As deadly unrest rocked Bangladesh, a photo of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina holding a security meeting circulated in Facebook posts that falsely claimed it showed India’s high commissioner to Dhaka in attendance. The posts suggested the picture showed evidence of India meddling in Bangladesh’s affairs. However, a man identified in the photo as the Indian high commissioner is in fact Hasina’s security adviser. An official list of the meeting’s attendees obtained by AFP did not include any Indian officials.
“Why is the Indian high commissioner in such an important meeting with the heads of the three forces?” read a Bengali-language Facebook post that shared the photo on July 23.
“(I) want to know from #AnimalLeague animal kids,” it added, referring to Hasina’s Awami League party.
The photo showed Hasina meeting with eight people, with the man to her left highlighted with a red circle.
The photo spread online as student protests against civil service hiring rules in Bangladesh spiralled into deadly unrest.
The violence killed at least 193 people, including several police officers, according to an AFP count of victims reported by police and hospitals, in one of the biggest upheavals of Hasina’s 15-year tenure.
Delhi, which has a largely warm working relationship with Hasina, has refrained from commenting on the unrest, calling it an “internal” matter (archived link).
India has advised citizens living in Bangladesh to avoid local travel and said it was helping Indian nationals to return home (archived here and here).
The photo circulated in similar posts on Facebook and Threads which questioned why the Indian high commissioner should be allowed to attend the meeting.
Security adviser
Keyword searches on Google and Facebook found the photo shared on the Awami League’s official Facebook page on July 22 (archived link).
“Bangabandhu’s daughter Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Sunday (21 July 2024) held a meeting with the prime minister’s security adviser, chief of the three forces, cabinet secretary and principal staff officer of the armed forces department, and gave instructions on the overall security situation of the country,” the post said.
“Bangabandhu” (friend of Bengal) is an affectionate reference to Sheikh Hasina’s father and the country’s founding leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
Below is a screenshot comparison between the photo shared in false posts (left) and posted on the Awami League’s Facebook page (right):
The prime minister’s office provided AFP with a list via email which gave the attendees at the meeting as security adviser Tarique Ahmed Siddique, cabinet secretary Mahbub Hossain, naval 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 of Tarique Ahmed Siddique from 2018 confirmed he is the man seated to Hasina’s left in the photo.
Furthermore, Tarique does not physically resemble India’s high commissioner to Dhaka, Pranay Verma — who assumed the position in September 2022 (archived link).
AFP has fact-checked more misinformation about the unrest in Bangladesh here and here.
