Twelve new cases of Wuhan Coronavirus infection have come to light in the Tatpatti Bakhal area in Indore, where a medical team that had gone to check on a patient with suspected coronavirus symptoms was attacked and pelted with stones on April 1.
Despite the attack, the medical team had returned to the area next day and had continued health check of the residents in the presence of police officials. The administration and health staff had quarantined 68 people there. After investigation, it is revealed that 12 of these people are infected with Wuhan Coronavirus. They have been admitted at the MRTB Hospital for treatment.
As per reports, the gathered mob had viciously attacked the team of health workers and had even thrown stones from nearby rooftops. When the medical team sought help from the police, the police team was attacked too. The gathered mob had also broken down the barricades and used the women among them as human shields when the police tried to take action.
A doctor informed that they had gone for screening as directed by authorities and have been doing so for the past three days. The team had gone after they found a history of someone getting in touch with a COVID-19 positive person. “As soon as we started asking, they started throwing stones at us,” the doctor informs. The doctor further states that because they had the police force and others along with them, they were saved.
A police officer while speaking to the media said that an old lady was to be taken for medical tests but people started opposing. Soon, a crowd gathered. Following this, the police were called upon. The mob then directed the authorities that before anyone from the locality is taken for medical tests, they should be first informed. On Saturday, Indore had reported 16 cases of COVID-19. Three people who died of the pandemic were from the Tatpatti Bakhal area.
Despite all this, women doctors led a team of medical staff to the same area on April 3. They were accompanied by administrative authorities and the police. Dr. Zakiya Sayed said, “We have sustained injuries but we have to do our job and will not be scared.” People in the area were seen apologising to the medics for their violent behaviour on Wednesday.
So-called fact-checker website Alt News, which is infamous for absolving crimes committed by Muslim in an effort to gratify its fellow rabid Islamists, has yet again caught pants down publishing misinformation on social media.
The controversial propaganda site has yet again attempted to tone down the shocking incident in Madhya Pradesh where a Muslim fruit vendor was seen licking the fruits before selling it to the customer.
The Case:
In the video, dated February 16, a Muslim fruit vendor in Raisen, Madhya Pradesh, was seen arranging a variety of fruits on his cart in the middle of a market place. While arranging the fruits on the cart, the vendor was seen picking up the fruit one at a time. And each time he picked up a fruit to arrange in the cart, he first purposely licked his hand and then used the hand, smeared with his saliva, to pick up the fruits and re-arrange on his cart. He purposely contaminated the fruits which he would eventually be selling it to his customers.
The video posted by an individual named Bodhraj had stated that he along his friend was sitting in a local pan shop at around 5 pm on 16th February, when he saw the accused, Sheru Miyan (as he was referred to) deliberately contaminating the fruits with his saliva before he sold it to his customers. Bodhraj claims that he shot a video of Sheru indulging in this disgraceful act on his mobile phone and lodged a complaint with the police.
Following this shocking incident, an FIR was filed against the Sheru Miyan in Madhya Pradesh under IPC 269 (Negligent act likely to spread infection of disease dangerous to life) and 270 (Malignant act likely to spread infection of disease dangerous to life) on April 3, and he was arrested by police.
Soon, the daughter of the man in question came to her father’s rescue stating that the mental health of her father was not sound and he did it unintentionally. She claimed that her father was licking his fingers due to his habit of counting notes. She also suggested conspiracy behind releasing the two months old video now. She accused that the video has been released now due to the current situation.
However, the video was shot on February 16 during the critical time when the country was already ravaged with the outbreak of the Coronavirus. The viral video had caused a huge scare after it was revealed that many people were intentionally trying to spread the infection by indulging in such shameful acts.
The false claim by Alt News:
The ultra-left wing propaganda Alt News, which often tries absolve crimes committed by Muslims, jumped on to the scene to peddle its usual rhetoric on the incident. In a self-proclaimed fact-check report, the Alt News came to the rescue of the fruit seller by claiming that the incident dated back to February 16 and at a time the incident had occurred, the government had not yet declared the outbreak as a notified disaster.
According to Alt News, the government declared the outbreak of the COVID-19 only on March 14. In other words, the Chinese pandemic, according to Alt News, only started on and after March 14 in the country.
Alt News report.
