Anti-France Rally in Bangladesh Shared as Protest Against PM Modi

Fact-Check | This comes as Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to visit Bangladesh from 26 to 27 March.

(Photo Courtesy: Facebook/Altered by The Quint)

The photo of a protest held in Bangladesh against French President Emmanuel Macron has gone viral again with a false claim that it shows a huge agitation by Muslims against Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

This comes as Modi is scheduled to visit Bangladesh from 26 to 27 March, where he will join the birth centenary celebrations of ‘Bangabandhu’ Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, attend the golden jubilee celebrations of Bangladesh’s independence and hold bilateral discussions with his Bangladeshi counterpart.

CLAIM

One of the captions, shared along with the viral photo, read in Bengali, “মাশাল্লাহ! ঢাকায় ইসলামী দলগুলোর আজকের মোদী বিরোধী আন্দোলন।”

(Translation: Mashallah! Today's anti-Modi movement of Islamic parties in Dhaka.)

An archive of the post can be found here.(Source: Facebook/Screenshot)

An archive of the post can be found here.(Source: Facebook/Screenshot)

An archive of the post can be found here.(Source: Facebook/Screenshot)

Another caption shared along with the photo on Twitter read, “Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh's massive public march against Indian intervention in Dhaka.”

The photo was shared massively on Facebook and Twitter.

An archive of the post can be found here.(Source: Twitter/Screenshot)

An archive of the post can be found here.(Source: Twitter/Screenshot)

WHAT WE FOUND OUT

When we conducted a reverse image search of the viral photo, we found news reports of a protest that was held in October 2020.

A report published in the New Straits Times on 28 October 2020 carried the same image with a caption that read, “Members of the Islami Andolan Bangladesh party take part in a march towards the French Embassy in Dhaka, Bangladesh.”

According to the report, thousands of protestors marched on the streets of Dhaka to agitate against President Macron after he defended cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad.

The image in the NST story was credited to EPA (European Press Photo Agency). We found the same image on the EPA website.

An archive of the post can be found here.(Source: EPA/Screenshot)

The description of the image also mentioned that it showed ‘members of the Islami Andolan Bangladesh party take part in a march towards the French Embassy in Dhaka on 27 October 2020.’

It is, however, noteworthy that there have been protests against Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina for inviting PM Modi.

Islamist radical groups like Hifazat-e-Islam have threatened to block Modi's entry into Dhaka city from the airport, prompting furious security preparations by Bangladesh security forces.

According to a report in BBC, 20-25 people were injured when Leftist student organisations staged a protest against PM Modi's visit at the Dhaka University on 23 March.

However, the viral photo used by social media users to claim that it showed a massive protest against PM Modi’s Bangladesh visit is an old photo of a rally organised against President Macron in October 2020.

(Not convinced of a post or information you came across online and want it verified? Send us the details on WhatsApp at 9643651818, or e-mail it to us at [e-mail] and we'll fact-check it for you. You can also read all our fact-checked stories here.)