‘I live like a thief’: ‘Bhagwa Love Trap’ posts expose people to doxing and abuse
We have purposefully abstained from including links and photos of posts that include personal information of victims to avoid further dissemination. The privacy of the victims of doxing was given the utmost importance while carrying out the investigation and its publication.
Fatema (pseudonym), a young Bangladeshi student, woke up one morning to find her photo, phone number and home address circulating on Facebook. The posts targeted her for allegedly being involved in a relationship with a Hindu boy.
Knowing that her personal information was now exposed to anyone who might want to cause harm, she feared for her own safety as well as her family’s.
“I live like a thief,” she told Dismislab.
She was among those targeted by Facebook posts accusing people of romantic relationships with people of another religion. The posts drew on the “Bhagwa Love Trap” conspiracy theory, which alleges that Hindu boys lure Bangladeshi Muslim girls into relationships to convert them to Hinduism.
Between June 1 and Aug. 31, 2026, Dismislab identified 288 posts on 23 Facebook pages that invoked the narrative and disclosed people’s names, photos, addresses, phone numbers or social media profiles. The nonconsensual publication of personal information that can expose people to harassment, intimidation or other harm – is known as doxing.
Dismislab interviewed 12 victims of doxing abuse whose phone numbers were published in the posts. All denied the allegations against them and said they faced threats, harassment and blackmail after the posts appeared. Some said they had put their daily routines and studies on hold because of social stigma and safety concerns. A legal expert warned that doxing can expose people to further abuse.
How ‘Bhagwa Love Trap’ narrative drives doxing
The term “Bhagwa Love Trap” emerged in India as a counter-conspiracy theory to “Love Jihad,” which alleges that Muslim men lure Hindu women into converting to Islam, according to a 2023 Alt News investigation. It reverses that allegation, claiming Hindu men lure Muslim women into relationships to convert them to Hinduism. Later, the theory found its ground in Bangladesh, with Telegram groups and doxing campaigns targeting people involved in interfaith relationships.
Dismislab searched with the keyword “Bhagwa Love” in Bangla on Facebook and identified 54 pages publishing posts on this topic. Then the researchers collected posts from those pages between June 1 and Aug. 31, 2026, and found 3,828 as related to the “Bhagwa Love Trap,” then separately reviewed posts that disclosed personal information.
That review found 288 doxing posts, from 23 pages. After repeated posts were removed, 194 unique posts remained. The posts disclosed one or more details about people accused of being involved in the alleged relationships, including names, photos, addresses, phone numbers, social media profile links and, in one case, an email address.
Photos were the most common detail, appearing in 97 percent of the unique posts reviewed. Names appeared in 107 posts (55%); addresses in 58 (30%); social media profile links in 31 (16%); and phone numbers in 12 (6%). Because a post could include several types of information, these figures overlap and Dismislab could not independently confirm that each photo showed the person named or accused in the accompanying post.
Of the 194 posts, 103 (53%) named both a male and a female target and accused them of interfaith relationship, while 35% percent named only a male target, and 12% named only a female target.
Dismislab also found identical captions on posts shared across different Facebook pages and groups. One caption said a Muslim student had been “rescued” after running away with a Hindu man, then urged readers to keep watch over their families. Another described a couple as having run away together and asked readers to report their whereabouts if they saw them.
Fear, harassment, blackmail
Victims of the “Bhagwa Love Trap” shared how their lives were affected due to doxing.
Dismislab talked to the 12 people whose phone numbers were found in the documented posts. Two of them said they had no connection to the claims of the posts or the people mentioned there. The remaining 10 numbers are being used by the individuals named in the posts. Many of them stated they are aware of the issue.
Other than the phone numbers, Dismislab also verified social media profile links published in 31 posts. Of these, 17 profiles could no longer be found, while the other 14 remained active.
One individual (Victim 1) told Dismislab that the doxing had affected his work and family life and exposed him to threats.
Dismislab also found posts that disclosed personal information through images and photocards. One of these posts had been shared more than 1,500 times.
A post shared by a page called “Islam Insight” stated, “Muslim women of the country are victims of the Bhagwa Love Trap of radical Hindutva followers: now is the time to be aware. For the past few years, we have been seeing that radical Hindutva followers in this country are targeting our Muslim sisters, trapping them in love, raping them, converting their religion, and making malicious attempts to traffic them to India to force them into prostitution.”
Speaking about these pages and groups, Victim-1 said, “I dug around and saw that there are many such groups and pages whose only job is to make these posts. These are completely organized crimes. There are some pages and groups whose sole purpose is to spread hatred between people of two religions. I might not have had any personal enemies, but those groups needed a target. They sold my personal life to increase their page’s reach and likes.”
Another person (Victim 2) told Dismislab, “The Muslim girl is my classmate. I have no other relationship with her.”
Describing how doxing disrupted everyday life, another victim of doxing (Victim 4) said, “While these posts were appearing, my father received a call from an unknown number one day. I fainted out of fear, thinking someone was calling to threaten my father; later I saw it was a call from the courier. The trauma is so high that I feel fear even where there is nothing to fear. I live like a thief.”
When asked whether they sought legal assistance after being harassed, Victim 1 said, “I went to the police. They did give assurances of help, but the system is very slow. The damage had already been done within the first 24 hours. Thousands of people had already believed the lie.”
Regarding doxing, Manisha Biswas, a legal expert at the Bangladesh Legal Aid and Services Trust (BLAST), said, “In the case of women and girls, doxing can escalate further and turn into gender-based violence, sexual harassment, blackmail, or sextortion. It can also expose family members to threats and harassment and facilitate identity theft or fraud. Therefore, doxing should be recognized not merely as a privacy violation, but as a potential pathway leading from online oppression to real-life harm.”