Continuing its illogical claims to absolve Khan’s act, Alt News stated that the first coronavirus positive case in Madhya Pradesh was reported only on March 20 while the act in which Khan was caught licking the fruits dated to at least a month back. Through such absurd observations, the self-proclaimed fact-checking portal declared that the video of Muslim vendor’s unhygienic handling of fruits falsely linked with spreading coronavirus.
Fact Check:
The defence put up by Alt News to declare that Khan was not indulging in any alleged activity of transmitting the virus comes from the claim that the Indian government had not declared the outbreak as a notified disaster only on March 14. However, in reality, ever since the Chinese coronavirus was notified as a global pandemic by the World Health Organisation on January 30, the Modi government has been on a war footing to spread awareness about the diseases and the necessary precautions to be taken to limit the spread.
To justify the horrific act by stating that there was no official declaration from the Modi government regarding the spread of COVID-19 in the country until March 14 is just farcical. According to Alt News, the COVID-19 only entered the country on March 14, as that was the day government of India had notified the spread of Chinese pandemic.
Alt News also says, “the vendor’s act was unarguably unhygienic however the issue has been grossly twisted on social media”, which is nothing but a gross underplaying of the incident. Contaminating food items is not only an unhygienic practice, it is also a criminal offence. The fruit vendor was booked under IPC 269 (Negligent act likely to spread infection of disease dangerous to life) and 270 (Malignant act likely to spread infection of disease dangerous to life), which as existing sections of the Indian Penal Code. No matter whether there is an ongoing pandemic or not, what the man was doing was a serious crime.
Moreover, the daughter’s claim suggests that the family knew that the man was contaminating the fruits he was selling, and they still allowed him to sell food items. He may not have coronavirus as it had not spread to the town at that time, but he may have other diseases which he may be spreading to others, including ill people as fruits are often recommended as healthy food for ailing people.
Although it is true that the video was shot in February 16th, there is no proof that it was the only such incident. In fact, the daughter’s claim that her father is mentally unstable and he does it for the habit of counting notes, suggests that he has done it before, and done it after also, when the COVID-19 had spread to the area. Therefore, there is in fact a real risk of spreading the Chinese virus, along with any other pathogen he may be potentially infected with.
Just because the video is six weeks old, ‘fact-checker’ Alt News concluded that it was the single incident, while his own family’s comments suggest that he does it regularly.
The faulty ‘fact-checker’ Alt News, funded by anti-India elements, has a track record of pushing misinformation on social media platforms to push their ideological narrative.
Just weeks back, Alt News Director Nirjhari Sinha had caught sharing old unrelated images to express her disapproval of PM Modi’s decision to lock down the country. Ms Sinha had tweeted a photo of a seemingly destitute and homeless family with a caption “What is the PM’s message for them? Stay at home..don’t venture out!” to target PM Modi’s lockdown initiative. However, the image was not connected to the current lockdown but an image captured in 2016.
Alt News co-founder Pratik Sinha, who is otherwise known for stalking people on social media, had also caught sharing misinformation and lies about India’s readiness to fight Wuhan coronavirus to cast the Indian government in a bad light.
Earlier, Alt News had also given a clean chit to anti-Hindu riots accused AAP leader Tahir Hussain and also Jamia rioters who had unleashed violence during the riots despite there was sufficient evidence to prove their culpability. With Alt News indulging in such third-rated propaganda, the promoters of the ultra-left wing portal had to face severe ridicule across social media platforms.
After selling defective masks and testing kits to the world to combat their home-grown virus, China has now reached a new low by selling back the PPEs (personal protection equipments) to Italy which the European country had originally donated as humanitarian gesture. As reported Spectator magazine, China had earlier claimed that it will send PPEs to Italy, which has lately emerged as the hot spot for the Chinese coronavirus outbreak, to help it contain it.
However, now the reports reveal that China had sold, and not donated, those PPEs to Italy. Not only that, China actually forced Italy to buy back the same PPEs that Italy had donated to the Communist country.
The Chinese coronavirus originated in Wuhan in Hubei province of China as early as November 2019. However, China and WHO downplayed the same by maintaining that the human-to-human spread of coronavirus was not medically proven. It was only after it was too late that the truth came out. By now, over 12 lakh people across the globe have tested positive and over 64,000 have lost their lives.
This is not the first time China has been a diplomacy nightmare in wake of Wuhan coronavirus. Earlier, many of the testing kits as well as masks sent by China to other countries were found defective and faulty. Spain had even returned 50,000 testing kits after they were found faulty. Moreover, instead of owning up the responsibility, China pushed the blame on others.
