Image of People Offering Prayer on Road Outside Mosque is From Dhaka, Not India

An image of people offering prayers outside a mosque in Dhaka, Bangladesh was used to falsely claim that it's from India.

(Photo: Altered by The Quint)

An image of several people offering prayers on the road outside a mosque is being shared on social media to claim that it's from India.

However, we found that the image showed the Sobhanbag mosque in Bangladesh's Dhaka.

CLAIM

The claim along with the image reads: "यह मधुर सेक्युलर दृश्य केवल आपको भारत मे दिखाई देता है, बाकी 56 मुश्लिम देशों में ऐसा करे तो जेल में डाल दिया जाता है, यह केवल टेस्टिंग है, कब्जा करने की धैर्य की ताकि कितना दबाया जा सकता है।"

[Translation: You will see this secular scene only in India. If you do this in the remaining 56 Muslim nations, you will be put in jail. This is just testing of capturing, of patience, of how much can you be suppressed.]

You can view the archived version here.

(Source: Twitter/ Screenshot)

Several social media users including Mahesh Vikram Hegde, the founder of Postcard news, who has earlier been called out for sharing misinformation, shared the image of Twitter and Facebook and the archived version of the posts can be viewed here, here, and here.

WHAT WE FOUND

We conducted a Google reverse image search and came across an article published on 10 October that carried the viral image and the caption along with it mentioned that it showed the Sobhanbag mosque in Bangladesh's Dhaka.

The caption along with the image mentioned that it is from a mosque in Dhaka.

(Source: Website/ Screenshot)

Further, we came across several images of the said mosque in Dhaka that are available on Alamy. (Note: Swipe right to see the images.)

Image of Sobhanbag mosque, Dhaka.

Image of Sobhanbag mosque, Dhaka.

On comparing the image of the mosque in Dhaka with the viral one, we noticed several similarities.

Left: Viral image. Right: Sobhanbag mosque, Dhaka.

(Photo: Altered by The Quint)

Here's a street view available on Google Maps of the Sobhanbag mosque, Dhaka.

Evidently, an image of people offering prayers outside a mosque in Dhaka, Bangladesh was used to falsely claim that it's from India.

(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.)