Netizens are shocked and have expressed their anger over a viral video which claims that a Hindu woman in Bangladesh is being forcibly converted to Islam.

The post is widely being shared on social media with concerns over the condition of Hindu minorities in Bangladesh.

India Today has confirmed that the video is not of forcible conversion but of exorcism. A Muslim exorcist is performing some ritual to expel "Hindu jinn" supposedly from a "possessed Muslim woman".

Twitter user Tyagraj Shekhawat posted this video tagging Aajtak on Saturday. He wrote in Hindi "Iss Bangladeshi Hindu Mahila ke dharmantakaran kay yeh video Sylhet ka bataya ja raha hai, jaha saare Hindu parivaaro ka safaya kar diya gaya, auraton ko chhorkar..." (It is being said this video of religious conversion of this Bangladeshi Hindu woman is from Sylhet, where Hindu families have been cleansed barring few women).

At the time of writing, this story more than 3,000 people have shared and over 2,500 people have liked this post on Twitter. This same post has been shared by many on Facebook believing the claim to be true.





This 2.20-minute long video is disturbing. A woman is seen held by a man from behind and being tortured and threatened by another man with a knife. Some other burqa-clad women are also present in the room. The entire conversation is in Bengali.

At one point the man asks the woman to repeat something in Arabic. Then in Bengali, she is forced to say, "I am now converted to Islam from Hinduism".

We found one user @haivri also shared this post on Twitter on January 25. In the comment section, some Twitterati raised doubt if it was the video of conversion.

One Twitter user @moinaksg commented that this seemed to be an exorcism-related video and claimed, "The woman is Muslim and supposedly attacked by a Hindu jinn". He mentioned a YouTube link which has a longer version of the incident with the viral claim.

We searched in Bengali with the combination of keywords "Hindu Jinn exorcism" and found quite a few videos related to it.

Bangladeshi YouTube channel EM Multimedia also posted the longer version of the video on January 19, 2019, with a Bengali caption, "This is the best video of exorcism. See how a Hindu Jinn is converted to Islam".

Another YouTube channel RH Bangla TV also posted this video with a caption In the name of exorcism, village women are sexually exploited.

In the video, it can be heard that the woman calls the man, Huzoor, which in local parlance in Bangladesh is referred to an exorcist. The Exorcist is seen shoving a knife into a bucket of sand and the woman cries in pain saying, "Huzoor I will leave this place forever, even the earth" in Bengali.

According to our local correspondent Shahidul Khokan in Bangladesh, this typical Bangla accent in the video is widely spoken in the Chittagong area of South-Eastern Bangladesh.

We found this practice of exorcism, particularly, the supposed expulsion of "jinn" of other religion is prevalent in almost all religions including Muslims in this subcontinent.

Other videos showing exorcism to evict Hindu Jinn can also be seen being practiced in Pakistan.

Update -Twitter user Tyagraj Shekhawat has now deleted his original post after the India Today Fact Check story. He has now posted a new tweet with an apology.

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INDIA TODAY FACT CHECK





Claim A Hindu woman in Bangladesh is being converted to Islam Conclusion This is a video of exorcism and not of religious conversion. JHOOTH BOLE KAUVA KAATE The number of crows determines the intensity of the lie. 1 Crow: Half True

2 Crows: Mostly lies

3 Crows: Absolutely false