The Western Media is known to peddle negative propaganda against India. In their bid to undermine the NDA government at the center, they regularly publish reports geared towards tarnishing India’s reputation. Western Media often singles India out for negative coverage even when India does precisely the same as a lot of other countries. It was most prominent during United Kingdom-based The Guardian’s coverage of India’s lockdown.
On Saturday, Twitter use @AnkiitKoomar posted a tweet that showed The Guardian’s headlines for reports or opinion pieces published on its website regarding lockdown in Australia, India and the United States of America. The difference in the newspaper’s headlines for the same policy approach lays bare the stark reality of the media’s slanted coverage of India.
On the 4th of April, The Guardian published a report titled “‘I just want to go home’: the desperate millions hit by Modi’s brutal lockdown”. The report said, “The consequences for India, where tens of millions live in poverty, work thousands of miles from home, often living where they work, have been cataclysmic.” While it is true that the lockdown has affected the livelihood of a great many, most prominently the migrant labourers, there is no other way to combat the Wuhan Coronavirus crisis. Lots of other countries have gone into lockdown as well in order to combat the pandemic. Therefore, such proclamations regarding the actions of the Indian Government appear undue as it did not have too many choices to choose from.
Screensht of The Guardian report (Source: @AnkiitKoomar/Twitter)
Amusingly enough, on the 25th of March, The Guardian published an opinion piece addressing US President Donald Trump with the headline, “To beat the coronavirus slump, shut us down now, Mr President”. The author argued, “The economic situation, in my opinion, will only get worse the longer the pandemic is allowed to progress. Most small businesses will not be able to make it to the summer. Even if they’re allowed to reopen, without the public being confident that the virus has been fully contained and that a treatment is either available or on the way, consumers and diners will stay away. “Self-quarantines” and localized shutdowns aren’t going to work fast enough. So what’s the answer? A full shutdown in the US. For three full weeks.”
Opinion Piece on The Guardian calling on the US President to enforce a lockdown (Source: @AnkiitKoomar
The Guardian also published a report on the 24th of March regarding the Australian Prime Minister’s ordered a shutdown of large sections of the country’s economy and social life as he urged his citizens to ‘stay at home’. The report said, “With hundreds of thousands facing unemployment, the federal government has suspended mutual obligations to apply for jobs to obtain jobseeker payments for one week, with further measures to protect renters now expected to be decided on Wednesday not Tuesday, as planned.”
The report on The Guardian regarding the Australian PM’s announcement of a shutdown (Source: @AnkiitKoomar/Twitter)
The most intriguing of all, perhaps, was The Guardian view on the United Kingdom’s decision to impose a lockdown within its own territory. The newspaper called the lockdown “necessary hardship”. It noted in the editorial published on the 23rd of March, “However well-intentioned, a laissez-faire strategy for fighting coronavirus has not worked. Now is the right time for the government to give the public clarity and firm parameters”.
The editorial stated further, “It was imperative that Boris Johnson abandoned the register of exhortation and issued clear instructions that will be enforced, thereby instituting a lockdown. A laissez-faire approach to fighting a pandemic did not work.”
Source: The Guardian
While The Guardian was wise enough to recognize that the hardships for the citizenry that the lockdown has brought about was ‘necessary’ in order to combat the Coronavirus pandemic, it does not afford Narendra Modi the same courtesy. In fact, it goes out of its way to call India’s nationwide lockdown ‘brutal’ while reserving no such criticism for even the Australian Prime Minister. Furthermore, it published an opinion piece urging the US President to impose a lockdown in the United States in order to save the country from ruin. Thus, The Guardian’s motivated agenda against India and the Narendra Modi-led government becomes evidently clear from its coverage of the lockdown in the abovementioned countries.
A First Information Report (FIR) has been filed against Gopal Chandra Roy, a former Congress MLA from Banamalipur constituency in North Tripura for using National Emblem in his letterhead. Roy is a lawyer by profession and serves as an advisor to the Tripura Pradesh Congress Committee. He is also the owner and editor of Ganasambad Patrika, an Agartala based newspaper.
As can be seen in the image of the letter, Gopal Roy is currently holding no official position, but he is using the national emblem on his letterhead. It mentions that he is adviser to Tripura Congress Committee, president of Tripura Olympic Association, Former president of Tripura Congress, former Congress legislative party leader, advocate at Tripura High Court, and the owner and editor of Ganasambad Patrika. None of these authorises him to use the national emblem as per laws.
