Hindus dressed as Muslims caught in Bengal: Bengali daily falsely links March incident to Murshidabad violence

At least three people were killed in large-scale violence in West Bengal’s Murshidabad earlier this month resulting from protests against the Waqf Amendment Act. While the Calcutta high court ordered the deployment of Central Armed Police Force personnel to restore normalcy in the district, the Trinamool Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party have been exchanging barbs on who is responsible for the deterioration of communal harmony in the state. Pockets of Jangipur subdivision of Murshidabad continue to remain tense even though over 250 individuals have been arrested and close to 100 FIRs filed.

In this context, several Trinamool Congress leaders and social media users have claimed that Hindu youths from Bihar dressed as Muslims were swarming into Bengal. TMC Rajya Sabha member Sagarika Ghose tweeted a news clipping from Bengali daily Khabar 365 Din, which carried a report titled, “বিহার থেকে মুসলিম সেজে হিন্দু বহিরাগত” (Translation: Hindu outsiders disguised as Muslim from Bihar). She used the hashtag #Murshidabad, linking it to the violence. (Archive)

EXPOSED. Hindu youths from Bihar dressed as Muslims, swarm into Bengal. #Mursidabad . Who is bringing them in? pic.twitter.com/zDb8F6h9SK

— Sagarika Ghose (@sagarikaghose) April 14, 2025

The report shared by Ghose in her tweet was published by Khabar 365 Din on April 14. It was also shared by the outlet from its X handle.

The report mentioned that a video had surfaced amid the Murshidabad violence showing two Hindu men from Bihar who had entered Bengal’s Alipurduar town disguised as Muslims. The men were identified as Rahul and Ashish Kumar and were handed over to the police. This, the report claimed, vindicated Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s repeated claim that people from other states were being brought into Bengal to disturb the state’s communal harmony. (Archive)

Trinamool leader and spokesperson Kunal Ghosh shared the video mentioned in the above report, which shows a cameraperson filming two men wearing skullcaps. When one of them is asked his name, he responds, “Ashish Kumar.” Later in the footage, another identity card appears, bearing the name “Rahul.” According to bystanders at the scene, the men had allegedly posed as Muslims to malign the community by linking them to criminal activity. Ghosh, who posted the video two days after the violence in Murshidabad, claimed it was from Alipurduar and called for an investigation, asking, “Who is doing it? Why are they doing it? What’s the plot?” (Archive)

হিন্দু।ভিনরাজ্যের। সেজে আছে মুসলমান।
আলিপুরদুয়ারের ভিডিও। তদন্ত হোক। কারা করছে? কেন করছে? কী প্লট?

— Kunal Ghosh (@KunalGhoshAgain) April 13, 2025

Several other verified users also tweeted the video and screenshots from the video, claiming that it was from Murshidabad. The claims pointed to a conspiracy behind the violence that ensued. (Archives- 1, 2, 3, 4, 5)

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Fact Check

A reverse image search of the viral video led us to a Facebook post dated March 5 — over a month before the violence in Murshidabad and just about a month before the Waqf Bill was passed in Parliament on April 4. The video had been posted by a Bangla Pokkho member. Bangla Pokkho, which reportedly describes itself as the ‘national organisation of Bengalis in India’, maintains a hardline stance against ‘Hindi imperialism’ in Bengal.

According to the caption of the Facebook video, the two men had indeed been caught posing as Muslims in Alipurduar. In a sarcastic jibe, the uploader called them guthka, a derogatory term for Biharis.

We found another video uploaded the next day, March 6, on the official Bangla Pokkho Facebook page. The video, shot outside the Falakta Police station in Alipurdurar town in North Bengal, shows two men. One of them addresses the camera and says, “Yesterday, an incident occurred in Falakata. Two individuals from Bihar, dressed in Muslim attire and wearing skullcaps, arrived at a house in Falakata. The house was empty, but they were seen walking around the area. Their exact purpose for doing so is unknown, but when the landlord became suspicious, he noticed them on the street. When they removed their skullcaps and changed their clothes, the landlord’s suspicion grew. The situation became clear when it was revealed that two criminals from Bihar had come to Falakata dressed as Muslims…” They additionally informed that they had spoken to the landlord and had provided a deputation to the inspector-in-charge of Falakata police station.

The incident described by the Bangla Pokkho member, where the men removed their skullcaps and changed their clothes, was also mentioned in the video shared by Kunal Ghosh and others, further corroborating that it is the same incident.

We found another video on Facebook shared by one Moktadul Alam, who is a resident of Falakata. The user uploaded the video on March 4, two days before the Bangla Pokkho statement.The user warned his viewers that during the holy month of Ramadan, people from Bihar had been going door to door collecting donations in areas such as Falakata, Moyradanga, Golakata, and Alipurduar district. “These individuals are dressed as Muslims but belong to another religion. Be cautious of them,” he wrote. In the comments, the user also mentioned that the two individuals had been handed over to the police.

To sum up, a video from early March this year has recently been circulating online, with influential TMC leaders and social media users linking it to the recent violence in Murshidabad, suggesting a possible conspiracy behind the incident.

The post Hindus dressed as Muslims caught in Bengal: Bengali daily falsely links March incident to Murshidabad violence appeared first on Alt News.

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