Recently, a photo card quoting the Indian Foreign Minister S Jaishankar with the headline, ‘Sheikh Hasina is ready to return to Bangladesh, but considering the overall situation, we are not allowing her to go,’ has been circulated on various platforms on the internet.

See the posts circulated on Facebook with the aforementioned claim here, here, and here.

See the post circulated on TikTok here.

Fact-Check

Rumor Scanner Team’s investigation found that the Indian Foreign Minister S Jaishankar did not make the statement, ‘Sheikh Hasina is ready to return to Bangladesh, but considering the overall situation, we are not allowing her to go’. In fact, the statement originated from a sarcastic post by a satire page and was circulated as an authentic quote.

Upon observing the posts circulating with the claim, no source was found to support the claim. A review of the circulated photo card revealed a logo named ‘Iqbal Tv’ and mentioned October 27 as the publication date. Following this lead, the original photo card published on October 27 was found on a Facebook page named ‘Iqbal Tv’.

The ‘About’ section of the ‘Iqbal Tv’ page states that the page is run for entertainment purposes, and users are advised not to take any of its posts seriously.

If the Indian Foreign Minister S Jaishankar had made such a comment about the former Prime Minister of Bangladesh, it would have been widely reported in the media. However, no news supporting the discussed claim was found in any Indian or Bangladeshi media.

Therefore, the statement circulated, quoting Indian Foreign Minister S Jaishankar regarding former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s return to the country, is false and fabricated.