Claim: Bangladesh replaced Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s statue with one of Pakistan’s former premier Imran Khan.
Fact: We did not find any credible news reports or other evidence to suggest that such a statue exists anywhere in Bangladesh. The image of Imran Khan’s statue in the claim is fake.
A video shared on Facebook contains the following text:
“بنگلد شب نے عمران خان صاحب کے ساتھ پیار کرنے میں شیخسینہ کی باپ مجسمہ تھوڑ کر عمران خان صاحب کا مجسمہ بنایا لیڈر پیدا ہوتے ہیں بناے نی جاتی”
[Translation: Bangladesh showed its love for Imran Khan by breaking Sheikh Hasina’s father’s statue and making a statue of Imran Khan instead. Leaders are born, not made.]
The video features an image of an Imran Khan statue alongside footage of the jailed former prime minister.
Fact or Fiction?
Soch Fact Check reverse-searched the image of the statue to check whether it had been created anywhere in Bangladesh, but did not find any relevant results. It was suspicious that only one front-facing image of the statue existed. Additional images from other angles should have been available; however, we did not find any. A keyword search did not yield any results either.
We shared the image with Tanvir Mahatab Abir, a senior fact-checker at Rumor Scanner Bangladesh. Abir informed us, “The post link you shared, claiming it to be a sculpture of Imran Khan, is actually an AI-generated image. There is no such sculpture in Bangladesh.”
“A somewhat similar sculpture of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman once existed in Dhaka, but it has been dismantled,” he added. Abir also shared a news report from 6 August 2025 covering the breaking of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s statue at Bijoy Sarani. The report included no mention of the statue being replaced with another one of Imran Khan.
Following the fall of Sheikh Hasina in August 2024, more than 1,500 sculptures and murals were vandalised across Bangladesh, according to the Bangladeshi English daily Prothom Alo. Among the targeted monuments was the Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman sculpture at Dhaka’s Bijoy Sarani, which a group of protestors reportedly destroyed using hammers. The sculpture was demolished as a rejection of what they saw as the previous era’s “fascist” legacy.
Taking Abir’s insight that the image is AI-generated, Soch Fact Check then analysed the image through Undetectable.ai, which assesses features such as colour patterns, textures, and shapes to determine authenticity. It concluded that the image has a 4% probability of being real, noting that it was very likely created using AI.
Undetectable.ai results
We then analysed the image with another online image detector decopy.ai. The tool identifies AI-generated images by analysing subtle visual patterns that often reveal synthetic content more reliably compared to manual inspection.The software rated its probability of being AI-generated at 45% and its likelihood of being a true image at 55%.
Decopy.ai results
The detailed analysis reports are as follows:
Statue and face integration: The giant statue features a human face that seems to be digitally placed or edited onto the body of an existing statue framework. The face appears more detailed and smooth compared to the rough texture of the statue’s body, indicating a blend of real facial imagery with an artificial or sculpted base.
Scaffolding and wireframe: The scaffolding and wires around the statue show a high level of complexity and density, giving it a realistic look. However, the way some wires intersect and the uniform placement around the body suggests parts might be artificially enhanced or exaggerated to emphasise the construction effect.
Background and environment: The buildings and billboards in the background appear natural and consistent with a typical cityscape. The blending of the statue structure into this environment feels seamless, indicating it is either a real place with digitally edited elements or a well-composited AI generation using real images as a base.
Overall composition: The mix of photographic elements (background, scaffolding) and the digitally altered statue face creates a surreal, semi-realistic image. The highest artificial probability lies in the statue’s head and its integration with the body, compared to the natural human elements in the rest of the photo.
Virality
The claim was shared here on Facebook.
On Instagram, it was shared here (archive).
Conclusion: The claim that Bangladesh removed a statue of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and replaced it with one of Imran Khan is false. We did not find any credible news reports or other evidence to suggest that such a statue exists anywhere in Bangladesh. The image in the claim is likely AI-generated.
–
Background image in cover photo: Ariana News
To appeal against our fact-check, please send an email to appeals@sochfactcheck.com