The letter sent by the UN Secretary General to the PM is not fake

Recently, a  letter sent by the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, congratulating Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on being re-elected has been brought to attention through various mass media outlets (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6) . This has given rise to speculations with many individuals on the social media platform Facebook claiming that the letter is fabricated (1, 2, 3, 4, 5).

A Facebook post reads, “Did Awami League forge a letter in the name of the United Nations Secretary-General? This letter, signed January 18, was initially uploaded by the ‘Gujobist Dharapat’. Many had attempted to investigate the source of this letter but failed, leading to the post being taken down. The Daily Star had also retracted the story after initially reporting on this. However, numerous errors could be seen on the letter- the date being written in Bangladeshi format, erroneous English, unnecessary use of commas, all have culminated in the United Nations’ English proficiency being questioned…….”

To verify the authenticity of the letter, Dismislab communicated with the United Nations Resident Coordinator’s Office in Bangladesh. They informed Dismislab that the letter in question was, in fact, not fabricated. An official letter sent from the office was identical to the contents of the letter shared on Facebook.

After securing victory in the 12th National Parliamentary Election held on January 7th, various countries and international organizations have extended their congratulations to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. The Secretary-General of the United Nations also conveyed congratulations through a letter on January 18th.