Photo of three children’s death in Sunamganj falsely tied to Bogura
A photo of three children lying on a floor has spread on Facebook with the claim that “mob terrorist forces” killed three children of an Awami League activist’s family in Bogura. However, Dismislab’s fact-check found the claim to be false. The photo is from the deaths of three children in Tahirpur, Sunamganj. In that case, the children’s father has been accused of poisoning them.
On November 1, the photo was posted in a Facebook group named “Joybangla Facebook Joddha Group.” The post, made from a personal account, shows three children lying on the floor. The caption claimed, “What was their fault? In Bogura, the mob terrorist forces of the present have killed three children of an Awami League activist’s family.” (verbatim)
As of the publication of this report, the post had received more than 290 reactions. It had been shared more than 170 times.
The photo was also spread with the same claim from several other personal Facebook accounts (1, 2, 3).
In its investigation, Dismislab conducted a reverse image search on the photo. This found a video uploaded on September 19 from a Facebook account. The floor, the wall’s edge, and the children’s clothing in the viral photo match the scenes in the reel. The video’s caption read, “Sunamganj: Father kills three children by poisoning them.” The rest of the caption names Tahirpur as the incident’s location. It also states that the father is undergoing treatment at a hospital in Sylhet.
The next day, September 20, the same video was posted on another Facebook account. Its caption names the village of Rajanilain in North Baradal Union of Tahirpur upazila (sub-district) as the location. It gives the time of the incident as the early hours of Saturday, September 19.
On September 19, a video report on the incident was also published on a YouTube channel named CN Bangla. Its title was “In Sunamganj’s Tahirpur, Three Innocent Children Killed by Feeding Them Pesticide, Father’s Condition Critical.” The video shows the children in a pickup van. The children’s clothing in the viral photo matches the clothing of the children in this video.
Multiple news outlets reported on the incident the same day. On September 19, The Daily Star Bangla reported that relatives and neighbors rescued the children and their father in Rajanilain village and took them to the Tahirpur Upazila Health Complex. Dr. Fouzia Zaman of the hospital’s emergency department said the three children had died before being brought to the hospital. The father was sent to Sylhet M A G Osmani Medical College Hospital.
The same day, bdnews24.com reported that Faruk Ahmed, officer-in-charge (OC) of Tahirpur police station, said, “Initially, it has been learned that the incident occurred due to a family quarrel.” He also said that the process of filing a case against the children’s father was underway.
On September 20, a Prothom Alo fact-check reported that photos and videos of the same incident were being circulated, citing them as being from Bogura. The report also noted that a search of local and national news outlets found no report of any such incident in Bogura.
In other words, the photo is not from Bogura. It is from the deaths of three children in Tahirpur, Sunamganj, on September 19.
