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02-05-2023
By SJA Jafri + Agencies
KARACHI, PAKISTAN/ HYDERABAD DECCAN, INDIA: An image of a padlocked grave, which went viral on social media last week, was quickly picked by Indian news outlets linking it with the issue of rape and necrophilia in Pakistan without verifying the origins of the image and its backstory.
The image was initially shared on Twitter by an ex-Muslim Harris Sultan who claimed that the grave was locked, as parents in Pakistan wanted to save their dead daughters from being raped. His tweet slamming Pakistani society was also picked by Indian portals.
Numerous media outlets across the border ran the story after Asian News International (ANI), an Indian news agency known for its anti-Pakistan propaganda, tweeted the image with the same claims in their story titled “Pakistani parents lock daughters’ graves to avoid rape”.
The agency quoted a Pakistani website’s editorial and credited Twitter for the image but soon after the story went viral, Alt News, an independent fact-checking website busted the misreporting and ran a fact check on the viral image following which it found that the grave was, in fact, not from Pakistan but from a cemetery in India’s Hyderabad city.
The story was picked by several leading Indian media outlets including the Times of India, NDTV, Zee News, Hindustan Times, The Print, India Today, Mirror Now, IndiaTV, Wion, Times Now, Firstpost, OpIndia Hindi, DNA India, News24, Amar Ujala, ABP News, News18 and Jagran in text and video format from ANI’s syndicated feed. Meanwhile, all these outlets credited ANI as their source for the image.
While Hindustan Times has deleted the article, it also reported the story with the same image.
The outlet stated that the editorial mentioned in the story by ANI did not have an image on its website and shared a Google Street View of the cemetery where the said grave was clearly visible.
Founder of Alt News, Mohammed Zubair, also called out the propaganda-mongering by Indian news outlets highlighting the state of the country’s media.
“‘South Asia’s Leading Multimedia News Agency’ ANI was the first to spread this FAKE NEWS in India, This ANI feed was forwarded to several news media which was blindly reshared by Hindi/English news channels without verifying it themselves,” he wrote in his tweet.
Alt News also screen-recorded the process of finding the graveyard from a mosque to ensure clarity for its readers. 
It contacted a local social worker, who is a resident of the said locality, to visit and verify the grave’s presence in the cemetery. After this, he visited and provided photographs and video busting the fake news.
In the video, the social worker also sought a comment from the mosque’s Muazzin Muqtar who shared facts on the grave.
“Muqtar Sahab said that the padlocked grave, which was approximately 1.5 to 2-year old, was constructed without the permission of the concerned committee. It is located right in front of the entrance, thus blocking the pathway. This issue was discussed among the Masjid committee members for eight days,” Alt News wrote in its fact-check report.
The Muazzin further explained the reason behind the grille and said: “In order to prevent others from burying any bodies further, the families have put the grille there.”
In its fact-check, Alt News wrote that the “padlock had nothing to do with necrophilia or Pakistan.”
