An old image of a monk serving food to Muslims has resurfaced in social media posts that falsely claimed it shows a Hindu priest killed by Islamists during the recent unrest in Bangladesh. AFP previously debunked false claims using the same image and identified the monk, while his religious organization confirmed the photo was taken in India.
“Swami Nitai Das Ji Swami of the ISKCON temple in Bangladesh… he organised Iftar for Muslims in the temple for 30 days. The same Muslims burnt down the temple and killed the swami,” the Hindi-language claim shared on Facebook on August 7th.
Iftar is a meal that Muslims eat to break their fast during the holy month of Ramadan.
The photo shows a monk serving food to a number of men in traditional Islamic clothing.
There have been several reports of violence against religious minorities in Bangladesh since the prime minister Sheikh Hasina was evicted on August 5 following protests by university students.
According to AFP, more than 450 people were killed during the protests that eventually led to Hasina fleeing the country (archived link).
Human rights groups and diplomats in Bangladesh have since expressed concern over reports of attacks on minorities. The Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist Christian Unity Council said at least 10 Hindu temples had been attacked by “thugs”, AFP reported.
The image of the monk was shared elsewhere on Facebook with similar claims here and on the social media platform X here.
But the photo, which has been circulating online since 2016, does not show a Hindu priest who was murdered in Bangladesh.
Photo from India
AFP earlier debunked the photo from 2021, when it circulated online with a similar claim, following deadly violence in Bangladesh over the desecration of the Quran during a Hindu religious festival.
Combined reverse image searches and keyword searches on Google yielded the photo that appeared in a article by UCA News on July 4, 2016 (archived link).
The headline reads: “Hindu group organizes fasting gathering for Muslims.”
The caption of the photo states that the event was held at an International Society for Krishna Consciousness temple in Mayapura district in Nadia district in the eastern state of West Bengal (archived link).
Below is a screenshot comparing the image in the fake post (left) to the image shared in the 2016 article (right):
Yudhistir Govinda Das, ISKCON’s communications director in India told AFP in November 2021 that the photo was taken in West Bengal.
Das identified the monk pictured as Ivan Antić, also known as Chaitanya Nitai Das, an ISKCON supporter from Croatia.
AFP also contacted Antić in 2021, who confirmed that he was the monk in the photo.
