How an Unidentified Woman’s Murder Became Communal Misinformation.

A viral social media claim alleged that a pregnant Hindu woman in Bangladesh was gang raped and killed by seven Muslim men, with her newborn child trampled to death. Our investigation found that the visual used to support the claim is linked to an unresolved murder case in Tangail, Bangladesh, from April 2026 and does not support the communal allegations being circulated online.

June 2026 witnessed a series of incidents that reignited concerns over minority rights and communal tensions in Bangladesh. Hindu organisations staged protests after the alleged desecration of an image of Lord Ram during demonstrations in Gaibandha, while a separate incident involving the alleged abduction and assault of a Hindu temple priest in Dhaka drew widespread attention.

Alongside these developments, a claim that Muslim men in Bangladesh gang-raped and killed a pregnant Hindu woman is also circulating online. We tracked the claim back to an incident in Tangail, Bangladesh; however, the claim circulating online is false.

What is the viral claim?

On June 29, the Facebook account Lasitha Palakkal shared a post indicating that a pregnant woman belonging to the Hindu community was brutally gang raped by seven Muslim men and her child, who emerged during the ordeal, was trampled on by these men. Labeling  Kerala’s mainstream media houses as ‘anti-Hindu,’ ‘Jihadist,’ and ‘Chinese,’ the post goes on to suggest that while the incident was shared by national Bengali media, no Kerala media portals reported it. The post also shares a blurry image that faintly shows a few men standing while a human body (seemingly belonging to a female) lies in front of them.

As of July 1, the post has received 1,200 likes, 612 comments, and 407 shares.

Believing the incident to be true, several comments pointed fingers at the 2002 Gujarat riots, suggesting that a Muslim woman was subjected to a similar cruelty. A user commented, “Sonia Gandhi, who is shedding tears for Gaza, will not see all this. Rahul Gandhi too.”

We also noticed that another account shared the post in two Facebook groups, TRUE THINKERS (1,28,100 members) and FREE THINKERS (1,400 members).

We traced the claim to an X post by @SMaRT4Bharat dated June 25, shared with a similar caption. As of July 1, the post garnered 11,700 views, 231 likes, and 143 reposts.

The video shared in the post shows a few men gathered around a human body. Pointing towards an unidentifiable object near the body, the individual speaking Bengali in the video can be heard saying, “That looks like the child, and she must be the mother.”

We found that the claim was also shared on Instagram.

How did we verify the viral claim?

The people in the viral video, standing with searchlights, and the  freshly dug ground, hinted that the video might be associated with a different incident rather than the viral claim. A reverse image search of the viral video’s keyframe led us to a video report shared by Channel 24 on April 28. The Bengali title of the video translates to ‘Identity of mother and newborn murdered in Tangail remains unknown even after 7 days.’

According to the report, the incident occurred in Gunotia village in Mirzapur, Tangail, Bangladesh, on the evening of April 20, when curious locals went to investigate a pungent odor that suddenly spread along the nearby riverbank. The locals spotted a woman’s hair protruding from the ground. As panic gripped the area, the police were notified. Upon digging, the police recovered the body of a pregnant woman. The body of a newborn infant was found right beside her. Preliminary police assessments suggest the woman was five to six months into pregnancy and that the baby was born before both mother and child were buried together. The police stated that both bodies had been sent to Tangail General Hospital for autopsies.

According to a report published by  The Daily Star on April 26, the police recovered the decayed remains of a woman and her infant, concealed in a sack on April 20, along the banks of the Louhajang river in the Gunotia village. The report further indicates that the autopsy of the corpse did not reveal any signs of rape; however, signs of strangulation were evident.

According to the report, the woman was approximately thirty years old and is believed to have died around nine to ten days prior to the recovery of the bodies. After the autopsy, the corpse was buried at the Mirzapur municipal graveyard under the management of Anjuman Mufidul Islam as an unclaimed body.

While the investigation is ongoing and the police have yet to  identify the woman, a murder case has been filed against unidentified individuals at Mirzapur Police Station.

Our analysis found that the viral claim is false. The video being circulated as evidence of a pregnant Hindu woman being gang-raped and killed by Muslim men in Bangladesh is actually linked to the recovery of the bodies of an unidentified pregnant woman and a newborn infant in Tangail in April 2026.