Sheikh Hasina's fake letter: how Indian media misled once again

Recently, several media outlets in Bangladesh, citing Indian sources, claimed that former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina had written an open letter to the nation, in which she allegedly blamed the United States for her loss of power. However, her son, Sajeeb Wazed Joy, refuted these claims in a tweet, stating that the letter did not come from his mother and that she made no such statement before or at the time of leaving the country.

On August 11, several media outlets in Bangladesh reported that in an open letter, Sheikh Hasina wrote, “I resigned so that I did not have to see the procession of dead bodies.” The letter also read, “I could have remained in power if I had left St. Martin and the Bay of Bengal to America.” 

Several media outlets, including The Daily Prothom Alo, The Business Standard, The Daily Manab Zamin, The Daily Ittefaq, and Deutsche Welle Bangla, reported the news, citing Indian sources. Among others the Manab Zamin, Deutsche Welle Bangla, and the Ittefaq generally referenced Indian media. However, reports published by the Independent and the Prothom Alo specifically mentioned the Indian news outlet ThePrint as their source.

In addition to ThePrint, more than a dozen media outlets in India, including NDTV, Aaj Tak, Anandabazar, and Hindustan Times Bangla, reported the news. ThePrint’s headline read: “Breaking Silence After Ouster, Sheikh Hasina Accuses US and Warns Interim Gov Against Being ‘Used’.”

The report was authored by Pia Krishnankutty. At one point, she mentioned, “She (Sheikh Hasina) said in a message conveyed to her Awami League supporters Saturday, seen by ThePrint.” However, she did not clarify where she saw this message or what sources were used to verify it. Dismislab attempted to confirm the source by sending a WhatsApp message to D. K. Singh, the political editor of ThePrint, but no response had been received at the time of writing the report.

NDTV also covered the story with the headline: “Sheikh Hasina’s Undelivered Speech Had Big Charge Against US” In the second paragraph, the report stated, “Now in India, the 76-year-old (Sheikh Hasina) has spoken to her close associates about the undelivered speech, accessed by NDTV.”

The Hindustan Times Bangla also published the news on the same day, but like other outlets, did not mention any specific source. Their report stated, “Hasina has made all the explosive allegations against America in an anonymous statement in New Delhi.”

In the course of investigating the source of this letter, Dismislab discovered that it has been circulating on Facebook for about a week without any credible source. The oldest available post was from a personal ID on August 6, around 1 PM. This Facebook letter is identical to the one mentioned in the news reports. On the same day, the letter was also shared by two Facebook pages named Barura.tv and Once Again Sheikh Hasina.

That night, a Facebook page called ‘Sozoo Today’ published Sheikh Hasina’s alleged letter, first in English, then in Bengali. They claimed that the letter originated from an Indian news source but did not specify any media outlets. After the letter was reported in the Indian media, ‘Sozoo Today’ re-shared their original post, asserting that their previous post had been accurate. Dismislab sent a message to the page asking for the source of the news, but they did not respond.

To verify the authenticity of this letter, Dismislab sent a message to Sajeeb Wazed Joy. Although he did not reply directly, he made a post on his X account (formerly Twitter) just hours after the message was sent, declaring the letter published in the media to be fake. He stated, “I have just confirmed with her (Sheikh Hasina) that she did not make any statement either before or since leaving Dhaka”.

Earlier, Sajeeb Wazed told Reuters in an interview that Sheikh Hasina did not resign. 

Following this, Deutsche Welle Bangla corrected their erroneous story, updating the headline to: “Statement on Sheikh Hasina’s resignation ‘completely false’.” Initially, when the news first broke, the headline was: “Sheikh Hasina blames US for ouster.”

Earlier, on August 6, the Indian media outlet Deccan Chronicle published news about another alleged letter from Sheikh Hasina. According to the report, this letter was supposedly sent to her close associates and well-wishers. In the letter, Sheikh Hasina is claimed to have stated, “I am resigning for the benefit of the country and its people. I wanted to address the nation or at least record a video message as my farewell to the people. Did not get the opportunity. I was defeated by the evil power (Oposhokti).” However, the language of this letter bears no resemblance to the recently circulated fake letter.

However, the publication of unsourced and false news from Indian media is not uncommon in Bangladeshi media. In September 2022, more than a dozen Bangladeshi outlets reported that Pakistan had rejected Bangladesh’s offer of relief aid. According to Dismislab‘s research, these reports were originally published by three Indian media outlets and then picked up by Bangladeshi media without any verification. Later, Bangladesh’s foreign ministry and diplomatic sources in Islamabad confirmed that the news of Pakistan rejecting Bangladesh’s relief aid was “completely false and baseless.”