This video of crying women and children is not from West Bengal, it shows Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh
A video of a group of crying and distraught children is being shared on social media, claiming that it shows the aftermath of an Islamophobic attack in West Bengal, with the hashtags, ‘Islamophobia_In_ India’, ‘Islamophobia’ and ‘StopTargetingMuslim’.
Claim: “दुःखद घटना असामाजिक तत्वों ने पश्चिम बंगाल के 300 मुस्लिम घरों को जलाकर राख कर दिया,
यह घटना सुबह 7 बजे मंगलवार को पश्चिम बंगाल के तेलनीपारा जिले में हुई,
हिन्दू मुस्लिम नफ़रत की वजह से जलता हुआ भारत कब तक ऐसा होता रहेगा😢”
(Translation: Heartbreaking incident. Anti-social elements burned 300 Muslim houses to the ground in West Bengal. This incident took place at 7 AM on Tuesday, in Telinipara district, West Bengal. Till when will India keep burning because of Hindu-Muslim hatred?)
This claim has been made after the recent communal violence in Telinipara, West Bengal where Muslim areas and households had been targeted.
(Archived)
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The video was tweeted as a reply to Princess Hend Al Qassimi, Princess of Sharjah’s tweet.
दुःखद घटना : असामाजिक तत्वों ने पश्चिम बंगाल के 300 मुस्लिम घरों को जलाकर राख कर दिया,
यह घटना सुबह 7 बजे मंगलवार को पश्चिम बंगाल के तेलनीपारा जिले में हुई,
हिन्दू मुस्लिम नफ़रत की वजह से जलता हुआ भारत कब तक ऐसा होता रहेगा😢
#Islamophobia_In_India #Islamophobia #StopTargeting pic.twitter.com/m9ejd1rlhd
— Khan Abdurrahman (@KhanAbdurrahm19) May 16, 2020
(Archived)
दुःखद घटना : असामाजिक तत्वों ने पश्चिम बंगाल के 300 मुस्लिम घरों को जलाकर राख कर दिया,
यह घटना सुबह 7 बजे मंगलवार को पश्चिम बंगाल के तेलनीपारा जिले में हुई,
हिन्दू मुस्लिम नफ़रत की वजह से जलता हुआ भारत कब तक ऐसा होता रहेगा| pic.twitter.com/32L73m9Q5l— Rajesh Ranjan (@RajeshR71176567) May 14, 2020
Truth
All posts that have shared this video on social media carry a logo on the top-right corner of the clip.
We used Google to reverse image search this logo and found that it was the logo of Rohingya National News (RNN), an independent non-profitable news agency of Rohingyas of Arakan, Myanmar. RNN was It was established on 10 May 2018 by some Rohingyas in exile based in Makkah, according to their Twitter account.
We checked their social media pages as well as their website, for related reports, and found the viral video on Facebook. The one minute nineteen seconds long viral video is a clipped version of a much longer video posted by Rohingya National News on May 12.
The full video (eleven minutes and forty-five seconds long), is shared as visuals of Rohingyas from Kutupalong refugee camps, near Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh. A fire razed many settlements and shops in the refugee camp. The video is shared with the following caption –
The devastating fire has taken place in the Kutupalong refugee camps today in the morning.
“Reportedly 312 shelters were completely destroyed, and 362 more partially damaged, as well as small shops” – UNHCR
ERC has learned that at least 10 victims have been taken to the hospital for the treatments.
ERC thanks the Rohingya volunteers who are first responders in the sense.
ERC is trying to reach out those affected by the fire.
ERC also urges UNHCH & WFP Bangladesh for the emergency response to the displaced.
ERC stands for European Rohingya Council, an Amsterdam based organisation trying to end the Rohingya genocide in Myanmar.
UNHCR in Bangladesh also shared photographs from the destroyed camp in a Facebook post the same day.
The fire at the Kutupalong camp was reported on by many domestic and international news outlets, including Times of India in an article.
This video, though recent, is not of Muslims from Telinipara suffering as a result of communal violence but is from Bangladesh’s Kutupalong Rohingya refugee camp, where a fire destroyed more than 300 settlements, and partially damaged over 350.
