Muslim farmer’s home burned in Nangalkot, not Hindu home 

A video has been circulating on Facebook with the claim that homes belonging to members of the Hindu community were being set on fire in Nangalkot, Cumilla. However, a Dismislab fact-check found that the house shown on fire in the video does not belong to a member of the Hindu community. It belongs to a Muslim farmer named Shah Alam.

A 13-second video was posted from a Facebook profile with the caption, “Houses of Sanatanis are being set on fire, Nangalkot, Bangladesh!” Text inside the video read, “Condition of Sanatanis, Nangalkot, Bangladesh.” The footage shows a house beside a road on fire, with the area covered in black smoke. Until the publication of this report, the video had been viewed about 84,000 times and shared 2,000 times.

Using keyframes from the video, Dismislab conducted a reverse image search. The search found a video published on August 11 on a Facebook page named “Nangalkot 24.” The post said, “Fire incident 200 yards south of Dipjol Market in Moukara Union, Nangalkot.” Several parts of that video match the circulated footage.

A video report published on the same day on another Facebook page named “Bartaman TV” was also found. The report, titled “Farmer’s dreams destroyed by fire in Nangalkot,” said that the fire occurred at the home of Nangalkot farmer Shah Alam. The report said Shah Alam’s wife, Zohra Begum, stated that the fire originated from a refrigerator in their home.

Further searches using relevant keywords found reports about the incident published by multiple news outlets (1, 2, 3). These reports also confirmed that the fire occurred at Shah Alam’s home.

Shah Alam is traditionally a Muslim name. So, it can be said the fire was at a Muslim farmer’s house and the fire was caused by an electrical mishap rather than religious enmity.