On October 29, a student of Dhaka University uploaded a pink-color banner on his Facebook profile with a caption that reads: “Is TMD going to be held at TSC tomorrow? Total Mishti Distribution.”

The banner reads in English, “Total Mishti Distribution” while there were a few devil-like sketches of Sheikh Hasina depicted in it.

A total of 44 individuals reacted to this post. Among them, 28 accounts reacted with ‘Love’ and 10 others used ‘Care’ emoji.

Among these 38 profiles, 10 were individually searched to find how they understand the term 'TMD' in their social media activity. Seven of these accounts had previous posts using this word. The remaining three accounts were ‘locked,’ so no results appeared in the search.

DU student Rafi and his Facebook post

Among the seven accounts, one had a post on May 7 that said, “Call for TMD.” Many people commented on this post asking for the meaning of TMD, while some explained the full form of the three letters in the comments.

In one comment, a user suggested a possible full form: “‘Total Malaun Death’ Maybe.” Another commented, “What's the Meaning?” to which another user replied, “Total Malaun Death.”

Comment box of FB post containing TMD | Facebook

On another of the seven profiles, multiple posts included TMD hashtag. One post on November 29, 2024, stated: “Friday reminder: Down with Hindutva, let Bangladesh be free. Note: Sanatan Dharma and Hindutva are different. #TMD (for extremists).”

So it turns out, most of those who reacted with ‘Love’ and ‘Care’ to the Dhaka University student’s post understood the meaning of ‘TMD’ and had previously used this hashtag or term on their own profiles.

TMD: Total Malaun Death

In Bangladesh, to trace when the #TMD or ‘Total Malaun Death’ hashtag campaign calling for genocide of Hindus began, The Dissent found that related posts first appeared in November 2024.

Year-based Facebook searches and the use of the ‘Who Posted What’ search tool confirmed that prior to November 2024, no posts using this hashtag were made from Bangladesh.

The campaign largely began last November after the arrest of Hindu religious leader Chinmoy Krishna Das, who had been an ISKCON Mahaprabhu, in a sedition case. Following this, several Hindu organizations in Chattogram called for protests and surrounded the court.

On November 26, when the court rejected Chinmoy’s bail and ordered him to prison, protesters destroyed several motorcycles and vehicles on the street in front of the court.

Later, the court’s general lawyers and staff pursued them. During this chase, lawyer Saiful Islam Alif was hacked to death on the road outside Rangam Convention Hall. CCTV footage later identified several of the assailants as Hindus, and most of the arrested suspects in this case are also Hindu.

In the following days, various anonymous accounts first began posting calls for genocide of Hindus using the TMD hashtag.

As people voiced demands for justice for Alif’s killing on social media, the hashtag began to gain popularity. Investigations show that four days after Alif’s murder, on November 30, 2024, 194,000 users had used the hashtag. Although a significant portion of these posts came from India, as several Indian media outlets had reported on the hashtag.

In the last week of November 2024 and the first week of December, multiple right-wing Indian media outlets published reports on this hashtag.

For example, on November 30, the Hindu Post ran the headline: “Bangladesh: Islamists make genocide calls against Hindus with religious slurs, trend #TMD or ‘Total Malaun Death’ on SM platforms to rally extremists.”

The same day, the website OpIndia published the same headline. Additionally, users on X and Facebook from India expressed concern over posts using the TMD hashtag in Bangladesh and shared posts using the same hashtag.

By November 3 of the current year, a search for #TMD revealed a total of 228,000 posts on Facebook using this tag, a significant portion of which came from India.

#TMD in the Miazi Missing Case

Even after the Alif murder case cooled, the hashtag continued to appear sporadically. Recently, following allegations of the sexual assault of a 13-year-old madrasa student by Hindu youth Joy Kumar Das in Gazipur and the disappearance of Mufti Muhibullah Miazi in the same district, anti-ISKCON propaganda gained traction on social media, and the hashtag resurfaced.

TMD campaign | Facebook

The Dissent identified several dozen anonymous Facebook profiles and pages running a TMD hashtag campaign in the Miazi case.

After the disappearance of Mufti Muhibullah, his younger son Mohammadullah and others, including Ataur Rahman Bikrampuri, began promoting the incident as a ‘disappearance by ISKCON.’ Subsequently, these profiles widely circulated content under the TMD hashtag, including text, images, videos, songs, and statements by various individuals. Some accounts posted clips of Ataur Rahman Bikrampuri’s statements with #BanISCKON and #TMD hashtags.

Other posts held ISKCON responsible for Muhibullah’s disappearance, including videos of his son and Bikrampuri’s statements, captioned ‘Total Malaun Death’ with the TMD hashtag.

