Fact Check: Viral image showing a building in flames is not a temple but a restaurant in Bangladesh

What began as a protest against the quota system for government jobs in Bangladesh has escalated into widespread looting and rioting across the country. The minority Hindu community has been particularly targeted, with numerous reports of attacks on their properties. Amidst this chaos, viral photographs purportedly showing a Hindu temple burning in the Satkhira district of Bangladesh were revealed to be images of a restaurant.

In the Khulna division, an ISKCON temple in Meherpur and a Kali temple were vandalized and set afire. According to reports, one of the ISKCON centres, which was rented in Meherpur, was burned down, including the deities of Lord Jagannath, Baladev, and Subhadra Devi. Three devotees residing in the centre managed to escape unharmed.

ISKCON spokesperson Yudhistir Govinda Das tweeted: “Bangladesh Update As per the info I have received, one of our ISKCON center (rented) in Meherpur (Khulna division) was burnt including with the deities of Lord Jagannath, Baladev and Subhadra Devi. 3 devotees who lived in the center somehow managed to escape & survived.

“We couldn't sleep the whole night": Bangladesh ISKCON General Secretary Charu Chandra Prabhu speaks to the Republic on Hindu temples being attacked in the country.

In this backdrop, a video of a building on fire became viral on social media.

Social media users shared the video with the caption "One more Hindu Temple set on fire by Bangladeshi barbarian Islamists. Where are the Brothers of LKFC Zubair who were protecting Hindu temples in Bangladesh ? Share this widely and let the world see lsIamic barbarism".  

https://youtu.be/8FQFIeA0QAo?si=6uDf-1b_FiCmDOWM 

Fact Check: We found the claim is false. The video showing a building in flames in Satkhira district of Bangladesh is actually a restaurant, not a temple.

During the reverse image search, we found Md Tariqul Vlogs, a YouTuber, uploaded a video on his YouTube Channel with the title: “রাজ প্রাসাদ রেস্টুরেন্ট কলারোয়া, সাতক্ষীরা।“

When translated to English, it reads: “Raj Palace Restaurant Kalaroa, Sathkira”.

We found the architecture is very similar to the building in the viral video.

When we searched with the keyword Raj Palace in Satkhira, we found a blogger named Faruk hossain (Raz), having 12.7K subscribers on his YouTube channel, uploaded a promotional video of the restaurant.

The blogger said that it was Raj Prasad. We found he also mentioned with the hastag #rajprashad #restaurant

A comparison of the viral video with frames from a YouTube video revealed that the building's design closely matches with that of the restaurant.

Furthermore, we found a X user posted “This isn't a temple, it's actually a restaurant in Satkhira”.

Hence, we found the claim is false. The building in flames in the viral video is not a temple, it is a restaurant in Satkhira.