Rumor Scanner reveals news on sanctions against the army, Hasina’s return
DHAKA, December 22, 2024 (BSS) – Fact-checking agency Rumor Scanner has debunked the false claim of international sanctions against the army and Hasina’s return to the country, which was spread using the logo of Bangla daily Kaler Kanthos on Blogspot’s free domain site.
The fact-checking watchdog called false claims with the Kaler Kantho logo about the international ban on the army and Hasina’s return to the country.
An investigation found that Kaler Kantho did not actually publish any news about international sanctions against the army and Hasina’s return to the country.
Rather, this false claim was spread using the Kaler Kantho logo on Blogspot’s free domain site, a report by Rumor Scanner said on its website on Sunday.
Recently, the fact-checking agency has seen several posts on social media with the headline “International sanctions against the army and the political situation in Bangladesh. Hasina returns” quoting the national daily Kaler Kantho.
The posts on Facebook where this claim is spread mainly use Kaler Kanthos’ sources. However, the rumor scanner found no evidence of any news publication of the said claim on the website and the print edition of Kaler Kantho newspaper in the recent past.
The Internet Archive also found no information about the publication of any news regarding this claim on the Kaler Kantho website.
While investigating the use of Kaler Kanthos’ name as a source, Rumor Scanner found a link to an alleged news article on a free domain website for Blogspot.
Although Kaler Kantho logo is used as the logo of the website, Awami League’s name has been used in its URL, and the name is given as Daily News BD Awami League.
Reading the purported news article, it claims, “Today, December 22, a letter has been sent from the International Court of Justice to the Bangladesh Army, creating a major crisis regarding Bangladesh’s participation in the peacekeeping mission. The letter states that if Bangladesh does not takes steps to bring the situation under control and overthrow the illegal government within 30 days, the UN may decide to send peacekeeping forces with this, the Bangladesh Army will be permanently barred from participating in peace mission. After this announcement, there has been unrest in the country’s politics at the moment, especially with the actions of the army.”
In the ensuing discussion, opinions and fabricated information were presented on various relevant issues, including the possibility of Sheikh Hasina returning to the country.
Discussions about the International Court of Justice and sending a peacekeeping team to Bangladesh had been in the media news several times recently. Last September, on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly session at the UN headquarters in New York, the Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) Karim Khan called Chief Counsel Dr. Muhammad Yunus.
At the time, Dr. Yunus knows about the process of bringing a case against those responsible for the genocide during the July-August Revolution at the ICC.
According to a news report in the Daily Star last November, a complaint was filed at the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Netherlands, accusing former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, her cabinet and associates of crimes against humanity.
Earlier, in early November, a complaint was filed against Dr. Muhammad Yunus and 62 others to the International Criminal Court under Article 15 of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC).
This complaint was filed by former mayor of Sylhet City Corporation Anwaruzzaman Chowdhury, Advocate and Advocate Nijhum Majumder, Advocate Monirul Islam Manju and Chairman of ‘Gov Wise Limited’ S Shakir Uddin.
A review of these news reports shows that although the present government and the former Awami League government are mentioned in these complaints, no information related to the Bangladesh Army was found in these complaints.
As a result, getting a letter from this court to the Bangladesh Army without any complaint or case is meaningless.
No such information has been received from other media except Kaler Kantho.
On the other hand, earlier this month, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee of India spoke in the West Bengal Legislative Assembly session and demanded that UN peacekeeping forces be sent to Bangladesh.
She later explained this statement. Calling for talks to resolve the ongoing tension between India and Bangladesh, she said, “I said this because whenever there is unrest or peace is disturbed in a country, the UN has its own peacekeeping force, which consists of people from different countries around the country. They are called peacekeepers. When there was chaos in Sri Lanka too, so if the relations with India (Bangladesh) have deteriorated significantly, then India can tell the UN to send your peacekeeping force at least so that people can have security.”
However, no news about the UN statement on this issue was found in domestic and international media.
Therefore, the claims with the Kaler Kantho logo about the international ban on the army and Hasina’s return to the country are completely false, Rumor Scanner concluded.
