The findings showed that online posts that directly called out or celebrated the attacks outnumbered narrative-building posts by almost 20 to 1, and generated almost 30 times more engagement.
But this adverse campaign against The Daily Star and Prothom Alo did not start in December 2025.
For more than a year, two Bangladeshi expatriate influencers, Pinaki Bhattacharya and Elias Hussain, had been continuously pushing a hostile narrative against the two outlets on Facebook and YouTube. He falsely accused both newspapers of “serving Indian interests” and defaming some of his reporting during Sheikh Hasina’s government.
Over time, several pages with sarcastic names imitating the two newspapers, such as “Delhi Star,” “Delhir Alu,” and “Prothom Alu” appeared on social media, often spreading misleading claims about their editors and editorial stances.
In November 2024, crowds gathered for several days outside both newspapers and raised slogans labeling them “Indian agents” and “supporters” of Sheikh Hasina. Around the same time, Pinaki declared “Zeyafat”, a ceremonial cow slaughter outside Prothom Alo and The Daily Star offices, as part of a protest-festival.
The shooting dead of Sharif Osman bin Hadi in Dhaka on December 12 following the December 2025 attacks sparked a new wave of excitement. The post circulating after the shooting essentially claimed that Prothom Alo and The Daily Star had “prepare the groundFor the event.
Following Hadi’s death on December 18, this narrative intensified (1, 2, 3), falsely branding the newspapers as “Indian agents,” “cultural fascists,” “agents of foreigners,” “accomplices to extremist dramas,” “accomplices to the Pilkhana and Shapla murders,” “enemies of the revolution,” and “traitors,” making it a catalyst for organizing a mob.
In an article earlier this month, the Indian fact-checking portal boomlive.in wrote how, for more than a year, Pinaki and Elias have run parallel and often overlapping campaigns on Facebook and YouTube, “to instigate and organize a series of mob attacks on political and media institutions in Bangladesh, partly thanks to their proximity to power.”