Twitter has suspended the verified account of a Pakistani website called Pakistani Defence (@defencepk) after receiving complaints the handle had tweeted morphed images of an Indian student.
The handle, which has no links to the Pakistani government, had tweeted a distorted photo of Delhi University student Kawalpreet Kaur, who’s also a leader of the All India Student’s Association (AISA).
In the original photo, Kaur is seen standing in front of Delhi’s Jamia Masjid, holding a placard which reads, “I am a citizen of India and I stand with secular values of our Constitution. I will write against communal mob lynching of Muslims in our country #CitizensAgainstMobLynching.”
Here’s the original image:
The photo was clicked in July, a day before the ‘Not In My Name’ protests across the country, which were held as a reaction to the killing of 15-year-old Junaid Khan in a local train, Kaur told The Indian Express.
But, the Pakistani Defence tweeted the image of Kaur holding a placard which read, “I am an Indian, but I hate India, because India is a colonial nation that has occupied nations such as Nagas, Kashmiris, Manipuris, Hyderabad, Junagard, Sikkim, Mizoram, Goa.”
In its tweet, Pakistan Defence said, “Indians are finally realizing the truth; their country is actually a colonialist entity.” It deleted the tweet later, ANI reported.
In its bio, the @defencepk links to a website, defence.pk, which calls itself a “one-stop resource for Pakistan defence, strategic affairs, security issues, world defence and military affairs”.
The suspended Twitter account had over 304,000 followers.
Kaur told The Indian Express:
“Earlier, too, I had complained to the Delhi Police cyber cell, but nothing happened against those who had used the picture. But today, it came as a shock since it was shared by a verified account, and despite telling them, the photo was not taken down. It had become a matter of my security,” Kaur said.
Kaur, along with many others, including former JNUSU vice-president Shehla Rashid, then complained to Twitter, following which the account was suspended.
In fact, many people from Pakistan, including many journalists, also called out Defence Pakistan’s “malicious campaigns” and “propaganda”.
Kawalpreet Kaur thanked everyone who reported the fake tweet. She said the message in her original picture “shouldn’t be lost in these dark times.”