“Another Noakhali is Needed”

The TMD hashtag was linked with references to ‘the Noakhali incident,’ ‘Noakhali 1946,’ and similar terms, drawing connections to ‘Direct Action Day’ and the ‘Noakhali riots,’ with at least 200 such posts observed by The Dissent.

On August 16, 1946, the All India Muslim League called for a strike and blockade across India demanding a separate state. This program was named Direct Action Day. During the observance, riots broke out between Hindus and Muslims in Kolkata, with thousands reportedly killed on both sides.

In reaction to the Kolkata riots, on October 10 of that year, attacks on Hindus occurred in the then Ramganj police station area of Noakhali. These later spread to what is now Lakshmipur, Noakhali, Chandpur, and Comilla. Though the violence peaked in October-November, isolated incidents continued until December. Many Hindus were killed.

From a Facebook account named Salman Farsi, a cartoon image of two men wielding sharp weapons and wearing white caps was posted with the caption: “Another Noakhali is needed #TMD.”

”Need another Noakhali #TMD"

An account under the name Ibtihaj Tahsin posted: “Don’t ask your Noakhailya Dada, what did he do on 10th October 1946.”

On October 24, a young man posted a photo of him standing in Dhaka’s Shapla Chattar with a poster linking the TMD hashtag to the Noakhali riots. Mazharul Islam Shajib’s banner read: “For communal harmony, do TMD (‘Total Mishti Distribution’).”

While one of his banners included the bracketed explanation of TMD as ‘Total Mishti Distribution,’ another referenced the Noakhali riots.

TMD banner in Shapla Chattar | Facebook

On October 30, Mazharul Islam Shajib posted photos of himself in the street wearing a mask, distributing sweets to people. The post included the TMD hashtag.

When The Dissent contacted him via Messenger for comment, he read the message but did not reply.

Disguised Promotion of 'TMD'

At the beginning of this report, a Dhaka University student’s banner with the words “Total Mishti Distribution” was mentioned, abbreviated as TMD.

A Facebook group named Total Mishti Distribution has been active for several months, though it was first ‘paused’ on October 30. After screenshots of TMD hashtag posts calling for genocide of Hindus went viral following Muhibullah Miazi’s disappearance, the group faced criticism and was subsequently paused.

Investigation by The Dissent found that when looking into who ran the group, two of the three admins left, and by the afternoon of November 3, the group had been deleted.

The Dissent’s investigation revealed that TMD promotion often uses euphemistic alternative phrases, such as Total Mishti Distribution (TMD) and Total Meat Distribution (TMD).

Numerous posts in the Total Mishti Distribution group explicitly called for or implied the genocide of Hindus.

For example, in one post, a meme with the text “strip head of malu” was shared with the caption “#TMD on loading.”

Call for Hindu genocide in TMD group | Facebook

On October 30 at Dhaka University, sweets were distributed under the Total Mishti Distribution banner, featuring a ‘demonic’ image of Sheikh Hasina, and the event was promoted as a celebration of Sheikh Hasina’s illness.

However, The Dissent identified at least two organizers of this sweets distribution event who shared anti-Hindu content on Facebook using the TMD hashtag.

One organizer is Mahir Rakin, a 24-25 session student in the Department of Philosophy at Dhaka University. On August 21 of this year, he shared a 3-second video with the caption ‘TMD.’ The video depicted a classroom scene where one student says to another in a threatening tone, ‘Chup Malaun.’

On July 16, he shared a post from the Awami League central Facebook page with the caption: “TMD done.” The original post reported that Dipto Saha, a brave worker of the Gopalganj district Chhatra League, had been martyred by army gunfire, and included a photo of Dipto’s body.

Rakin and his Facebook post

On June 7, BUET student Mostakim Ahmed uploaded a photo of a person walking with a knife and blood-stained clothing after a sacrificial animal slaughter, writing: “One day after real TMD Insha Allah.”

He later clarified he meant Total Meat Distribution. Subsequent posts by other accounts supported this explanation. Keyword searches in ‘Who Posted What’ show that since June, TMD has often been used to mean Total Meat Distribution, although posts calling for banning ISKCON also use this explanation.

Who are the Organizers of TMD at Dhaka University?

At least three organizers of the Total Mishti Distribution event on October 30 were identified. Their Facebook profiles show they have long promoted the TMD campaign online.

One organizer is Rubaet Islam Rafi, a second-year student in the Department of Robotics and Mechatronics Engineering, batch 2023-24. When asked about the TMD hashtag, he claimed it referred to distributing sweets due to news of Sheikh Hasina’s illness. He also acknowledged it could mean ‘Total Muslim Death’ or, in the context of Arakan, ‘Total Mug Death.’

