Indian media misinformation on Locked Grave incident raises concerns.
Over the past few days, leading Indian media outlets including NDTV, Times of India, Zee News, and the infamous Indian news agency Asian News International (ANI) have carried reports that parental necrophilia is on the rise in Pakistan. Due to the cases, they are locking the grave of their daughters.
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The news was not run by one or two Indian media outlets while a Google search revealed that hundreds of Indian news websites followed the same script and ran the news along with an equally large number of India-based YouTube channels.
Prominent Indian fact-checker and journalist Mohammad Zubair, who was arrested in 2018 for allegedly offending religious sentiments for a tweet, was the first to question whether there was a credible ‘source’ to the news.
Zubair didn’t stop at just finding out the truth of the news, Alt News, a fact-checking website he co-founded. Alt News has learned that the grave in question is actually in Hyderabad, India.
A Hyderabad-based social worker was also sent to the spot for questioning by Alt News, who shared photographic evidence that the grave is actually in India.
Jaleel spoke to Muqtar Sahab, the Muazzin of the Masjid. Mr. Muqtar said that the padlocked grave, which was approximately 1.5 to 2-year old which is located right in front of the entrance thus blocking the pathway. pic.twitter.com/z3R1tsXy2d
— Mohammed Zubair (@zoo_bear) April 30, 2023
The local imam told Alt News that the grave is about 1.5 to 2 years old. The imam further said that since the grave is at the entrance of the graveyard, the grill was made to prevent people from reburying the dead in the grave.
Recently, following two previous investigations published in 2019 and 2020, EU DisinfoLab revealed how the Indian news agency ANI cited sources that did not exist.
The investigation also revealed that ANI regularly referred to the defunct ‘EP Today’ and ‘EU Chronicles’, two fake media outlets specializing in EU affairs which were actually based in India. were created to push the anti-Pakistan/China narrative.
