Imtiyaz Hussain, the senior Jammu and Kashmir police officer, on Wednesday took to Twitter to share a personal account of terrorism he faced in his past. Recounting the details of a past terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir that took place on May 8, 2001, in which one of his 14-year-old cousins had also lost his life, he pointed out that how a narrative was weaved then to accuse the security forces. This was despite the fact that the cowardly attack was carried out by terrorists.
https://twitter.com/hussain_imtiyaz/status/1278229807352832007?ref_src=twsrc%5EtfwIslamists, Pakistanis attack Imtiyaz Hussain for exposing anti-India narrative in Kashmir
Soon, Imtiyaz Hussain was attacked by Kashmiri separatists and other Pakistani handles who accused him of having sold his soul to the government of India.
https://twitter.com/Gangsofnewyrk/status/1278231367654928384?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw One even wished death upon Hussain. https://twitter.com/claytension/status/1278254359642439680?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw More such threats and abuses were showered upon him. https://twitter.com/saqibnoorani/status/1278256928578170880?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw https://twitter.com/fizubhat/status/1278238680478408707?ref_src=twsrc%5EtfwA nine-year-old minor boy, identified as Nihan Yawar, had lost his life when two terrorists had opened indiscriminate fire at a CRPF patrol in Anantnag last week. The two terrorists belonging to the Jammu Kashmir Islamic State (JKIS) had killed the boy and one Central Reserve Police Force soldier after they had opened fire at a road opening party of CRPF’s 90 Battalion near the Padshahi Bagh bridge in Bijbehara area.
Hussain recounted that the terrorists had attacked a BSF camp in May 2001 by exploding an IED, which had killed some BSF men along with some civilians, including his cousin.
Making a shocking revelation, Imtiyaz Hussain explained how the local people had coerced his family to state that the 14-year-old boy was killed by the BSF and not the terrorist attack despite the boy had carried blast injuries.
Ostensibly, the Imtiyaz Hussain was pointing out at how the Islamists in Kashmir push their anti-India agenda over dead bodies of the Kashmiris, especially the children, subtly highlighting at the fact that there is similar propaganda being unleashed by the pro-Pakistan sympathisers over the horrific killing of the nine-year-old boy by the Hizbul Mujahideen terrorists in Anantnag, Kashmir.
What Imtiyaz Hussain said holds true even today. As narrated by Imtiyaz Hussain, Kashmiri separatists and Pakistani handles had jumped into the scene to claim that the boy was murdered by the Indian Army and not a Kashmiri terrorist as was evidently the case. Nothing seems to have changed in two decades.
But there is more.
India Today journalist Ashraf Wani tweeted a purported video of the son of the deceased, who claimed that his father was picked by CRPF jawans.
Screenshots of a group called ‘Psychological Warfare Centre’ with a Pakistan flag next to it were viral on social media where the above tweet was shared by seemingly Pakistani handles with instructions to spread the narrative that it was the CRPF soldiers who killed the old man and not the terrorists.
One ‘Uzzair’ seems to be instructing others to download the above video and share on social media that CRPF shot the old man. “Don’t let them put the blame on militants’ he said.
As if on cue, many Twitter users, presumably Pakistanis and/or Separatists shared the same propaganda.
https://twitter.com/Kashmirception/status/1278238108450828295?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw Many Pakistani handles also tweeted the same propaganda that CRPF soldiers killed the man. https://twitter.com/mustpakistan/status/1278223735980544008?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw https://twitter.com/HamidMirPAK/status/1278217607951331328?ref_src=twsrc%5EtfwPakistani cricketer Shahid Afridi also joined the bandwagon.
The Kashmiri separatists and Pakistani handles had used the murder of the minor boy to claim that India was oppressing Kashmiris and had asserted that ‘Kashmiri Lives Matter’, while demanding that international institutions intervene in the matter to deliver Kashmir to Jihadis.
The heart-wrenching scene of a three-year-old child, sitting on the blood-splattered body of his grandfather, who was caught in the crossfire, has gone viral on the internet. The child was travelling with his grandfather in a car from Srinagar to Handwara when it got caught during the terror attack against the CRPF jawans in Sopore town of Baramulla district. The security forces had rescued the three-year-old kid from the encounter site.
However, these viral images and set of statements from the kin of the deceased have been circulated across various social media groups by pro-Pakistan sympathisers to push the blame on CRPF for the death of the 60-year-old man.
As indicated by Imtiyaz Hussain, a social media group named Psychological Warfare Centre has been pushing propaganda to twist the statements given by the kin of the deceased to peddle false propaganda against the Indian security forces.
Several persons in the group can be seen asking others to state that it was CRPF jawans who killed the 64-year-old man and not the terrorists. Not just this, many social media users resorted to similar misinformation campaign, after falling prey to false propaganda peddled by pro-Pakistan social media handles.
It is utterly shameful that the pro-Pakistan propagandists in Kashmir are now using the two killings of Kashmiris to attack the Indian forces despite the fact that the brutal killings were carried out by the terrorists in the valley. What is even more unfortunate is that they are using death of the very same people whose ‘azaadi’ they claim to be fighting for.