On June 13, a meeting was scheduled to take place in London between Chief Adviser Professor Muhammad Yunus and BNP’s Acting Chairman Tarique Rahman. In this context, a photocard bearing the logo of Daily Inqilab and the headline “Tarique Rahman will not meet! Tarique Rahman remains firm on the election issue: Interim government seeks solution through discussion” has circulated on social media.

Fact-check

Upon investigation by the Rumor Scanner team, it was found that Daily Inqilab did not publish any news or photocard under the headline “Tarique Rahman will not meet! Tarique Rahman remains firm on the election issue: Interim government seeks solution through discussion.” In reality, the widely circulated photocard was digitally manipulated using a different photocard from Daily Inqilab and edited to include the discussed headline.

In examining the circulated photocard, the Daily Inqilab logo was visible. Based on this, a review was conducted of the newspaper’s official Facebook page and website, but no such news or photocard was found. Additionally, no credible media outlet or reliable source could verify the claim that “Tarique Rahman will not meet.”

However, on June 10, Daily Inqilab’s Facebook page featured a photocard with the headline “Tarique Rahman remains firm on the election issue: Interim government seeks solution through discussion.” Upon comparison, it was found that the only difference between the original and the circulated photocard is the addition of the phrase “Tarique Rahman will not meet!” to the headline.

While the original photocard by Daily Inqilab carried the headline “Tarique Rahman remains firm on the election issue: Interim government seeks solution through discussion,” the circulated version added the phrase “Tarique Rahman will not meet!” indicating that the photocard was altered using digital tools.

In the comments section of Daily Inqilab’s original post containing the photocard, a report published on the outlet’s website stated that Tarique Rahman, Acting Chairman of the BNP, made it clear that he would not compromise on the election issue. He remains firm regarding the national elections scheduled for December. According to special sources, Dr. Salehuddin Ahmed, influential economic adviser of the interim government, has lobbied through British High Commissioner Sarah Cook. The report also mentioned that unofficial discussions had been taking place between Salehuddin and Tarique Rahman regarding the election schedule, even before the Chief Adviser’s Eid-ul-Azha address to the nation. Suddenly, the announcement during the speech that the election would be held in the first week of April made the BNP realize that the discussions had yielded “zero” results. However, experts believe both the BNP's top leadership and the Chief Adviser remain hopeful about revisiting the schedule through further dialogue. As such, the upcoming meeting in London between the Chief Adviser and Tarique Rahman is expected to produce a “positive” outcome.

The report further stated that a meeting between Dr. Muhammad Yunus, Chief Adviser of the interim government, and Tarique Rahman, Acting Chairman of the BNP, will take place on June 13 in London. This was confirmed by BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir during a press briefing in Gulshan, Dhaka, on Tuesday, June 10. Mirza Fakhrul informed that the meeting would be held at the hotel where the Chief Adviser will be staying in London. The meeting is scheduled to begin at 9 a.m. local time and continue until 11 a.m. However, there is no reference in the report to any claim that “Tarique Rahman will not meet.

Therefore, the photocard circulating under the headline “Tarique Rahman will not meet! Tarique Rahman remains firm on the election issue: Interim government seeks solution through discussion” with the Daily Inqilab logo is edited.

Source: https://rumorscanner.com/fact-check/inqilab-tarique-rahman-photocard/153479