On the 24th of December, one Meer Faisal, multimedia journalist with Islamist outfit Maktoob Media, took to Twitter to post a host of videos about a Bajrang Dal rally in Mewat to fear monger about Hindus outfits trying to create a “communal divide” between Hindus and Muslims of the area. After the videos, he shared an article of Maktoob Media that essentially said that Muslims of Mewat, popularly known as Mini Pakistan because of the rapes, abductions, Jihadi violence and forced conversions of Hindu women, were living in eternal fear of Hindu outfits.

Meer Faisal stated in his Twitter thread that on the 12th of December, Bajrang Dal member Jeet Vashisht took to Facebook to post videos of a saffron rally in Nuh, the Muslim majority area in Mewat. He said that Jai Shree Ram slogans were raised in front of Muslim households and that the rally was carried out with over 500 cars filled with “Hindutva supporters” who had entered the area to saffronise Mewat.

The Maktoob Media report said that in over 500 cars, Bajrang Dal members entered the Singar village of Nuh, Mewat district of Haryana. In the video posted by Jeet, he said, “We have entered the village of Singar where Lord Krishna did Shringar (adornment) and our brotherhood has penetrated the huge population of a particular community (Muslims).”

It was a day before, on the 11th of December that Jeet had taken to Facebook to announce the saffron rally in Nuh. The rally, that was carried out till the Singar Temple of the village on Saturday.

In fact, while Maktoob media fear mongered and claimed that Muslims of Mewat were living in fear, Vashisht in his video said that he had been receiving threatening messages and messages warning him that it was not safe to enter Mewat. “We are not as weak as you (Muslims) think. We are not scared of your messages and comments,” he said. 

Maktoob Media, casting aspersions on the Haryana Police, further wrote in its report that the Haryana Police was “standing unmoved” on the side of the road as the rally retreated from the Hindu temple. The report claimed that they asked the police if due permission was taken for the rally, however, they only added that “All information regarding this rally is recorded in the main police headquarters. You can get further information from there.”

In the same report, Maktoob Media, while talking about this saffron rally, went on to claim that there was “rising fear among local Muslims”. Quoting a resident of the village, Mustafa, who said that the local Muslims’ “Hearts get hurt” but “they cannot do anything about it”. He was further quoted as saying that they did not file an FIR against the Bajrang Dal activists because they knew “nothing would happen” since the “police are with those people and not with us. No one listens to us, neither the police nor the government”.

Mustafa also talked about a case of interfaith marriage where a Muslim man married a Hindu girl in the village. “Since then, the motive of some people is just to create violence against us,” he said.

Maktoob Media quotes another individual, Hafiz, saying that “people of Hindutva mindset” are “trying to create violence against Muslims”.

The assertions by the Maktoob Media report can be broken down in the following points:

1. The saffron rally was not peaceful, given that it struck fear in the hearts of the Muslims
2. The rally by Bajrang Dal did not have the requisite permission, possibly, since they leave the question rather ambiguous. They mention that the “information is available in the police station”, but do not categorically state that permission was taken.
3. They allege that the police was somehow protecting the Bajrang Dal activists since they were “silently standing on the road”.
4. That the rally somehow deserved to invite an FIR but the locals were “afraid” and the police was “complicit”.

These insinuations, however, were wildly inaccurate.

First and foremost, OpIndia reached out to Haryana Police and were told that all the requisite permissions were taken for the saffron rally in Nuh. In fact, the police also confirmed that the rally was completely peaceful and no untoward incident was reported.

Further, the carefully crafted report in Maktoob Media insinuates that the rally should have invited an FIR, however, if the permissions for the rally were taken and the rally was peaceful, why an FIR should have been filed is something the report does not clarify. In fact, from the report, it almost seems like they wanted an FIR against Bajrang Dal activists for simply raising Jai Shri Ram slogans in a “Muslim dominated area” as it would “lead to violence against Muslims”. Essentially, Maktoob Media was saying that the mere slogans of Jai Shri Ram in the bylines of India could send Muslims of the area into a violent tizzy and therefore, it could lead to overall violence, thereby breaching “communal harmony” in the village.

