On September 4, India lost a match to Pakistan in Asia Cup by five wickets in Dubai in a neck-to-neck finish. The previous match between the two teams that took place on August 28 was won by India by five wickets. However, as soon as India lost the second match against the neighbouring country, the propagandists saw it as a perfect opportunity to create a divide among Indians and defame India on an international platform.
Interestingly, this ‘Arshdeep getting hate for dropping catch’ conspiracy was started and amplified by none other than Alt News cofounder Mohammed Zubair from India side. Others involved were from Pakistan and other absolute anonymous troll accounts, likely created so that Zubair can eventually try and wedge a Sikh vs Hindu divide.
Within minutes of the last run scored by Pakistan, Zubair was ready with a series of screenshots of Twitter users who used the term “Khalistani” for Arshdeep Singh. It was almost as if he anticipated these very Twitter handles would hurl abuses towards Arshdeep. By the time this report was published, that particular tweet had gathered over 7,100 Retweets and over 19,000 likes.
Now, cricket fans expressing disappointment over losing match is absolutely normal. However, these particular ‘Khalistani’ angle was never brought up earlier. Amusing how Zubair knew exactly what to search for for the above screenshot. It can be seen Zubair specifically searched for the term ‘khalistani’ (as the word appears in bold in screenshot). Wonder why Mohammed Zubair searched for ‘Khalistani’. Was he tipped by someone?
Investigative reporter Vijay Patel pointed out that the tweet was particularly Retweeted and Liked by many Pakistani handles.
Zubair’s tweet is retweeted and liked by Pakistani accounts.
— Vijay Patel🇮🇳 (@vijaygajera) September 4, 2022
He knows who his audience is! pic.twitter.com/DUCjnPP0MC
Once the balls started rolling, the whole cabal got activated, showering support for Arshdeep Singh as, according to them, Indians were targeting him for losing the match and calling him a Khalistani. The obvious Twitter handles that propagated the conspiracy include Zafar Saifi, nehr_who, Rana Ayyub, Sadaf Jafar, Aditya Menon, Ashok Swain, and several others.
Local toolkit pic.twitter.com/gfExZ7IYFh
— Vijay Patel🇮🇳 (@vijaygajera) September 4, 2022
Twitter user Anshul Saxena pointed out that Pakistani handles were also running propaganda to suggest that Indian News channels called Arshdeep a Khalistani.
2) Accounts from Pakistan is running propaganda & fake news that Indian media channel ABP news is calling Arshdeep Singh a Khalistani.
— Anshul Saxena (@AskAnshul) September 4, 2022
They are making a narrative that people of India hate Sikhs. pic.twitter.com/0ZtyG9yIZK
Twitter user The Hawk Eye mentioned that AAP leader and former cricketer Harbhajan Singh was among those who jumped too early to say that Arshdeep was being targeted. His tweet came only a few minutes after the match was over.
Why Harbhajan overreacted so quickly and how (as many already predicted) the factchecker was swift enough to find “K” tweets over Arshdeep?
— The Hawk Eye (@thehawkeyex) September 4, 2022
Shami-2 propaganda on the way! Most of these handles will be found to be frm Pak or UAE pretending as Indian just like Shami saga. pic.twitter.com/TtR0d4OUn3
Furthermore, Pakistani propagandist Zaid Hamid, whose account was withheld in India by orders of the Indian government, also added fuel to the fire and said “a Sikh played a role” in Pakistan’s victory.
Notorious Zaid Hamid is among the first one who started this. He is a Pakistani political conspiracy theorist whose account is already withheld in India.
— The Hawk Eye (@thehawkeyex) September 4, 2022
2/ pic.twitter.com/p7TXln8qyn
WS Khan, a Pakistani-born journalist from the USA who works for NikkeiAsia as digital editor, said, “Arshdeep is clearly part of the Pakistani-backed Khalistan movement.”
WS Khan is Pakistan born journalist in USA. He is another initial ones to infuse this K angle.
