Cricketer Liton Das’ house set afire in Bangladesh? No, viral image shows Narail residence of Mashrafe Mortaza

Erstwhile Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who led the country for 15 years, resigned from her position and left the country along with her sister on August 5, minutes before protesters stormed her official residence, the Ganabhaban.

Against the backdrop of this, allegations of violence against the Hindu minority in Bangladesh are doing the rounds on social media. In one such post, an image of a house on fire is being widely shared with the claim that ‘Islamists’ in Bangladesh had set fire to the house of Bangladeshi cricketer Liton Das, who is a Hindu by faith.

X handle Hindutva Knight (@HPhobiaWatch) shared the above-mentioned image on August 5 with the caption: “Bangladeshi Hindu cricketer Liton Das house has been set on fire”. The tweet has received over 10.4 Lakh views and has been retweeted over 7,100 times. (Archive)

Bangladeshi Hindu cricketer Liton Das house has been set on fire pic.twitter.com/0so4MS1Chp

— Hindutva Knight (@HPhobiaWatch) August 5, 2024

Premium subscribed X user Sunanda Roy 👑 (@SaffronSunanda) also shared the same image with the following caption: “He is Liton Das, a Bangladeshi cricketer. He is a national Hero of Bangladesh. His house was set on fire by Islamists. This is the condition of an elite Hindu of Bangladesh. Just imagine the condition of common Hindus. #SaveBangladeshiHindus”. The tweet has received more than 4.35 Lakh views and has been retweeted over 7,600 times. (Archive)

Readers should note that @SaffronSunanda has been found peddling misinformation, especially those of communal nature, on several occasions.

He is Liton Das, a Bangladeshi cricketer.

He is a national Hero of Bangladesh.

His house was set on fire by Islamists.

This is the condition of an elite Hindu of Bangladesh. Just imagine the condition of common Hindus.#SaveBangladeshiHindus pic.twitter.com/lGS1bOrpzU

— Sunanda Roy 👑 (@SaffronSunanda) August 5, 2024

Several other users such as @randomsena, @visegrad24, propaganda outlet Sudarshan News, @ChandanSharmaG also amplified the claim that Bangladeshi cricketer Liton Das’ house had been set ablaze.

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Fact Check

To verify the claim, we ran a reverse image search on the viral image which is claimed to be of Liton Das’ residence and came across several news reports from Bangladesh that carried the same image. All the reports said it was the house was former cricketer Mashrafe Mortaza.

A report from The Business Standard titled “Mashrafe’s Narail home vandalised, torched”, said that some individuals had vandalised and set fire to the the house of Mashrafe Bin Mortaza, a lawmaker from the Narail-2 constituency, along with the houses of district parishad chairman Adv. Subhash Chandra Bose and district Awami League general secretary Nizam Uddin Khan Nilu. The district Awami League office was also set on fire.

Here is a report from Dhaka Tribune which carried a photo of the same bulding and identified it as Mashrafe Mortaza’s house.

We found several other reports in Bengali and English which too mentioned that the house on fire in the viral belonged to Mashrafe Bin Mortaza. The same had been reported by several Indian News outlets as well.

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Mortaza is a former cricketer who also captained Bangladesh’s national cricket team. He joined the Awami League in 2018 and served as a member of parliament from Narail-2 district until August 5.

The Awami League was the leading political party in Bangladesh, led by ex-PM Sheikh Hasina. The party was founded by her late father, Sheikh Mujibur Rehman.

Therefore, the claim that Liton Das’ house has been set on fire and that the viral image showed Das’ house is false. The viral image showed the house of former cricketer and Awami League MP Mashrafe Bin Mortaza’s house.

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