Another propaganda by Anti-Pakistan elements has been exposed as the news of Sunita Masih rape and forced conversion has been found to be fake. A hashtag had started trending on Pakistani Twitter, demanding #JusticeforSunitaMasih on May 24.
Rights for minorities have always been the hardest battle for a country already battling social injustice, weak laws, and even weaker enforcement. The spread of fake news and misinformation followed by misinterpretation has made the delivery of justice even harder for the actual victims.
Yet, another attempt to sabotage the religious equilibrium in Pakistan has been made as another false news was deliberately widely propagated on social media platforms.
The news shared under the hashtag said that a 14-year-old Christian girl, Sunita Masih, was gang-raped before being forced to convert to Islam. When she refused to do so, she was allegedly tortured and her head was shaved by the perpetrators.
Sunita Masih, daughter of a resident of Faisalabad, was abducted for not accepting the invitation of Islam.
While Masoom's hair was cut off and his limbs were injured, our media could not make any news on this incident.https://t.co/RDxTYWWbMo— Console Human Rights Int,l Trust (@AqilSheraz4) May 25, 2021
Many social media warriors were quick to draw conclusions and called it another attack on religious minorities. Several celebrities such as actors Adnan Siddiqui, Armeena Khan, and many others also jumped on the bandwagon and took to Twitter to condemn the incident without any verification.
https://twitter.com/ArmeenaRK/status/1396937183110512640
Feeling sick to the stomach. With each new case, humanity plunges deeper and deeper into a dreary, dark pit. Why are we turning into morally depraved monsters? Abhorrent! #JusticeForSunitaMaseeh
— Adnan Siddiqui (@adnanactor) May 25, 2021
Appalled. Speechless. Assailants of such crimes should be granted the highest form of punishment so that they can be an example for all those who even think of committing such atrocious crimes.#SunitaMasih #Minorities #RapeVictims
— Faysal Quraishi (@faysalquraishi) May 26, 2021
The preparators of the misinformation claimed that’s the incident occurred in the jurisdiction of Saddar Police Station, Faisalabad.
When investigated, Faisalabad SSP Sohail Chaudhry denied that there was any such incident reported in his area. He added, however, that the case may have occurred in Sukkur.
The SSP office in Sukkur was reached and inquired about the case. They too, however, denied any such incident having taken place.
A digital media agency decided to look into the matter and used advanced tracking tools to discover where the trend originated from. When probed, it was revealed that the incident was first reported by Rahat Austin, a Pakistani Christian man.
FACT CHECK: On May 24, a hashtag started trending on Pakistani Twitter, demanding #JusticeforSunitaMasih.@DailyScoopTV1 verified the news and found it to be misleading and false. #FakeNews #Pakistan #viral pic.twitter.com/bM3I98OXdZ
— Daily Scoop TV (@DailyScoopTV1) May 27, 2021
Rahat now lives in South Korea and is known to have engaged in spreading disinformation in the past. Last year, Austin shared pictures of burnt corpses of 3 Hindu children who died in a fire in a village in the Ghotki district. Those children too were falsely labeled as victims of an arson attack by Muslims.
While it is not yet clear who holds his strings, Austin’s tweets were shared by thousands of Hindutva accounts and quoted in Indian media.
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