The National Emblem is the representation of the Government of India. Under the State Emblem of India (prohibition of improper use) Act, 2005, individuals and private organisations are restricted from using it.
Section 3 of the Act reads, “no person shall use the emblem or any colorable imitation thereof in any manner which tends to create an impression that it relates to the Government or that it is an official document of the Central Government, or as the case may be, the State Government, without the previous permission of the Central Government or of such officer of that Government as may be authorised by it in this behalf.”
In 2007, the UPA Government gave a clear direction under State Emblem of India (Regulation of use) Rules about who can use National Emblem in their seals. Rule 10(3) states that “No association or body of persons, whether incorporated or not, shall use the emblem on their letter-heads, brochures, house flags or for any other purpose in any manner.”
Rule 10(4) further adds “The stationery, including letter-heads, visiting cards and greeting cards, with emblem printed or embossed on it, shall not bear words, like, Advocate, Editor, Chartered Accountant with the name of the person authorised to use the emblem under these rules on the stationery.”
In January 2017, BJP leader and founder of Virat Hindustan Sangam (VHS) Subramanian Swamy revealed on Twitter that he had written a letter to the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, informing about a possible violation of rules and laws by Arnab Goswami, since the former Times Now editor-in-chief had named his new venture “Republic.” Swamy had a point, as the Emblems and Names (Prevention of improper use) Act of 1950 forbids the use of certain terms ‘for the purpose of any trade, business, calling or profession’. Such terms are explained and included in the act, and under item 6 of the schedule, the term “Republic” is mentioned. After that, the new channel was named “Republic TV”, to avoid any confrontation with law.
In a contentious Facebook post, a man named Prasun Bhaumik who is sympathetic to TMC and claims to be a ‘theatre artist’ from Kolkata has warned people to refrain from complying with the request of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to ‘light a Diya’ at 9 pm for 9 minutes on April 5.
The post in Bengali loosely translates as, “Whoever will switch off their lights on April 5 at 9 pm, we will mark their houses with chalk. Even if this is not done, all such addresses will be listed.” He ends his veiled threats with “Jai Bangla (Hail Bengal).”
Screengrab of the contentious post
A casual look through his timeline reflects his disdain for the Bharatiya Janata Party and the policies of the Central Government. The ‘theatre artist’ however comes to the rescue of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, whenever anyone questions her stand. It is thus safe to conclude from his posts that he is a Trinamool Congress sympathiser, if not a supporter.
In the following post, Prasun Bhowmik writes a poem after being miffed over the statement of BJP State President Dilip Ghosh slamming Banerjee for “begging” ₹15000 crores from the Centre.
The Hitler Connection
It was a common practice in Nazi Germany to profile dissidents and Jews using identification marks. For instance, when the Nazis called for a boycott of Jewish shops on April 1 in 1933, they painted yellow stars of David on window panes. In a gross display of Anti-Semitism, they would also inscribe words such as ‘Juden’ as identification marks for people.
A Nazi soldier marking a Jewish shopA Jewish shop with the Yellow Star of David
By 1941, it was mandatory for all Jews in the Reich, above the age of 6, to wear a badge which consisted of a yellow Star of David on a black field with the word “Jew” inscribed inside the star. This applied to all German Jews and Jews in Germany annexed territories.
A Jewish woman forced to wear the star
In Nazi-occupied Budapest in Hungary, the Jews were forced to have the contentious yellow stars on their house. They lived under house arrest with little provisions. The purpose of such residences was to accommodate all Hungarian Jews in one place so as to make their deportation easier to Nazi concentration camps.
Conclusion
While goons of the Trinamool Congress threat, torture and even kill BJP workers at regular intervals, the veiled threat of “marking houses with chalk” is reminiscent of Adolf Hitler’s identification techniques. While Nazis were involved in racial profiling, a TMC sympathiser now wants to politically profile people and list their addresses. Last year, TMC politician Mahua Moitra had accused the BJP of being fascist while all points raised by her had an uncanny resemblance to Mamata Banerjee’s government in Bengal.
On Saturday, Rajasthan’s Tourism Minister and Congress leader Vishvendra Singh took to Twitter to claim that a pregnant Muslim woman was refused admission in a hospital by one Dr Muneet Valia in Bharatpur “because she was a Muslim.” He claimed that the doctor said she must go to Jaipur to get her checkup done since she is Muslim.