— The Hawk Eye (@thehawkeyex) September 4, 2022
3/ pic.twitter.com/kWOoo5BMBk
Such statements coming from Pakistani handles and propagandists from India point towards a possibility of an already-planned conspiracy, and it is very much possible that they were just looking for a chance to defame India.
Arshdeep’s Wikipedia Page vandalized
Another not-so-shocking aspect of the whole conspiracy came to light with a tweet from Anshul Saxena. He pointed out how Arshdeep’s Wikipedia page was vandalized, and the word “Khalistani” was added to it. When you check the history of the changes made on Wikipedia, you can see who changed it and which IP was used for the change.
Wikipedia page of Indian Player Arshdeep Singh has been edited & deliberately Khalistan is added.
— Anshul Saxena (@AskAnshul) September 4, 2022
Who is behind this editing & targeting Arshdeep Singh?
Someone from Pakistan.
Here are the IP details of editor. pic.twitter.com/CErervW3Q2
Anshul said it was done by someone who was using a Pakistani IP address. OpIndia verified the changes and found out that an unregistered user on Wikipedia with IP address 39.41.171.125 made the changes. The changes included Country Name (from India to Khalistan Punjab), Name (Arshdeep Singh to Major Arshdeep Singh Bajwa), Birth Place (Mohali, Punjab, India to Mohali, Punjab, Khalistan) and more. Even in the Wikipedia page’s body, Times of India was changed to Times of Khalistan, and wherever there was mention of India, it was changed to Khalistan. The changes were reverted by Wikipedia editors within a couple of minutes.
Let’s talk about the IP address that belonged to the user who made the changes on the Wikipedia page. We used three different IP tracking services to confirm the country of origin. OpenTracker.net, WhatIsMyIpAddress.com and IP-tracker.org showed the location of the IP as Pakistan.
It is noteworthy that Wikipedia records the IP addresses of the users (registered or unregistered) who made changes to the articles on the website. In the case of an unregistered user, it shows the IP address instead of the name. In this case, someone from Pakistan decided to make changes to Arshdeep’s page on Wikipedia. The idea was to show “Indians” who were abusing Arshdeep a “Khalistani” and also designated him as Khalistani on Wikipedia.
The case of Mohammed Shami
In October 2021, India lost the match against Pakistan in T20 World Cup. At that time, Indian Cricketer Mohammed Shami became the target of a propagandist who claimed Indians abused and blamed Shami for the defeat because “he is a Muslim”. There was so much bourhaha over the fabricated mass abuse of Shami that veteran players like Sachin Tendulkar, VVS Laxman and Virender Sehwag also fell into their trap.
Interestingly, at that many Twitter users pointed out that they did not see any post abusing Shami before the propaganda started to mushroom on social media platforms. Many Indian cricket fans were obviously upset at the loss and expressed anger, but there were no messages abusing him for being a Muslim. India has had Muslim cricketers, from the Pataudis, to Mohammad Azharuddin to Zahir Khan to Mohammad Kaif. When India lost matches under leadership of Azharuddin as captain, he would be on receiving end of wrath because of his position as captain of Indian cricket team, but not because of his faith.
In fact, Mohammad Shami has been earlier abused by Islamists and called a ‘bad Muslim’ for celebrating his daughter’s birthday. But none of these celebrity cricketers and ‘fact-checkers’ had then pointed it out. Shah Rukh Khan was abused for five years in a row by Islamists for celebrating Ganesh Chaturthi this year. Sara Ali Khan gets cancelled as Muslim for visiting temple – none of this gets outrage from the ‘liberal secular’ lobby. None of this even gets mentioned. But Alt News’ Mohammed Zubair very conveniently gets ‘Arshdeep called Khalistani’ screenshots.
To put things in perspective, Mohammed Zubair shared a part of clip from Times Now debate in May this year wherein ex-BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma had commented on the divine figures of Islam. Triggered by her comments on what is already written in Islamic scriptures, Zubair led an online mob that eventually culminated into riots and many who even mentioned they supported Nupur’s freedom of speech were threatened with beheading where some were even killed by Islamists.
