Lighthouse Journalism came across a video from Bangladesh which was shared with the claim that a Hindu man died after a mob stoned him to death. In the video people were seen throwing stones at a man swimming in a lake. During the investigation we found that the video is that of a Bangladesh mayor who was trying to save himself from the mob after Sheikh Hasina resigned.
Claim:
X user Sunanda Roy shared the video on her profile with a misleading claim.
Check the archive version of the post.
Other users too are sharing the video with the same claim.
Investigation:
We started our investigation by reaching out to a senior fact-checker in Bangladesh, Tausif Akbar. He informed that the video depicts Akhaura Mayor Takzil Khalifa Kajol swimming away from an attacking mob.
He also shared with us a video report of the incident.
We then ran a Google keyword search to search more about the incident by translating the keywords in Bengali.
This also led us to a report on Dhaka Post.
The report mentioned: After Sheikh Hasina resigned and left the country, attacks on Awami League leaders and activists and attacks on their homes and offices are going on. Similarly, similar incidents are happening in different areas of Brahmanbaria. However, the escape of Takzil Khalifa Kajol, the powerful mayor of Akhaura Municipality, has given rise to public discussion.
We also found a few more reports on the same.
Conclusion: Video of escape of Takzil Khalifa Kajol, mayor of Akhaura, Bangladesh is being shared with a misleading claim of a Hindu being stoned to death. Viral claims are misleading.
