Social media users are sharing a short video, bearing news organisation Republic TV's logo, claiming that the clip carries former Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's first address to Bangladeshi nationals following her ouster in 2024.
In the clip, Hasina allegedly says,
"If these radical Muslim terrorists don't back off from using their terror-based governance over Bangladesh, our goal will be to finish them by hook or by crook. I will request Prime Minister Narendra Modiji to create Bangla as one single province, combining both East and West Bangla together to bring new secular democracy, which I will lead in future to integrate Bangla into its true roots of secularism."
Is it true?: No, the audio clip has been created using AI and does not show Hasina's authentic statements.
How did we find out the truth?: We ran a reverse image search on the clip, which led us to an X post shared by Republic on 5 August as one of Hasina's first address to Bangladesh after her exile.
In this 10-minute video, she argued that the that the student-led anti-quota reform movement in July and August 2024 was a violent, orchestrated political coup.
Hasina said it led to widespread persecution, economic collapse, and the systematic erasure of Bangladesh's foundational Liberation War history, calling on the international community to help restore democracy and order.
There was no mention of radicals, terror-based governance, or the desire to unite Bangladesh as the claim stated.
We also found a longer version of her address, shared on CNN-News18's YouTube channel.
In this video, Hasina's address begins at the 45:28-minute mark.
During her address, she alleged that "genuine students were emotionally manipulated" during the quota reform movement in 2024, which was hijacked by organised groups who used it as "a cover for violence and regime change."
Hasina went on to claim that since the interim government came to power in 2024, they had systematically targeted Awami League members with violence and arbitrary arrests.
The former prime minister also called for an an end to the Awami League ban and said that she intended to return to Bangladesh because the people deserved a better state, as she wished to "stand beside the people and help improve their lives."
In her entire speech, there was no mentioned of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, radical Islam, or unifying Bangladesh, as claimed.
Is it AI?: Since there was no evidence of Hasina having made the strong statements one hears in the claim, we ran the clip through AI-generated audio detectors.
Resemble AI's analysis labelled the audio as "fake," giving it an aggregated likelihood of 68.68 percent of being so.
It highlighted several parts of the audio clip as "spoof," ranking it high on the 'fakeness score'.
Similarly, Hive Moderation's tool gave the audio element of the clip a 88.8 percent likelihood of containing AI-generated or deepfake content.
Conclusion: An AI-generated audio clip is being shared to falsely claim that she spoke about taking action against radical Muslim terrorists in Bangladesh and uniting the country with PM Modi's help.
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