Recently, a video has been circulating online claiming that Islamists in Bangladesh are pouring petrol on ripe paddy fields belonging to Hindus and setting them on fire.
Watch the video shared on X (formerly Twitter) with the claim here (Archived Link), here (Archived Link), here (Archived Link), here (Archived Link), and here (Archived Link).
Fact Check
The Rumor Scanner team’s investigation revealed that this is not an incident of Islamists in Bangladesh setting fire to ripe paddy fields belonging to Hindus using petrol. Instead, it was an act of arson targeting the paddy fields of Nasim Mia, a Muslim farmer from Kushtia, Bangladesh, which was misrepresented to spread the false claim.
An investigation led to a video titled “At Night, Miscreants Set Fire to Farmer’s Paddy with Petrol | Kushtia | News | Desh TV“, which aired on the Desh TV YouTube channel on December 6. The footage matches the video circulated with the false claims.
The farmer’s identity was not disclosed in the initial analysis of the video.
Further investigation revealed a report titled “At Night, Miscreants Set Fire to Farmer’s Paddy with Petrol,” published on December 5 on the Channel 24 website.
According to the report, on December 5, miscreants burned 1.5 bighas of paddy belonging to a farmer, Nasim Mia, in Kushtia.
The report stated:
“Farmer Nasim Mia stated that he had leased 1.5 bighas of land in the Lakshmipur field to cultivate paddy. The harvest was good. A few days earlier, he had harvested the paddy, tied it into bundles, and arranged it into four piles in the field. Early in the morning, unidentified individuals poured petrol on the piles and set them on fire. He has demanded justice for this act.”
Thus, it is evident that the Muslim farmer in the video was falsely portrayed as a Hindu.
Conclusion
The incident of arson targeting a Muslim farmer’s paddy field in Bangladesh was misrepresented online as an attack by Islamists on ripe paddy fields belonging to Hindus, which is false.
