KARACHI: Indian News agencies and web portals recently reported that Pakistani parents are locking graves of their daughters to avoid rape. However, upon further investigation, it appears that the claim was not entirely true, and that the articles were based on a tweet by Harris Sultan, an ex-Muslim atheist and author of the book “The Curse of God: Why I Left Islam”.
A fact-check maneuvers by MM News revealed that despite the widespread coverage of this alleged phenomenon, Indian news agencies and channels did not attempt to verify the story with local sources or find any authentic sources. Instead, they relied solely on Harris Sultan’s tweet. A keyword search in Urdu revealed a few more Facebook posts from Tuesday, April 25th, but none of them mentioned rape.
The earliest Twitter and Facebook posts found on the subject, from Monday 24th and early Tuesday 25th April respectively, also did not mention anything about rape. One person who shared the image on social media has stated that they are currently trying to find out who clicked the image or shared it first.
It’s unclear why Indian news agencies and outlets would share unverified claims just because they are viral on Twitter. The Indian propaganda news agency ANI was particularly named in the EU Disinfo lab report, and it is suggested that they may have picked up this fake claim from Pakistani Twitter accounts. In reality, the image reportedly shows the grave of a deranged old man.