Pregnant Muslim Woman was refused medical attention at the Zenana Hospital in #Bharatpur & was told to go to Jaipur given her religion. Local Bharatpur MLA is State Health Minister & this is the condition of the hospital in Bharatpur City. Shameful. pic.twitter.com/Rd2i4UZGk3
— Vishvendra Singh Bharatpur (@vishvendrabtp) April 4, 2020
Many social media users found it odd that the minister was accusing the doctor without any inquiry committee founding him guilty of professional misconduct. However, the transfer slip issued by the said doctor to the patient was soon shared by netizens which suggested a different story.
Journalist Soumyadipta shared the referral slip issued by the clinic which showed that the patient, the Muslim woman, was highly anaemic and on her 7th pregnancy which made it a complicated case.
Here’s the complete story (the circled term G6P7, APH)?? This is a case of Antepartum Haemorrhage (APH) or bleeding prior to delivery. The patient was anaemic & undergoing her seventh pregnancy. Hence her case was deemed complicated. She was rightly referred to a better hospital. https://t.co/QnSsmJSDcTpic.twitter.com/vjvtaXjxD6
As per the referral slip, the patient was suffering from Antepartum Haemorrhage (APH), i.e. bleeding prior to delivery. She was anaemic and on her 7th pregnancy. Hence, owing to the complications of the case, she was referred to the bigger hospital in Jaipur since the clinic was not equipped to handle the complicated case.
Note: The patient was referred to a better hospital to save the 7th pregnancy as the attending doctor clearly didn’t have the means to attend the medical case. In such small government hospitals, there is only one attending junior doctor and doesn’t perform complicated procedures
Another social media user and a doctor himself, Dr Amit Thadani, also explained that the referral slip contained the words “no investigation available” which means this was an unregistered seventh pregnancy of the lady.
Note the words “no investigations available”. No ANC papers, unregistered seventh pregnancy, uninvestigated, with severe anemia and APH – this patient would be very high risk even in a tertiary hospital. https://t.co/jgUu803wTt
Speaking to OpIndia, a doctor said that the woman was 26-28 weeks pregnant and while normal pregnancy lasts 38-40 weeks. So it was indeed a complicated pregnancy which could’ve risked the lives of the mother and child.
Hindustan Times Bureau Chief Rakesh Awasthi took to Twitter to share the byte of a lady who was accompanying the pregnant woman who clarifies that the doctor did not refer them to Jaipur hospital because they are Muslims.
Aise to na kahi ki tum musalmaan ho (they didn’t say you are Muslim): This testimony is equally important as the one by the man claiming his wife was turned away from Bharatpur hospital for being a Muslim. #Rajasthan@vishvendrabtp@Soumyadiptapic.twitter.com/wbpJILlZSg
The lady can be heard saying that the doctor asked them to leave, perhaps because the patient was in critical health and delay could have been harmful.
The incident has thus left people wondering if the state government was throwing the doctor under the bus to enable a narrative where they earn liberal brownie points. Truth will come out only once a fair and proper inquiry is done.
The Delhi Police suspended a constable on Saturday after he had assisted Tablighi Jamaat members to cross Delhi-UP border. The Delhi policeman is identified as constable Imran, who was posted in the security unit of the Delhi Police.
Reportedly, Imran was illegally crossing the Delhi-UP border on Thursday in his car along with members of Tablighi Jamaat. The constable was stopped by Ghaziabad Police and was taken into custody after he was interrogated. The Ghaziabad Police soon informed the Delhi Police about the incident and now, the Delhi Police is trying to identify how did the members of the Jamaat contact the constable or vice versa.
Imran has been placed under quarantine at a private hospital in Loni along with eight others after he was caught helping to escape to Amroha. Imran is currently suspended by Delhi Police, which also ordered an inquiry.
“The incident took place on Wednesday when Ghaziabad police stopped a vehicle at Tilla Mod. There were nine occupants who on questioning admitted they were coming all the way from Amroha after attending a Tablighi congregation,” said Kalanidhi Naithani, the Ghaziabad SSP.
The Delhi Police have also started an investigation to trace other members who may have crossed the border. All the nine caught at the UP-Delhi border are residents of Loni.
The Tablighi Jamaat is has become the epicentre of the transmission of the Chinese coronavirus across the country. Muslim clerics of Tablighi Jamaat organised a congregation in violation of the government’s lockdown orders, providing a conducive environment for the novel coronavirus to proliferate.
