Claim: A viral photo shows protesters sleeping in the bed of Bangladesh’s former Prime Minister, Sheikh Hasina.
Fact: The viral photo shows Sri Lankan demonstrators sleeping on President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s bed at the President’s house in Colombo, Sri Lanka on 10 July 2022.
Following news of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s resignation, several photos from the protests in Bangladesh began circulating on various social media platforms. One widely shared image featured demonstrators sleeping in a bed. On 5 August, a user shared this photo (archive) on X with the caption: “Scenes in Sheikh Hasina’s bedroom 😭😭”.
On the same day, another user shared the same photo (archive) with the caption: “This is the Most Goated Photo I’ve Seen From Bangladesh!”
The posts came shortly after Prime Minister of Bangladesh Sheikh Hasina resigned and fled the country on Monday, after weeks of protests against a quota system for government jobs descended into violence and grew into a broader challenge to her 15-year rule. Thousands of demonstrators stormed her official residence and other buildings associated with her party, and her family.
What happened in Bangladesh?
According to the BBC, “on 5 August, Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina resigned after weeks of deadly anti-government protests, ending her more than two decades of dominating the country’s politics”. “Hasina “reportedly” landed in India, after fleeing the country on Monday”, added the BBC report.
In the wake of her departure, “Jubilant crowds took to the streets to celebrate the news, with some storming the prime ministerial palace, reportedly looting and vandalising parts of her former residence,” the report added.
Reuters reported on the protests elsewhere in Dhaka, adding that protesters climbed atop a statue of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Hasina’s father and the founder of Bangladesh , and began chiselling away at the head with an axe.
Fact or Fiction?
Soch Fact Check conducted a reverse-image search and found a Reuters article titled, “Sri Lankan Protesters Cook, Swim, Sleep in Presidential Palace,” from July 2022, which carried the viral image from the claim. According to the report, Sri Lankans occupied key government buildings and residences following an uprising that forced the President to flee and eventually resign.
The 20/41 photograph in the article, credited to ”REUTERS/Dinuka Liyanawatte”, shows demonstrators sleeping on President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s bed at the Presidential residence in Colombo, Sri Lanka. According to the caption, the image from the viral claim is originally from the day after protesters entered the building following the President’s departure amid the country’s economic crisis in July 2022.
Another article by the Business Insider, published on 10 July 2022, featured a similar photo of demonstrators sitting on the bed at the Presidential residence in Colombo, posing for a photo in a crowded room. Citing reports from then, the article described that protesters “tried out the four-poster beds, used the treadmill, and swam in the property’s pool”.
Despite our search, we could not find the exact photo in the viral claim anywhere online, except in the Reuters article, suggesting that it was exclusively published by the news agency.
Soch Fact Check also scoured social media platforms to further investigate the claim, and found a video (archive) on X, captioned: “Residence of Bangladesh PM Sheikh Hasina”.
The same video (archive) was also shared on Facebook with the caption: “Protestors on Sheikh Hasina’s bed”.
Given that this video differs from the photo that was circulating on social media, Soch Fact Check reverse-searched keyframes from the video and found an article (archive) by Public TV, an Indian publication. The article included a screenshot from the video showing a demonstrator lying on the bed. Many people entered the Ganabhabhan, the Prime Minister’s official residence after it was reported that Shiekh Hasina had fled Dhaka after resigning from her position, the report stated. According to Prothom Alo, a Bengali-language daily newspaper in Bangladesh, protestors were seen cheering with their hands raised in the grounds of Ganabhaban, the publication added.
We also found another article (archive) by The Times of India in which the fourth photo appears to be a screenshot of the video shared on X and Facebook. The photo is titled, “Protesters loot Sheikh Hasina’s home” and the report states that the viral videos show protesters looting the house of former prime minister Sheikh Hasina after she fled the country.
Soch Fact Check could not independently verify if the latter video is from Bangladesh, but we can confirm that the image circulating in the claim is from Colombo, Sri Lanka in 2022. It is unrelated to the unrest in Bangladesh, following Sheikh Hasina’s resignation.
Virality:
The photo has been shared on X here, here, here, here, here, and here. Archived here, here, here, here, here, and here.
On Facebook, it has been shared here, here, here, and here. Archived here, here, here, and here.
It has also been shared here on Instagram.
On Threads, it has been shared here and here. Archived here and here.
Conclusion: The viral photo showing demonstrators sleeping on a bed is not from the Bangladesh protests in August 2024. It is from the uprising against the government in Sri Lanka which took place in July 2022.
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Background image in cover photo: Al Jazeera
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