India Today NE falsely reports Sheikh Hasina airlifted from Dhaka, withdraws story later

India Today NE, the India Today group vertical that covers the northeast, reported on Sunday, July 21, that Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina had been airlifted from Dhaka to an undisclosed location amid the nationwide crisis over an anti-quota stir that had already claimed over 100 lives.

The report authored by journalist Mehtab Uddin Ahmed was tweeted by the X handle of India Today NE at 2.48 pm with a caption that read, “#Bangladesh: Amidst the chaos, reports confirmed that Prime Minister #SheikhHasina was airlifted from here residence in Dhaka. Her current whereabouts remain unknown.”

Both the report, and the tweet were, however, soon deleted. An archived version of the story can be read here.

Readers should note that this is an updated version of the report and the update was saved close to three hours after the original story was tweeted.

Several users on social media shared the India Today NE report and subsequently deleted their posts as the report got retracted. Some of the posts are still live. (Facebook, X)

False Report by India Today

As the report of Sheikh Hasina being airlifted or leaving the country amid the ongoing crisis caused ripples, Alt News noticed that the language in the updated version of the report was self-contradictory in nature. It said, “reports confirmed that Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was allegedly airlifted from her residence in Dhaka.” To have ‘confirmed reports’ on something and then to say that it had ‘allegedly’ happened was inexplicable.

We also noticed that no other media outlet had reported the Bangladesh PM being airlifted. Had it been true, it would certainly have been a major headline across publications. It also appeared strange that the point about Hasina being airlifted was buried in the fourth paragraph of the story under several less important points. The 6-minute video that was embedded in the story did not mention anything about it either.

Next, we tried to look for details about Sheikh Hasina’s schedule on Sunday and found that she had chaired a meeting with the Army top brass on July 21. This was reported by the international media with photos. For example, in its live blog on developments in the country, VoA Bangla published a photo of the said meeting and reported, “প্রধানমন্ত্রী শেখ হাসিনা রবিবার (২১ জুলাই ২০২৪) প্রধানমন্ত্রীর নিরাপত্তা উপদেষ্টা, তিন বাহিনীর প্রধান, মন্ত্রিপরিষদ সচিব ও সশস্ত্রবাহিনী বিভাগের প্রিন্সিপাল স্টাফ অফিসারের সঙ্গে বৈঠক করেছেন। প্রধানমন্ত্রীর কার্যালয় সূত্রে জানা গেছে, তিনি দেশের সামগ্রিক নিরাপত্তা পরিস্থিতির ব্যাপারে তাদের নির্দেশনা দেন।”

[Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Sunday (21 July 2024) held a meeting with the prime minister’s security adviser, the chiefs of the three forces, the cabinet secretary and the principal staff officer of the armed forces. According to sources in the Prime Minister’s office, she gave them instructions regarding the overall security situation of the country.”]

The US-based media outlet’s Bengali arm posted this on its Facebook page as well. The Facebook post contained two photos and it was clearly mentioned that these were from a meeting Sheikh Hasina chaired on Sunday in Dhaka.

Indian digital media outlet The Wall, too, reported that Hasina chaired a meeting at her official residence in Dhaka on Sunday.

On July 21, Alt News reached out to its sources in the Bangladesh deputy high commission in Kolkata, which refuted the report. “India Today itself withdrew the story. And there are reports by the international media which confirm Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s presence in Dhaka. That is enough to show that the report was false,” the source told Alt News on condition of anonymity.

On July 22, The Bangladesh high commission in India officially refuted the report. In a letter to India Today, the high commission said, “…the misinformation on the status of the Government of Bangladesh went viral within a short span of time and triggered huge confusion and anxiety among people at home and abroad. On behalf of the High Commission of Bangladesh, I express my sheer disappointment at the aforesaid erroneous article and post.”

“This kind of misinformation and reporting based on rumour at the time of such critical moment of any country may misguide the people and even add fuel to the crisis and turn the situation into more chaotic. Moreover, such kind of reporting, without gauging the sensitivity, does not only affect the people and the society in large negatively, but also questions the credibility of any news outlet. We request all the news outlets, including the India Today NE, to remain vigil and ensure objective and balanced reporting taking account of the sensitivity of the issue,” it added.

India Today NE published a story on its website on July 22 ‘apologizing’ for the ‘unintentional error’ and attributed it to a “confidential source that could not be immediately verified.”

Related