JNU freelance protestor, Shehla Rashid, who was earlier accused of siphoning off public donations collected for Kathua rape case, was today found spreading rumours about Kashmiri students being threatened by a mob in Dehradun, Uttarakhand.
Shehla first started by tweeting an urgent tweet where she claimed that about 15-20 female students were stuck inside a hostel and were surrounded by a mob. She claimed that police was there but were not able to disperse the mob.
https://twitter.com/Shehla_Rashid/status/1096770640135081985?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
After Uttarakhand Police confirmed that the said message is not true that there is no mob, Rashid immediately accused the Police of ‘gaslighting’ the victim.
https://twitter.com/Shehla_Rashid/status/1096860008958971904?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
In fact, Ashok Kumar, ADG (Law & Order) even clarified that there is no such situation and the incident Shehla talked about in her tweet was a rumour spread on social media.
https://twitter.com/ANI/status/1097065037045219328?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
SSP Dehradun, too, took to social media to appeal to people to not spread rumours regarding the incident.
https://twitter.com/DehradunSsp/status/1097033114734358529?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
In fact, CRPF, too had to weigh in and refute the rumours saying that miscreants on social media are spreading rumours.
https://twitter.com/crpfindia/status/1097073158551674881?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
In fact, not only the police but the general public at large has also come forward and given proofs that there is no such incident in Dehradun.
https://twitter.com/nishthavishtha/status/1096874204312551427?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
It was only after multiple people calling her out for fearmongering and spreading fake news and rumours did Shehla acknowledge that the students in the hostel she was talking about are safe.
https://twitter.com/Shehla_Rashid/status/1097045916006047744?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Interestingly, Shehla was not the only one propagating the rumour. Editor of The Kashmir Walla, an online portal, too had joined in last night. He, of course, was called out immediately too.
https://twitter.com/khalidbshah/status/1096772237959589888?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
However, Fahad Shah as well took almost 18 hours to acknowledge that the ‘girls were safe’.
This is not the first time Rashid has been made accountable on social media. Earlier, after the gruesome Kathua rape case, Rashid had run a social media campaign with others and collected money to be given to the families of Kathua as well as Unnao rape case. The money was to be equally divided between two families. However, reports had emerged accusing Rashid of not keeping her part of the promise as the money never reached her. Shehla Rashid later refuted media reports even as the reporter stood his ground that the Kathua family received no money.