A handful of Facebook pages accounted for most posts and interactions
The posts that doxxed in the name of Bhagwa Love spread wide on social media. As of 23rd September, these posts garnered 109,815 reactions, comments and shares in total. That amounts to an average of 381 interactions per post, including about 254 reactions.
All these posts came from 23 Facebook pages and only five pages accounted for about two-thirds of them: Beautiful Islam published 62, Voice Of Ummah 39, Ruher Dak and Honor Guard BD 36 each, and Md. Rasel Bhaluka Dheetpur (মোঃ রাসেল ভালুকা ধীতপুর) with 21.
The most-engaged doxing post in Dismislab’s sample began with two words: “Exclusive video.” Published by Mollar Alo on July 28, 2026, its caption alleged that an extremist Hindutva organization in Manikganj was using the “Bhagwa Love Trap” to target Muslim girls. By Sept. 23, it had drawn 15,281 interactions — reactions, comments and shares combined — the highest total among the 288 posts reviewed.
Mollar Alo spread the doxing content most. It published 20 posts but received 38,186 interactions, about one-third of the total. Its posts averaged about 1,900 interactions each, roughly five times the average across all 288 posts. Voice Of Ummah, Ruher Dak, Fight Against Hindutva and Honor Guard BD followed Mollar Alo in total engagement. The top five pages accounted for about three-quarters of all interactions.
Beautiful Islam published the most posts, but they received 5,270 interactions in total.
Doxing not limited to social media
A Facebook post led Dismislab to a website called Save Muslim Girls. The Bengali-language site publishes articles, videos, interviews and posts about alleged relationships between Muslim women and Hindu men. Much of the coverage describes claims of deception, sexual exploitation, conversion and violence, often framing them as part of the “Bhagwa Love Trap” conspiracy. The domain was registered on Aug. 4, 2026, according to domain records.
The site’s “Expose List” is titled List of ‘Characterless’ Muslim women — a translation of its derogatory Bengali phrase “মুসলিম নামের নষ্টাদের তালিকা.” The page tells men to check whether a prospective bride has been a non-Muslim man’s “slave” and warns women not to appear on the list. It says the information was collected from social media and urges readers to share material about what it calls a conspiracy against Muslim women. The language casts women in alleged interfaith relationships as sexually dishonored and religiously disloyal, turning the directory into a tool for public shaming.
The site gives the accusations a dedicated directory. It groups all posts by location and lets readers filter them by 40 districts, with a separate “name/address unavailable” category. Each listing has a headline and short preview that links to a longer post.
The headlines frame alleged interfaith relationships in several ways: as sexual misconduct, entrapment or conversion, and coercion or abuse. Some invite readers to “recognize” a woman; others describe alleged encounters at restaurants, hotels or resorts. One describes a university student as a “Hindu’s slave” for her alleged romantic relationship, another describes a “Converted Muslim family in the clutches of *** ISKCON leader ***” and some others ask readers to help identify people whose names or addresses are missing.
Meta’s guidelines prohibit sharing certain personal information
Meta’s Community Standards, under “Privacy Violations,” restrict sharing other people’s personal contact information, including phone numbers and email addresses. The rules allow limited exceptions, such as information made public by the person or shared to promote a charitable cause, find a missing person, or contact a business or service provider. Meta also restricts sharing private residential information and asking for someone else’s private residential information.
Meta’s Community Standards on privacy violations restrict sharing other people’s personal contact information, including phone numbers and email addresses, with limited exceptions. They also restrict sharing private residential information and asking for someone else’s private residential information. In the 288 posts, Dismislab recorded address information in 107, phone numbers in 23 and an email address in one. Some posts included more than one type of information. The posts did not indicate that the contact details served one of the listed purposes.
One post reviewed by Dismislab urged readers: “If you find this boy and girl around you, give us their whereabouts.” The post appears to call on readers to locate the people named in it. Meta’s rules prohibit asking for another person’s private residential information.
When Dismislab reviewed the posts, they were still on Facebook. Dismislab could not tell whether Meta’s automated system or moderators had detected or reviewed them. All victims interviewed were asked whether they had reported the posts to Facebook, and none had. Several said they had not received direct links to the posts. Some stopped using Facebook rather than wait to see whether the posts would be removed after they were reported.
Methodology
Dismislab searched Facebook for “Bhagwa Love” to identify pages posting about the narrative. The search identified 54 pages. Researchers collected posts of those pages published between June 1 and Aug. 31, 2026, then identified 3,828 posts related to the “Bhagwa Love Trap.” They reviewed those posts for personal information. A post was classified as doxing if it disclosed a person’s name, photo, address, phone number or social media profile link, following a framework used in research by Batuhan Kukul and David M. Douglas. The review identified 288 doxing posts published by 23 pages. Posts from individual Facebook profiles and groups that appeared in the initial search were excluded. Dismislab also interviewed 12 victims of doxing, spoke with experts and reviewed the publicly available Save Muslim Girls website.
Because posts from profiles and groups were excluded, the findings do not represent all related Facebook activity. Engagement figures record reactions, comments and shares at the time of collection, not how many people saw the posts. Dismislab could not independently verify every photo or allegation, identify who operated the pages, or determine whether they coordinated.
Mohammad Al Mukit and Ahamed Yaseer Abrar assisted with sorting and organizing the data used in this investigation.
