On May 12, the interim government issued a notification banning the activities of the Bangladesh Awami League until the judicial proceedings at the International Crimes Tribunal are completed.
Following this, on May 21, a Facebook page named ‘Banglar Damal – Banglar Damal’ shared a post claiming ‘Awami League Finally Banned in India’ along with a supposed screenshot from Indian mainstream media outlet The Times of India.
The alleged report shows the headline: ‘After Bangladesh, Awami League banned in India’
Fact Check
Rumor Scanner Team’s investigation revealed that no news report titled ‘After Bangladesh, Awami League banned in India’ has been published by Indian mainstream media outlet The Times of India. Instead, the supposed screenshot was fabricated using technology to imitate the layout of a genuine Times of India article. Furthermore, as of the time of this report, no such article has been found in The Times of India.
In the course of this investigation, it was found that the screenshot in question has been circulating since at least the afternoon of May 21, claiming to be from The Times of India. Accordingly, a review of the Times of India website was conducted to verify if any such report had been published under the mentioned headline, and no such news article was found. Additionally, even with various keyword and advanced search methods, no proof could be found that The Times of India had published any such report. Even a check through the Internet Archive did not yield any mention of the claim in The Times of India.
Moreover, besides the widely circulated fake screenshot, no other screenshots of the supposed article could be found. If The Times of India had indeed published such a report, it would have been expected to find multiple variations of the screenshot on the internet.
Furthermore, had the Government of India actually banned the Awami League, it would have been covered by Indian and Bangladeshi media alike. It would even have made headlines in international media. However, no such information has been found in any media outlet supporting the circulated claim.
Therefore, the screenshot being circulated claiming to show a report on The Times of India website with the headline ‘After Bangladesh, Awami League banned in India’ is fake.
Sources
- Website: The Times of India
- Rumor Scanner’s Own Analysis
