attending the meeting via email. safety advisor Tarique Ahmed SiddiqueCabinet Secretary Mahbub Hossain, Navy Chief Nazmul Hasan, Military Secretary Kabir Ahmed and military officials Waqar-uz-Zaman, Hasan Mahmud Khan, Mizanur Rahman Shamim and Special Security Force (SSF) Director General Nazmul Hasan.archived link).
A photo by Tarique Ahmed Siddique of 2018 confirmed that it is the man sitting to the left of Hasina in the photo.
Moreover, Tarique physically does not resemble India’s high commissioner to Dhaka, Pranay Verma — who took over the post in September 2022 (archived link).
AFP has checked more misinformation about the unrest in Bangladesh here And here.
