Hyderabad: The Twitter handle which has been cited in my news reports in India, called the Bangladesh Hindu Unity Council – (@UnityCouncilBD), which has posted images and videos of various incidents of vandalism and attacks on Durga Puja pandals across Bangladesh, has reportedly long been flagged as fake by a minority rights organisation or the one it claims to belong to.
The account, created in January 2021 has tweeted only 386 times, and is verified by Twitter. It has more than 27,000 followers, said a report from The Wire. On the other hand, the organisation ‘Bangladesh Hindu Unity Council’ claims to have no other digital footprint, other than the Twitter page and has neither a website nor a facebook page.
The Twitter handle does have a link in its profile bio, which however does not lead to the ‘Bangladesh Hindu Unity Council’ website, but to the site of Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist Christian Unity Council (BHBCUC), a prominent minority civil society organisation based in the neighbouring country.
However, Indian news websites like India Today, The Print, Times Now and Scroll.in and propaganda sites like OpIndia, and international sites like The Guardian have quoted from the BHUC Twitter account and used their photos and tweets in their stories.
Much before the current violence, in July 16, the BHBCUC from its official Facebook page, posted a screenshot of BHUC twitter account and wrote :
“This Twitter Account is a fake account. Above Account claiming the official twitter account of Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist Christian Unity Council (BHBCUC) is totally false. This is for information of all concern that Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist Christian Unity Council has no connection with this Twitter Account. Further, be noted that we have officially complained to the Govt, BTRC in the matter. We would like to mention that except for Facebook, Email and Parishad Barta BHBCUC has no other account.”