Recently, a claim has been circulating on social media stating: “Another horrific news from Bangladesh. Another Hindu woman abducted, raped & murdered by radical Islamists in Comilla city.”
See the post shared on X here (Archive).
Fact-Check
Rumor Scanner Team’s investigation reveals that the body recovered in Debidwar, Comilla, does not belong to a Hindu woman. Instead, the woman’s name is Shahnaz Begum, and she was a Muslim. Furthermore, it has not yet been confirmed by the police whether she was raped.
At the beginning of the investigation, a keyword search led to a report published on March 6 on the Bdnews24 website titled “A woman’s body with bound hands and feet found under a bridge in Comilla”.
The report states that on March 6, at noon, the police recovered the unidentified body of a woman from beneath the Yusufpur Culvert on the Comilla-Sylhet regional highway. The body was severely injured, with hands, feet, and eyes bound. However, at that time, the woman’s identity had not yet been determined.
A similar report was also published by Bangla Tribune (here), which also mentioned that the identity of the deceased was unknown at the time.
Later, the Rumor Scanner Team contacted Debidwar police station for information regarding the identity of the body. Officer-in-Charge (OC) Shamsuddin Mohammad Ilyas confirmed to Rumor Scanner that the deceased was identified as Shahnaz, aged 52, wife of Shah Alam. She was a resident of Bakharnagar, Muradnagar police station area, and was Muslim.
Regarding the claim of rape, the OC stated that they were not yet certain, as they were still awaiting the medical report.
Therefore, the claim circulating on X falsely identifying the victim as a Hindu woman is misleading.
Sources
- Bdnews24 – “A woman’s body with bound hands and feet found under a bridge in Comilla”
- Local Police Station – OC’s statement
