The media image showing Tarique Rahman touching the soil on arrival in the country was AI-generated

Multiple media outlets have published a photo showing BNP acting chairman Tarique Rahman touching the soil of the country on his arrival in Bangladesh in December. However, Dismislab’s fact-check found that the image was created using artificial intelligence (AI).

On December 26, the daily Dainik Dinkal published a report titled, “Upon returning home, he [Tarique] touched the motherland’s soil barefoot.” The accompanying image shows a person resembling Tarique Rahman walking barefoot. The caption of the image reads, “Right after getting off the plane, BNP Acting Chairman Tarique Rahman emotionally touched the motherland’s soil barefoot— Dinkal.” The newspaper’s name was mentioned as the source of the image. 

The same image was also published in reports by Bangladeshi media outlets, the daily Inqilab and the daily Jaijaidin. The daily Inqilab ran the headline, “After 6,314 days, Tarique Rahman touched the soil of the country.” The daily Jaijaidin’s headline read, “Upon returning home, Tarique Rahman touched the soil.”

Notably, after 17 years, Tarique Rahman returned to Bangladesh on December 25. After exiting through the VIP gate of the airport, he stepped barefoot onto the country’s soil in an open area beside the gate and picked up some soil with his hand. These reports are mainly about that incident.

The image was posted from multiple (1, 2) personal Facebook profiles and online portals (1, 2). The same image was also shared on LinkedIn with the same claim. In addition, an online portal named the Daily Samadhara also published a report using this image.

In the image, Tarique Rahman is seen kneeling and touching the soil. There are some yellow flower plants in front of him. The entire area where he is sitting appears to be soil. No grass can be seen anywhere in the image.

To verify the image, Dismislab reviewed a video report published on December 25 by The Business Standard titled, “After 6,314 days, Tarique Rahman touched the soil of Bangladesh.” At the 1:37 minute mark of the video, Tarique Rahman is seen entering a flower garden. Seven seconds later, he is seen removing his shoes. At that moment, the caption reads, “Tarique Rahman touched the soil of the country after removing his shoes.”

This footage shows that the entire flower garden is covered with grass. The yellow flower plants are arranged in a circular shape, and there is a small circular strip of soil around them. However, Tarique Rahman is standing barefoot on the grass.

Then he bends slightly and picks up a small clump of soil from beside a plant. He breaks off a portion of the soil clump and hands it to a person standing next to him. He then holds the soil clump himself and throws it back toward the plant. After that, he puts his shoes back on, leaves the garden, and gets onto a bus.

During the entire time he was in the garden or touching the soil, he was standing on the grass. He was never seen fully sitting down and touching the soil the way it appears in the circulated image. In addition, grass is visible in the place where he collected the soil, which is absent in the circulated image. Even the size of the flowers appears inconsistent.

For further confirmation, Dismislab also reviewed a video report published on December 25 by Ekushey Television titled, “Tarique Rahman touched the country’s soil with his hands and walked barefoot.” In this video, at 13 seconds, Tarique Rahman is seen entering the garden. At 1 minute and 25 seconds, he is seen leaving the garden. The sequence of events in this video fully matches that of The Business Standard. In this video as well, the BNP acting chairman is never seen sitting fully. Nor is there such a wide stretch of soil without grass beside the flower garden as shown in the circulated image.

To be more certain, the image was checked using the AI content detection tool Hive Moderation. The tool showed up to an 85.6 percent probability that the image was generated using AI. This indicates a very high likelihood that the circulated image was created using artificial intelligence technology.

Therefore, the image used by various media outlets claiming to show Tarique Rahman touching the soil of the country was created using AI.