Hizbul Mujahideen terrorist Burhan Muzzafar Wani, was shot dead on Friday by security forces along with two of his accomplices in Kokernag area. Wani was seen as the main draw for many young and educated boys in South Kashmir turning into terrorists in recent months. He featured in videos and photos posing with weapons and taunting security forces, which were circulated on Facebook and WhatsApp in an attempt to recruit young Kashmiri men.
No sooner did news of his death come out, the spin began. Former J & K CM Omar Abdullah seemed more worried about the aftermath rather than congratulating the army for neutralising a major target:
https://twitter.com/abdullah_omar/status/751429189446795265
Soon semi-clean chits were being handed out
https://twitter.com/abdullah_omar/status/751446634375020544
https://twitter.com/DarrKeAage/status/751716772558974976
And then the spin:
For which social media users slammed Omar Abdullah:
On cue, Hindustan Times started this poll. The media had picked up from where Abdullah left:
Barkha Dutt to joined in, who found it important to give details about the family background of Wani:
Social media users were quick to condemn these attempts at sympathising with a wanted terrorist:
https://twitter.com/srinic2/status/751454159321206784
Even Mohandas Pai, former member of Infosys Board of Directors was appalled at Barkha Dutt’s tweet:
https://twitter.com/TVMohandasPai/status/751714027449950209
More journalists were found to be closet Wani supporters. For example this journalist working for leftist portal TheWire.in termed Wani a “martyr”:
Leftist heroes like Kavita Krishnan and JNU sloganeer and Kanhaiya Kumar’s friend Umar Khalid slammed Wani’s killing. Krishnan, who is a staple panelist on some TV shows called it an “extra-judicial” killing:
https://twitter.com/kavita_krishnan/status/751949567990517761
https://twitter.com/SinghNavdeep/status/751989350615900160
Umar Khalid chose to use this moment to inspire more people to pick the gun:
https://twitter.com/WrongDoc/status/751969772456153088
And Kanhaiya himself left a cryptic message saying violence in valley is not the answer. Seems violence can be the answer when Wani and gang wield guns but not when army counter-attacks
Indian Express went one step ahead and changed its Facebook cover page to that of Wani’s dead body being venerated by Kashmiri Hizbul sympathisers. Social media users were obviously appalled:
https://twitter.com/shwetankbhushan/status/751977309909946368
The best though was saved for the last. When India Today journalist Rahul Kanwal tried to find justification for Wani’s radicalisation, albeit a contrived and idiotic justification, for which he was slammed:
https://twitter.com/rahulkanwal/status/751820833727930368
https://twitter.com/ggiittiikkaa/status/751841447721201666
Only a few journalists spoke out against these terrorist sympathisers:
https://twitter.com/gauravcsawant/status/751690223491440640
https://twitter.com/AdityaRajKaul/status/752022901998678016
https://twitter.com/sardanarohit/status/751679014142554112