A video showing the Bangladesh Police taking away a man while he was offering namaz on the roads has gone viral with a false claim that it shows an Imam was detained for organising roadside prayer in Bangladesh.
BOOM found that the claim is misleading; Imam Abdur Rahman Hiron organised the Gayebana funeral prayers for protesters killed in the ongoing agitation against government job quotas in Bangladesh, which led to his arrest.
The Gayebana funeral prayers are recited in the absence of the deceased and in remembrance of them.
As many as 200 people have been killed after students and youth in Bangladesh started protesting against the decision to reinstate the government job quota for families of freedom fighters on July 15. In 1971, a provision granted a 30 percent reservation in government jobs for descendants of those who fought in the war of independence of Bangladesh. This decision was cancelled by the government in 2018 but later reinstated by the High Court Division of the Bangladesh Supreme Court. However, the Supreme Court has now reduced the job reservation limit to 7 percent, with 5 percent allocated for descendants of freedom fighters. The remaining 2 percent quota will be reserved for minorities, transgenders, and the disabled.
Amid this backdrop, several internet users posted the video on their social media accounts with a Hindi caption that translates to, "Police in Islamic country Bangladesh arrested the imam who organised street prayers and refused permission, while secular people are demanding to normalise it in India."
(Original Text in Hindi: इस्लामिक देश बांग्लादेश पुलिस ने सड़क पर नमाज का आयोजन करने वाले इमाम को गिरफ्तार किया और अनुमति देने से इनकार कर दिया, जबकि धर्मनिरपेक्ष लोग भारत में इसे सामान्य बनाने की मांग कर रहे हैं.)
Click here to view the post and here for an archive.
BOOM also received the video on its WhatsApp tipline number (7700906588) with a request for verification.
Fact Check
BOOM found several media reports stating that the imam was arrested for conducting the gayebana funeral prayers for the slain protesters. The gayebana namaze janaza is a funeral prayer chanted in honour of the deceased.
We first ran a reverse image search on the keyframes of the viral video and found the same video on the official X handle of Turkey's national broadcaster TRT World. The report by TRT World from July 19 stated that the Bangladesh police detained an imam for offering funeral prayers for students who were killed during recent protests over government job quotas.
We also came across the same video on Al-Jazeera’s YouTube channel and website, showing the police detaining the imam for allegedly offering funeral prayers on the street for students killed during protests over government job quotas.
According to a report by Risingbd.com, Imam Abdur Rahman and Mahbub-ul-Alam, a leader of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), were arrested in Munshiganj, Dhaka division, on July 17, 2024, while offering the gayebana funeral prayers for the slain students. The BNP is the opposition party in Bangladesh.
The report also carries a statement from BNP district convenor Mohammad Mohiuddin, who accused the police of preventing the funeral prayers and called for the release of both individuals.
It further cited Munshiganj Sadar police station in-charge Aminul Islam, who stated that the road had been blocked by people attending the funeral, causing chaos, which led to the arrests.
News about the same incident was also covered by various local Bangladeshi news websites, including Kalbela.com, Kalerkantho.com, and NTVBD.com. These articles, too, reported that the imam was arrested for conducting the Gayebana funeral prayers for the students killed in the protests.