A video showing a man wearing a garland of shoes around his neck and surrounded by a group of people, who appear to be Muslims, is viral on social media. The video is being shared with claims that this is how a Hindu teacher who taught for 4 decades was treated by Muslims in Bangladesh.
Vaishali Poddar, the state general secretary of Delhi BJP Mahila Morcha, shared the video on X (formerly Twitter) and claimed, "A Hindu teacher served the country for 40 years. And in return, a group of fundamentalists in Bangladesh insulted him by garlanding him with slippers. This is an insult, not just of a teacher, but of the entire Hindu society."
X users @MithilaWaala, @KreatelyMedia, @ocjain4 and @Vini__007 also shared the video with similar claims.
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Note that these users have been called out by Alt News for amplifying misinformation on several occasions in the past.
Other X users, such as @SouleFacts, @Sudhanshuz and @IRinitiPandey, also shared the video with similar claims.
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Fact Check
To verify the claims, Alt News performed a reverse image search of key frames from the viral video. This led us to a report by Dhaka Times, which had screenshots of the viral video. The report said that the victim, Ahmed Ali, a retired community medical officer in Baliakandi, Rajbari, was beaten up by an angry mob for insulting Prophet Mohammed.
"On June 15, locals alleged that Ahmed Ali made derogatory remarks about Prophet Mohammed at a tea stall in Beruli Bazaar in the morning. When the news spread in the area, an agitated mob caught hold of him and beat him up in the afternoon," Baliakandi police station in-charge Mohammad Jamal Uddin told the publication.
We also came across the same incident reported in another Bangladesh-based news outlet, bbarta24. Its report said that Ahmed Ali was tied to a tree and beaten up by an angry mob for making derogatory remarks about Prophet Mohammed and was later garlanded with shoes. Apart from this, Baliakandi police station in-charge Mohammad Jamal Uddin said that the situation was brought under control with the intervention of the police and army and the injured individual was taken to a local hospital for treatment.
So, unlike the viral claims, the man garlanded with footwear is not a Hindu teacher but a retired Muslim community medical officer from Bangladesh. He was thrashed by a mob and made to wear a garland of shoes for making derogatory remarks about Prophet Mohammed. Social media users have shared his video with false communal claims.
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