12 Pakistani social media groups under lens for Nuh flare-up

Sumedha Sharma

Gurugram, August 9

At least 12 social media groups traced to Pakistan played a pivotal role in the Nuh clashes, the police have said. The groups, being run on WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter and Telegram with thousands of followers from across the Mewat region of Haryana and Rajasthan, were allegedly professing hatred through daily broadcasts, they said.

Thousands of followers in Mewat, Rajasthan

• Having thousands of followers in Mewat and Rajasthan, these social media groups were allegedly professing hatred
• Not only instigated mobs to ‘give it all’ for community during riots, but were also flooded with celebratory messages after the attack

The groups not only instigated mobs to “give it all” for the community during the riots, but were flooded with celebratory messages after the attack. A majority of the suspects nabbed have been found to be active members of these social media groups.

“Social media accounts being run from Pakistan are under the scanner for instigating the flare-up in Nuh. Though a majority of these have deleted the chats, we are trying to retrieve the data.

We have recovered videos of clashes from these accounts, which helped us identify the suspects,” said Nuh SP Narendra Bijarnia.Investigators said they were having a tough task with Telegram groups as a majority of these left behind no digital footprints or records. The accounts are under the radar of national security agencies also. The Rajasthan Police are also looking into similar accounts with numerous followers in Alwar and Bharatpur districts. These accounts declare cow vigilantes as “kafirs” and urge the local Meo population to punish them. The Tribune had recently reported how a YouTube account in the name of “Ahsan Mewati Pakistani” was creating unrest. His videos, specifically created using social media feeds, were doing the rounds on social media on July 31 when riots started in Nuh.

In response to complaints against the channel, it has been taken down by YouTube. The now-removed YouTube channel, with 273 videos and 80,000 followers, was dedicated to spreading misinformation and promoting violence in Haryana.