Freelance journalist Raqib Hameed Naik, who was once defended by Al Jazeera for defaming Hindu organisations, has now taken to Twitter to play victim after denying the genocide of Hindus in Kashmir at the hands of Islamic terrorists.
Raqib Hameed Naik took to Twitter on 18th March to claim that he received a call from the Jammu and Kashmir Crime Investigation Department of the J&K Police to inquire about who he was, his work and his current location. The Kashmiri journalist claimed that this was the 8th time he had received such a call after leaving India in 2020.
After putting this tweet out, the Crime Investigation Department (CID) of Jammu & Kashmir Police (JK Police) called my family and enquired about me, my work, and my current location.
— Raqib Hameed Naik (@raqib_naik) March 18, 2022
This is the 8th time my family has received such calls since I left India in 2020. https://t.co/sOscNR4HQN
Playing victim about the same, Raqib Hameed certainly expected the narrative to be built around how Kashmiri Muslims were being persecuted due to the movie on the genocide of Kashmiri Hindus.
As soon as Raqib put the tweet out, there were a flurry of reactions from the usual suspects who used this tweet to peddle the Muslim victimhood card.
Lyricist Hussain Haidry, who has himself denied the genocide of Hindus and partaken in demonising Hindus alleged that “this” was the reason why Kashmiri Muslims are apparently not able to speak up about the “hate propagated against them”.
THIS is why kashmiri muslims are not able to speak up or even speak about the hate propaganda against them. https://t.co/MObWmp7DCM
— Hussain Haidry (@hussainhaidry) March 18, 2022
He went on to deny the genocide of Hindus and claim that the movie, Kashmir Files, was targeting hate against the Kashmiri Muslim community, while in reality, it only showed what terrorists did to Hindus of the valley in the 1990s.
Also of course, some would be deliberately not speaking about it to give less chances of jingoism—but then the target of hate is also projection of it across india.
— Hussain Haidry (@hussainhaidry) March 18, 2022
In any case, freedom of speech only lies with the propagandists. And silencing tactics are being deployed. https://t.co/hxFPKL0rZ9
There were others who used the tweet to call the Indian Army and security forces “uniformed terrorists”.
Why are uniformed terrorists of India afraid of the truth? See, how revealing the truth and being an honest journalist can be dangerous in the “largest democracy”.
— #FreeKhurramParvez (@JunaidMushtaq01) March 18, 2022
Whole #Kashmir is with you, my friend. Keep up the good work! https://t.co/OPlpmHGs7g
Another journalist from Middle East Eye, previously with Al Jazeera also reacted to the tweet lying about the modus operandi of Indian security forces, alleging that they harass civilians and journalists.
And Raqib is certainly not the only one. The CID calls families, scares neighbours with sudden visits, adds journos on no-fly lists – all in an attempt to silence journalists. Anything can happen in Kashmir and no one will care. https://t.co/yO7X0aRYac
— Azad Essa (@azadessa) March 18, 2022
It is pertinent to note here that Raqib Hameed Naik did not provide any proof to allege that he received a call from CID. There were several individuals, given his propensity to lie and spread hate against India and Hindus particularly, who doubted his version of the story.
However, even if the CID did call him, one would imagine that there was good reason for it.
The tweet for which Raqib allegedly got a call from the CID, was one where he was summarily denying the Hindu genocide ever took place in Kashmir.
Raqib alleged that there was “No evidence” that a Hindu genocide ever took place in Kashmir and that it was all a “Hindu nationalist construct”.
Even Kashmiri Pandit Sangharsh Samiti (KPSS) survey put the number of those killed between 1990- 2011 to 399.
— Raqib Hameed Naik (@raqib_naik) March 13, 2022
Details: https://t.co/fS4LgMbPTq
MHA response 👇🏽 2/n pic.twitter.com/UCz69LwvCY
He claimed that only 219 Kashmiri Hindus were killed between 1989 and 2013.
Firstly, it is a little difficult to continue to kill Hindus once, after thousands of them were massacred, the rest were driven out of the valley with chants of “Convert, leave or die”. Therefore, to even consider numbers up until 2013 shows that Raqib has a propensity to lie to deny the Hindu genocide.
While the number 219 is only the official number and realistically, the number of Hindus killed was much higher, even if we assume that only 219 Hindus were killed, it is peachy of a Kashmiri Muslim to say that the number does not qualify for a genocide.
There are two aspects to this.
Firstly, Article 2 of the Genocide convention defines a genocide as:
Genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:
- Killing members of the group;
- Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
- Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;
- Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;
- Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.
Therefore, the number of people killed does not matter as far as genocide is concerned. It is about the intent of the perpetrators. Further, the RTI quoted by Raqib only takes into account murders from 1990 and does not include the murders of Hindus from 1989.
Either way, once a journalist denies the genocide of Hindus in a charged atmosphere, it is only natural that the investigative agencies would call him because such allegations can cause communal tension.
It is also interesting that while he denies the genocide of Hindus, he plays victim about getting one call from the authorities (allegedly) and says that the number of murders is “too less” for it to be called a genocide.
Interestingly, this is not the first time this journalist has defamed Hindus.
During the pandemic, in June 2021, Raqib Hameed Naik had tried to defame the Hindus of the USA. He had written, “Five organisations with ties to Hindu supremacist and religious groups have received COVID-19 relief funding amounting to $833,000, according to data released by the United States’ Small Business Administration (SBA), a federal agency that helps small business owners and entrepreneurs”.
In his article, he spun fantastic tales to defame VHP, Ekal Vidyalaya Foundation of USA (RSS), Infinity Foundation that has “ties to RSS” (the founder is the celebrated intellectual Rajiv Malhotra), Sewa international, and Hindu American Foundation. In the entire article, Naik has only spewed venom without giving any evidence (since there is none) and it is evident that the venom comes from his deep-seated hatred for Hindus.
At that time, when Naik was called out for his blatant hate, Al Jazeera, which also displays blatant Hinduphobia had stood by the journalist. Al Jazeera had said in its statement, “His report published on April 2, 2021, from the US, where he is currently based, focuses on the alleged misuse of US federal COVID-19 relief funds given to Hindu groups in the US. In the report, Naik unearthed the details of how five Hindu organisations – that received Federal COVID-19 relief funding – have ties to Hindu supremacist and religious groups back in India”.
After the report was published, Naik had also got several legal notices, including one from HAF.