A 30 October post of Rafi where he and his team are seen to offer sweets to people | Facebook

Rafi noted, “Among those using TMD, some are extremists, while among those opposing it, some are ISKCON supporters. When Advocate Alif was killed last year by ISKCON supporters and no justice was served, anger built up, leading to TMD in November. It may seem new to you, but Indian news outlets covered it last year. That anger fueled further use of TMD.”

When asked if his participation was due to this anger, he said no.

“I’m repeatedly telling people not to use it in that sense. I can’t directly stop them; I just appeal that they don’t target any community,” Rafi said.

He questioned, “If those saying TMD haven’t killed anyone, and ISKCON has killed without a hashtag, who’s worse?”

Another organizer is Mahir Rakin, a 2024-25 Philosophy student. He regularly posts using the TMD hashtag, claiming it refers to The Mollah Darbar. He said: “We are a group of people do online activism for Muslims suffering around the world. Just making people aware is our primary goal.

Then there we did some activism against India for their suppression on Muslims in India which caught the attention on Moyukh the mad journalist from India who framed us saying TMD means Total Malaun Death and we are torturing Hindus or something which is totally bullshit. We took it sarcastically and made memes to show that we don’t care even if they frame us like that.”

He added: “Just as students began calling themselves Razakars after Hasina labeled them so, we adopted the TMD hashtag similarly.”

He could not recall the context of sharing the video captioned “Chup Maloun.”

Another organizer is Md. Sulayman Mia, Facebook name D K Solaiman, who studied at BGMEA University of Fashion & Technology and was secretary of convening committee of Jatiyotabadi Chatra Dal of the university unit. He most actively uses the TMD hashtag on Facebook. When asked, he gave sarcastic responses and did not answer questions from The Dissent.

Sulayman Mia and one of his posts | Facebook

TMD Originated from TND Group

Investigation shows the TMD hashtag originated from The Nawabi Darbar (TND), a secret Facebook group formed 4-5 years ago discussing Muslim history, particularly the Sultanate period.

The founder was London-based Shahriar Halim, and another active member was Hasan Iftikhar. Last November, members introduced the TMD/Total Malaun Death idea.

Since the phrase was harsh and risky, the group later disguised it as ‘Total Mishti Distribution TMD’ and opened a Facebook group under this name, sharing anti-Hindu content and calls for genocide. Before deletion on November 3, the group had over 2,700 members.

Shahriar Halim known as 'Amir of Darbar' | Facebook

Posts with the TMD hashtag are visible on Shahriar and Iftikhar’s accounts (Iftikhar: 30+ posts, Shahriar: 16 posts). By reacting, sharing, or commenting on these posts, they engaged with other anonymous accounts and pages, including those posting photos with TMD posters at Shapla Chattar on October 30.

Common traits of promoters

The Dissent analyzed content from at least 50 known and anonymous accounts promoting anti-Hindu material under TMD. They share images of Osama bin Laden, former JMB leader Sheikh Abdur Rahman, North South University student Nibras Islam (Holy Artisan attacker), praise these figures, celebrate 9/11, and promote Taliban and al-Qaeda.

What the TMD hashtag Actually Promotes

After the August 5, 2024, uprising and Sheikh Hasina fleeing to India, Indian media and social media disinformation claimed genocide against Hindus in Bangladesh.

The TMD hashtag on Bangladesh’s online platforms aided this narrative. Posts under TMD directly called for or implied genocide of Hindus, using screenshots, memes, images, videos, statements, cartoons, video games, and songs.

One video song circulating on these accounts included lines: “Banglar Molla, Falao Malur Kolla. Malaun korbe palayon… Malaun khedao, desh bachao (Malaun *dole bachbe desh. (Hey Mullahs of Bangla, Strip heads of Malu, Malaun will flee… Drive away Malaun, Save the country. The country will be saved if you fuck Malaun).”

In the video, a youth while singing the song cuts a watermelon with a sickle; pieces splatter on his face, and he is later shown aiming an RPG.

A page named The Bengali Cyber Mujahid posted a video using the hashtag where a schoolchild asks another, “Are you Hindu?” When the second child answers yes, the first mimics shooting with a wooden gun. Caption: #TMD from childhood.

Several cartoons and memes circulated with TMD depicting Muslims killing Hindus. One shows two men with red-dyed hair and beards hanging a dead Hindu person having Tilak sign in his forehead. Another shows a Muslim with a red beard strangling a Hindu with a tilak sign in his forehead, captioned with TMD and “Noakhali 1946.”