After the recent arrest of three ISKCON priests in Bangladesh amidst the political transition that ousted Sheikh Hasina’s government early this year, several posts are being shared over social media platforms. Lighthouse Journalism came across one such video being widely shared. It was claimed that the video showed the radical Islamists attacking Kalibari that is, Kali temple in Bangladesh, destroying several idols. The posts also mentioned that several Hindu devotees were injured. During the investigation, we found that the video was from West Bengal of a ritual, and not from Bangladesh. The viral claim is misleading.
Claim:
X user Baba Banaras shared the viral claim along with the video on his profile.
Other users too are sharing the video with similar claim.
Investigation:
We started our investigation by running a reverse image search on the keyframes obtained from the video.
One particular keyframe led us to a post on Facebook made on 29th November.
The post was shared with a hashtag in Bengali: #সুলতানপুরকালীমাতানিরঞ্জন
The Google Translate suggested that the hashtag was: #SultanpurKaliMataniRanjan
We then ran a Google keyword search and found a post by Purba Bardhaman District Police.
The post said (translation): A recent video has gone viral on social media saying the incident in Bangladesh, showing the incident of idol vandalism. Actually, the incident is a religious program named Kali Mata Niranjan. This is a hundred years old custom of Sultanpur village of Khandaghosh Police Station area of East. According to customs, the 12-year-old statue was destroyed by the people of the village, and then sacrificed the broken parts one by one. After immersion, the new statue is rebuilt and worship the same statue for the next 11 years. Everyone is requested to stay away from this propaganda and maintain communal harmony.
We found a news report about the ritual too.
The report stated: here is novelty in everything. Makali is not worshipped alone here, the four sons and daughters of Durga, Lakshmi, Saraswati, Kartik and Ganesh and Jaya Vijaya are seen together. The idol is made once in 12 years, and after 12 years it is immersed. The 12-foot Kali idol will be immersed this year after 12 years, and there will be a grand event for immersion. Almost lakhs of devotees from the state are going to gather here.
We also found a few videos and pictures from the ritual.
Conclusion: A video of a religious program named Kali Mata Niranjan from Sultanpur village, in West Bengal where an idol is destroyed and then the broken pieces are immersed is being shared with misleading claims of temple destruction in Bangladesh. Viral claims are misleading.
