DHAKA: Bangladesh police have detained a man who faked his murder on social media — using red fruit juice as imitation blood — to avoid paying out $1,800 on a cricket bet, a senior officer said Tuesday.
A video of Adel Shikder’s purported murder was shared some 10,000 times within days, prompting a hunt for his body.
“He hired a film make-up artist who is an occasional videographer to film his ‘murder’ after he lost a bet of 150,000 taka ($1,800) on the Nidahas trophy final between Bangladesh and India,” senior Dhaka police official Kamruzzaman Sardar told AFP.
Bangladesh lost the March 18 match in Colombo when India’s Dinesh Karthik hammered a last-ball six to clinch an improbable victory.
Police said three people are seen in the video. Two appeared to slit the throat of Shikder, 28, after holding him down.
They used red fruit juice syrup as fake blood on his body while photos of a slit throat were shared on social media.
Shikder sent the film anonymously to the person to whom he lost the cricket bet.
“He had won 40,000 taka from the same person during the Bangladesh-Sri Lanka semifinal, which Bangladesh won. He spent the money and then he made a bigger bet in the final,” Sardar said.
Police said Shikder phoned his younger brother by changing his voice and told him the body was in Chittagong, some 200 kilometers (125 miles) southeast of the capital.
Relatives and police searched for the corpse there after Shikder’s panicked parents lodged a complaint.
The case unraveled after police arrested the make-up artist on Saturday and the next day Shikder was detained in the central district of Faridpur, Kamruzzaman said.
“I did it so that he did not seek any money from me. I did not realize it would cause all this,” Shikder said when paraded before television cameras.
Betting is illegal in Bangladesh. But in recent years underground betting on cricket has boomed, with millions of dollars changing hands during internationals and Bangladesh Premier League games.
Faked death goes viral after failed cricket bet
Faked death goes viral after failed cricket bet
In southeast Pakistan, Ramadan brings Hindus and Muslims closer
MITHI: Partab Shivani, a Hindu in Muslim-majority Pakistan, has fasted on and off during Ramadan for years, but this time is different as he practices abstinence for the entire holy month.
Every year, he and his friends in the southeastern city of Mithi arrange iftar, when Muslims break their daily fast, to foster peace and solidarity between the two religions.
“I believe we need to promote interfaith harmony. First, we are humans — religions came later,” Shivani, a 48-year-old social activist, told AFP, adding that he also reads the teachings of the Buddha.
“His message is about peace and ending war. Peace can spread through solidarity and by standing with one another. Distance only widens the gap between people,” he added.
Ninety-six percent of Pakistan’s 240 million people are Muslim. Just two percent are Hindu, most of them living in rural areas of Sindh province where Mithi is located.
In Mithi itself, most of the 60,000 inhabitants are Hindu.
Many of the city’s Hindus also observe Ramadan and iftar has become a social gathering where people from both faiths happily participate.
“This has been a wonderful tradition of ours for a very long time,” said Mir Muhammad Buledi, a 51-year-old Muslim friend who attended Shivani’s iftar gathering.
“It is a beautiful example of harmony between the two communities.”
Like brothers
Discrimination against minorities runs deep in Pakistan.
Following the end of British rule in South Asia in 1947, the subcontinent was partitioned into mainly Hindu India and Muslim-majority Pakistan.
That triggered widespread religious bloodshed in which hundreds of thousands were killed and millions displaced.
According to the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, freedom of religion or belief is under constant threat, with religiously motivated violence and discrimination increasing yearly.
State authorities, often using religious unrest for political gain, have failed to address the crisis, the independent non-profit says.
But such tensions are absent in Mithi.
“I am a Hindu but I keep all the fasts during this month,” said Sushil Malani, a local politician. “I feel happy standing with my Muslim brothers.
“We celebrate Eid together as well. This tradition in the region is very old.”
Restaurants and tea stalls are closed across Pakistan during Ramadan.
Ramesh Kumar, a 52-year-old Hindu man who sells sweets and savoury items outside a Muslim shrine, keeps his push cart covered and closed until iftar.
“There is no discrimination among us if someone is Muslim or Hindu. I have been seeing this since my childhood that we all live together like brothers,” he said.
Muslim shrine, Hindu caretaker
Locals say Mithi’s peaceful religious coexistence can be traced to its remote location, emerging from the sand dunes of the Tharparkar desert, which borders the modern Indian state of Rajasthan.
Cows — considered sacred in Hinduism — roam freely in Mithi city, as they do in neighboring India.
At two Sufi Muslim shrines in the middle of the city, Hindu families arrange meals, bringing fruit, meals and juices for their Muslim neighbors to break their fasts.
“We respect Muslims,” said Mohan Lal Malhi, a Hindu caretaker of one of the shrines.
Mohan said his parents and elders taught him to respect people regardless of religion or color, and the traditions pass from one generation to the next.
Local residents said both communities consider their social relationships more important than their religious identity.
“You will see a (Sikh) gurdwara, a mosque, and a shrine standing side by side here,” Mohan said. “The atmosphere of this area teaches humanity.”
