New Delhi: The nationwide protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act have led to various fake news and photographs surfacing online to discredit the agitation. Two such images of wounded children were circulated on social media claiming they were injured during the protests in West Bengal.
The verified Twitter handle of BJP’s A.P. Muruganandam shared the image of a badly injured woman and a child on 15 December, claiming they sustained the wounds during the protests.
The BJP Youth Wing’s vice-president further said violence was perpetrated by “the very culprits who entered our country illegally years back”. The tweet had over 350 likes and 200 shares at the time of writing this report.
குடியுரிமை மசோதாவிற்கு எதிராக கலவரங்களை, நம் சகோதரர்கள் மீது கொடூரமாக நிகழ்த்துவது வேறு யாரும் அல்ல..
வெளிநாட்டில் இருந்து
சட்டவிரோதமாக ஊடுருவி, பல ஆண்டுகளாகத் தங்கியிருக்கும் கயவர்கள் செய்த செயலை பாருங்கள்.
இந்த சட்டம் யாருக்கு நெருடலாக இருக்கிறது என்பது இப்பொழுது புரியும். pic.twitter.com/x0MlJA0JKt
— A.P. Muruganandam முருகானந்தம் ?? (@apmbjp) December 15, 2019
Another user Ajay Pandit shared the same image of the child claiming she was injured due to stone pelting by Muslims. The same picture was shared on Facebook with a post in Hindi asking what was the child’s fault.
आखिर इस मासूम बच्चे की क्या गलती थी. जो अपने माता-पिता के साथ ट्रेन में सफर कर रही थी, और शांति दूतों का विरोध ऐसा कि उस…
Ravishankar Kumar यांनी वर पोस्ट केले शनिवार, १४ डिसेंबर, २०१९
Similarly, the BJP IT cell’s co-convenor Abhishek Acharya, whose boasts of being followed by PM Narendra Modi and several other BJP leaders in his Twitter bio, also shared the image of an injured child on 16 December, claiming it was the results of protests in West Bengal.
https://twitter.com/iabhiacharya/status/1206635038525116417?s=21
Meanwhile, the picture of a man dressed in a woman’s clothes and a burqa has been passed off as some of the prominent Jamia protesters. People shared the image on Facebook claiming that the man was the same woman in a viral video that shows her confronting the police.
Also read: In pictures: Bloodstains, broken library doors and empty cafeteria of Jamia Millia Islamia
Series of fake images
The three images mentioned above are fake and have no connection to the Citizenship Act protests in Bengal or anywhere else. The first image is from a train accident in Dhaka that occurred on 12 November.
The source of the second image remains unknown, but it was used in February 2018 as well, which proves that it is not a recent image from the protests.
Başkomutanı göreceksin az kaldı nasıl ölecek pic.twitter.com/0Buc8F9a9E
— erenbal (@erenbal2) February 22, 2018
The picture of the man being shared as a woman is also not from India. The image had gone viral in February 2018. Some news portals claim that the man is from Egypt.
Also read: Mamata calls for non-BJP CM alliance to fight citizenship law, says NRC over my ‘dead body’
In collaboration with SM Hoax Slayer