The Jamaat members taking buses and trains to their respective localities all over India has resulted in a massive nation-wide spread within a span of few days. As per government reports, over 9000 Tablighi Jamaat attendees and their primary contacts have so far been quarantined. At least 700 positive cases from Tablighi event has been reported in the last two days and few of them have died.
Even as the Chinese pandemic COVID-19 has spread across the country in Pakistan shutting down most of the country, several mosques have remained opened across Pakistan, especially on Friday. People as usual offered prayers at these mosques despite a government ban on big congregational gatherings in order to curb the spread of coronavirus that has killed 37 people and infected nearly 2,500 others in the country.
“We don’t believe in coronavirus, we believe in Allah. Whatever happens, it is from Allah,” one Altaf Khan, an Islamabad resident believes as per AFP report. Some clerics also encouraged people to attend prayers in mosques. Another Islamabad resident said that the people go to mosque to seek help from Allah as they are scared. The officials added that it was not easy to stop people from visiting mosques unless they willingly cooperate. In fact, as late as March last week, the country’s religious scholars asked only the old and sick to avoid prayers in mosque.
According to the reports, the Sindh government had announced a curfew-like restriction from 12 noon to 3 pm to stop people from visiting mosques, while the Punjab government had issued a fatwa for people to offer prayer in their homes. Similar instructions were issued by other provinces and the federal government.
The mosques have too made announcement urging people to pray at home. However, Pakistanis have found more eagerness to defy the instructions to visit mosques.
“The government and police are making statements to create a sense of fear. Nothing will happen. Karachi is a city of 20 million, the government cannot implement its decision in every nook and cranny,” the prayer leader of the Jamia Mosque Quba said.
A heavy contingent of police and Rangers personnel were also deployed in front of the New Memon Mosque and some other areas in Karachi. In Karachi, the majority of mosques have followed government orders, however, some continued to hold regular prayers.
In other towns and cities of the province, including Sukkur, Larkana, Hyderabad and Mirpurkhas divisions, the mosques have been asked to shut while permission has been given to only four to five people, including the prayer leader to pray.
However, the lockdown has not been strictly implemented in rural areas, especially in villages. “We have offered Friday prayers in our Jamia mosque with the same crowd,” said Abdul Hanan, who lives in a village in the Kamber Shahdadkot district.
The situation in Balochistan was not much different. A big crowd came to attend Friday prayers in Qandhari mosque of provincial capital Quetta, located near a police station. In other areas of the province. Most of the mosques were open, but attendance was low.
In Punjab, mosques have made announcements requesting people to pray at homes. In cities, the orders were mostly followed but the situation in the rural areas was different as people came out in big numbers to offer prayers.
Dar ul Iftah Jamia Naeemia, an Islamic university in Lahore, issued a fatwa (religious edict) saying that people who are stopped by the government from coming to mosques were not obliged to perform the prayers in congregation.
There have been cases of confrontation between police and Muslims on the issue of going to mosques. People gathered near Ghousia Mosque in Liaquatabad area of Karachi and pelted stones at police when stopped from entering the mosque. The police said that the official vehicle of the local Station House Officer was slightly damaged in the attack.
A 35-year-old Muhammad Abrar Hussain Shaikh was arrested by Vadodara Police for sharing fake news on social networking site Facebook claiming 145 out of 400 people stuck in Vaishnodevi temple tested positive for Chinese Coronavirus.
Abrar Shaikh’s Facebook post from April 2, 2020.
As reported by online web portal DeshGujarat, Shaikh has been booked under IPC section 502(2) and Disaster Management Act 2005, section 54 by city’s cyber cell police station.
Shaikh had shared a Facebook post by Islamist Ali Sohrab, who has a history of spreading fake news. None of the devotees are stuck at the temple and in fact, the temple has been shut since March 18. After the Tablighi Jamaatis were found to be super-spreaders leading to an increase in COVID-19 positive cases, Islamist Ali Sohrab took to social media to spread the fake news. In a bid cover up the Islamist’s transgression and to make Hindu’s appear to be as much in fault as these Islamists, implying that not only Muslims but even Hindu’s have partaken in disseminating coronavirus across the country, Ali Sohrab concocted this imaginary story.
Moreover, Vaishno Devi Shrine Board has also refuted such claims. They have confirmed that no Vaishno Devi pilgrim is stuck anywhere in the temple nor in Katra, Jammu and Kashmir where the holy shrine of Vaishno Devi is located.
