Fake News Fuels Anti-India Sentiments Amid Bangladesh Unrest

False narratives on social media are instigating anti-India sentiments in Bangladesh. Disinformation spread by various fake accounts aims to defame Indian security agencies, raising serious concerns among geopolitical analysts and fact-checking groups. This campaign is allegedly backed by Pakistan's ISI, seeking to destabilize Bangladesh.


Devdiscourse News Desk | Updated: 07-08-2024 13:40 IST | Created: 07-08-2024 13:40 IST
Fake News Fuels Anti-India Sentiments Amid Bangladesh Unrest
People celebrate with coordinators of anti-quota protests in Dhaka (Image credit/ Reuters). Image Credit: ANI
  • Country:
  • Bangladesh

Amidst the ongoing unrest in Bangladesh, reports have surfaced about false narratives being created on social media to fuel anti-India sentiments among the population. Numerous X accounts have been identified as spreading disinformation about India, aimed at inciting Bangladeshis against Indians.

One account, @IntelPk_, posted on X, "#Breaking: 30 Indian Intelligence Agency RAW Officers in Bangladesh Army Uniform Attempting to Flee, Search for More Continues." This post was then shared by multiple other fake X accounts. Another account, @sabriaballand, posted on X, "This point cannot be reiterated enough. RAW agents wear Bangladeshi military & police uniforms & commit atrocities in #Bangladesh."

Additionally, @swwtyzm posted a picture on X, captioning it, "Is this a verified picture of Indian RAW agents in Bangladesh captured by the Bangladesh army?" Suvrokamal Dutta, an International Conservative Political Expert based in India, described this as malicious propaganda orchestrated by Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), supported by its army and media, to incite anti-India hatred in Bangladesh and turn the country into another jihadist Pakistan.

Dutta stated, "The whole world knows about the nasty games played by Pakistan's ISI and its army in toppling a legitimate, secular, and democratic government of Sheikh Hasina with active support from the BNP and the Jamaat in Bangladesh. So, this is nothing but another nasty ploy by Pakistan to defame India and raise anti-India sentiments in Bangladesh." D-Intent Data, a fact-checking group, also debunked this fake narrative and posted on X, "FACT: a video of an airport where uniformed men can be seen is being shared with a misleading claim that those are the Indian army at the Bangladesh airport. The fact is those are Bangladesh's Airport Armed Police Battalion (AAP)."

The group stated that the aim is to spread fake news targeting the Indian Army to influence the narrative around the ongoing unrest in Bangladesh. Priyajit Debsarkar, an independent geopolitical analyst based in London, commented, "The present situation in Bangladesh is highly alarming. And it is not only a threat to neighboring India but also to the larger Southeast Asia and beyond."

Debsarkar added, "The use of misinformation and disinformation has been deployed effectively internationally to tarnish the image of Indian security agencies as a revenge maneuver for events from fifty-three years ago, on 16 December 1971." Speaking to ANI, Debsarkar said, "The Pakistani deep state might be jubilant in the short term but the pluralistic principles and like-minded people of Bangladesh, including civil society, will definitely overcome this challenge and not let the country slide towards fundamentalists who oppose the core principles of Bengali culture and identity."

(With inputs from agencies.)

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