Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan’s attempt to showcase atrocities by Indian police against Muslims has backfired as a video he shared on social media was a seven-year-old clip from Bangladesh.
Khan had tagged a video of police brutality from Bangladesh along with a series of tweets. The caption on one such clip read: “Indian police’s pogrom against Muslims in UP”.
The video, however, received severe backlash as Twitter users soon located one of the videos on Youtube, which was titled “[GRAPHIC] Bangladesh police brutality of Hefazat-e-Islam 3”, uploaded in 2013.
Indian Twitterati flayed Khan for sharing fake videos against India.
#ImranKhan trended with 19K tweets as Twitter users criticised him. Some even posted memes to make fun of him.
Following the criticism, all the tweets were deleted from the PM’s Twitter handle. This also caught the attention of social media users as they commented that the Pakistani leader was doing all this due to frustration.
“Imran Khan can only do this when the Indian Prime Minister is strong. Pak missing MMS badly,” said one user.
The Uttar Pradesh Police also responded on Twitter on the video shared by Imran Khan.
This is not from U.P, but from a May,2013 incident in Dhaka,Bangladesh.The RAB(Rapid Action Battalion) written on the vests at 0:21s, 1:27s or the Bengali spoken, or these links would help you be better informed.
1. https://t.co/Rp3kcKHz2K
2.https://t.co/zf7qk9bY7M@UPPViralCheck https://t.co/4krjmD38PK— UP POLICE (@Uppolice) January 3, 2020
The Ministry of External Affairs also slammed Imran Khan for peddling “fake news”.
“Tweet Fake News. Get Caught. Delete Tweet. Repeat,” MEA Spokesperson Raveesh Kumar tweeted with hashtag ”Old habits die hard”.
Tweet Fake News.Get Caught.
Delete Tweet. Repeat#Oldhabitsdiehard pic.twitter.com/MjFtzP0WHW— Raveesh Kumar (@MEAIndia) January 3, 2020
The tweets by Imran Khan were posted as violence unfolded in Pakistan’s Nankana Sahib where hundreds of angry Muslim residents pelted stones on a Gurdwara.
The mob gheraoed the holy shrine on Friday afternoon, leaving many devotees stranded inside. The protesters threatened to destroy the gurdwara and build a mosque in its place.
Following this, Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh had appealed to Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan to intervene in the matter.