Essentially, Bajrang Dal took out a peaceful rally in Nuh, Mewat, with all the requisite police permissions that they needed to take. However, Maktoob Media painted it as a dangerous, violent rally taken out to create violence against Muslims, simply because the rally was taken out in a Muslim dominated area.

Maktoob Media – habitual offenders who twisted the Loni incident

Kerala-based portal Maktoob, which has a notorious history of peddling disinformation to communalise petty incidents, was yet again caught indulging in propagating lies in connection with the Loni incident.

In the Loni incident, ‘victim’ Abdul Samad Saifi was beaten up by people known to him after an occult amulet he had prepared for one of them did not work as per them. Accused Parvez Gujjar, Aadil and Kallu were arrested even as they launched a manhunt to nab other accused Arif and Poli at the time.

Despite clarification from the Uttar Pradesh police, the rabid Islamist website Maktoob continued to peddle misinformation about the incident to absolve the crimes of Muslim youths accused in the attacks against Samad. 

The propaganda website had claimed that one of the arrested accused in the case Aadil did not attack Abdul Samad, but he was present at the spot only to rescue the elderly Muslim man from assailants. Rejecting the clarification provided by the UP police, the Islamist website claimed that Aadil is innocent and had no role in the attack.

Maktoob has also published the statement of Mohammad Sajid, brother of Aadil, who claimed that his brother was innocent.

“Aadil and his friends received a call informing them that Samad was being assaulted by Pravesh Gujjar and others. They rushed to the scene to rescue him,” Maktoob quoted a person named Sajid, who claimed to be Aadil’s brother. 

Maktoob has also published the statement of Mohammad Sajid, brother of Aadil, who claimed that his brother was innocent.

“Aadil and his friends received a call informing them that Samad was being assaulted by Pravesh Gujjar and others. They rushed to the scene to rescue him,” Maktoob quoted a person named Sajid, who claimed to be Aadil’s brother. 

According to Sajid, Aadil knew Gujjar as the latter visited the gym owned by Aadil in the locality. “Will, he (Aadil) make an elderly Muslim man chant “Jai Shree Ram”? It is bizarre,” Maktoob quoted Sajid as saying. Maktoob also spoke to Aadil’s other brother Mohammad Shehzad, who alleged that the case against his brother is fake. “We don’t know what to do, but the truth will come out very soon,” Shehzad tweeted.

Incidentally, Maktoob had also claimed that the publication spoke to elderly Muslim man Samad, who admitted that Hindu men had offered him an auto ride and took him to an isolated spot. As per Maktoob, the Hindu men beat him up and forced Samad to chant Jai Shri Ram and sing Vande Mataram.

In a hurry to twist the facts of the matter, Maktoob failed to provide any concrete evidence to substantiate its claims that Aadil had nothing to do with the attacks against Samad but was there at the spot only to rescue the elderly Muslim man. In addition, Maktoob claimed that Samad himself said to them that he was attacked by Hindus and was forced to chant “Jai Shri Ram” and “Vande Mataram”.

However, Maktoob failed to provide any video evidence to prove that Samad had blamed Hindu youths for the attacks. Shockingly, Maktoob invented its own storyline to the case that is devoid of any facts.

This is was not the only incident where Maktoob Media had twisted facts. Earlier, Muslim youth, Asif Khan, was killed in Haryana’s Nuh by a group of men. Asif’s group and the prime accused Pradeep alias Patwari’s group were old rivals and have had incidents of violence between them. In fact, just a few days prior to the incident, Asif’s group had beat up members of Pradeep’s group. In a revenge attack, Patwari’s group had killed Asif, and there was no religious angle whatsoever. 

However, Maktoob Media invented a religious angle to the case by claiming that Asif was killed after perpetrators had forced to chant “Jai Shri Ram”.

References:

opindia.com - OpIndia Staff