Video From Bangladesh Shared as Durga Pandal Vandalised in West Bengal

The incident took place in Noakhali district in Bangladesh where a mob vandalised a durga puja pandal.

The video claims that Muslims had vandalised a Durga Puja pandal in West Bengal. 

(Photo: Altered by The Quint)

A video taken from inside a residential building where a woman can be heard sobbing and screaming as a mob evidently barges into the compound and vandalises a pandal on the ground, is being shared on social media with a communal claim that Muslims have destroyed a Durga puja pandal in West Bengal.

However, we found that the video is from Noakhali district in Bangladesh and shows a mob vandalising a Durga puja pandal, following violence in several parts of the country over allegations of desecration of the holy Quran at a Durga puja venue in Comilla district.

CLAIM

The 3:28 minute video is being shared with the claim, originally in Hindi, that reads that a Muslim mob vandalised a Durga puja pandal in West Bengal.

An archive of the post can be seen here.

(Source: Facebook/Screenshot)

The video is being massively shared on Facebook. An archived link of the video along with a similar claim can be found here.

WHAT WE FOUND

On hearing the video, we could identify that the language spoken was Bangla dialect usually spoken in Bangladesh.

Using that as a cue, we looked for news reports on YouTube using relevant keywords such as 'Durga pandal vandalised in Bangladesh'.

This led us to a video published by Hindi news channel Aaj Tak on 16 October which said that several temples were attacked in Bangladesh.

You can watch the same visuals from 2:17-2:35 minutes.

We also found a news video by BBC Hindi published on 18 October that carried the same visuals. It read that the video is from a Durga temple in Noakhali and later the mob went and attacked the ISKCON temple there.

You can watch the visuals from 0:13-0:33 seconds.

The incident took place in Noakhali, Bangladesh, BBC reported.

(Source: BBC Hindi/Screenshot)

Further, we also came across a tweet by Radharamn Das, vice-president and spokesperson of ISKCON, Kolkata who claimed that "around 500 Muslim mob gathered outside the ISKCON temple in Naokhali and broke deities inside the temple".

Another user on Twitter had suggested that the incident was from 'Trishul Durga Puja mandir'.

On looking for photos of the pandal on the Facebook page of 'Trishul Sarbojonin Puja Udjapon Parishad', we found pictures of the pandal posted on 11 October; the pandal was vandalised by the mob few days later.

Screengrab from viral video (L), Trishul Durga pandal (R). 

(Source: Facebook/Screenshot)

Next, we reached out to people at Bangladesh-based fact-checking website Rumorscanner, who confirmed to us that the video is indeed from Noakhali, Bangladesh.

According to news reports, a mob of 200 people had allegedly attacked an ISKCON temple in Noakhali on 15 October.

Violence spread across several parts of Bangladesh on 13 October following reports of the alleged desecration of the Quran at a Durga Puja pandal in Comilla.

Clearly, a video from Bangladesh is being falsely shared as from West Bengal.

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