Rangamati fire video falsely shared as attack on Hindu homes in Jashore
A video has been circulating on Facebook with the claim that a Hindu neighborhood in Jashore was set on fire. However, a Dismislab fact-check found the claim to be false. The video shows a fire that broke out on August 3 at a furniture factory and residential homes in Langadu, Rangamati, after an electrical short circuit. None of those affected by the fire were Hindu.
On September 16, a 17-second video was posted from a Facebook profile named “Md Masud Bangabandhur Adarsha” with the caption, “Terrorists set fire to 25 homes in a Hindu neighborhood in Manirampur, Jashore.” The video shows residential homes beside a road on fire. Until the publication of this report, the video had been viewed 13,000 times and shared more than 200 times.
The video was also found posted from multiple Facebook profiles (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6).
A reverse image search using keyframes from the video found a video published on Jamuna TV’s YouTube channel on August 3. Titled “Terrible fire in Rangamati burns homes and shops causing extensive damage,” the video contains scenes from the ninth second onward that match those in the video circulating on Facebook.
Another video published on Prothom Alo’s YouTube channel on August 3 was titled “Two furniture factories reduced to ashes in Langadu fire claimed losses worth crores.” Scenes from the fifth second of the video match those in the circulating footage.
In a post published on August 3 on the official Facebook page of the Bangladesh Army, it was stated, “The fire originated from an electrical short circuit at a furniture manufacturing factory in the Gathachhara area of Langadu upazila in Rangamati.…A residential home and three factories were damaged in the fire, and there were no casualties.”
Reports (1, 2, 3, 4, 5) published by multiple news outlets about the incident were also found. According to a report published on August 3 by Chattolar Khabor, a Chattogram-based news outlet, the fire first broke out at the factory of local furniture businessman Alal and then spread to the nearby furniture factories and residential homes of Tarikul Badsha and Rasel.
Dismislab contacted Md Barkat Ullah, the younger brother of the affected businessman Alal. He confirmed that none of those affected by the fire are followers of the Hindu religion.
