Al Haqeeqa
By Muslim Mirror Staff
New Delhi : In every tragic accident, a particular section of social media users find an opportunity for communal rumor-mongering. Amritsar tragedy on Dusshera was no different. Hours after more than 60 people lost their lives in a tragic accident where an Amritsar-bound train mowed down Dusshera revellers watching the burning of Ravan effigy from railway tracks, viral claims on social media began to suggest that the name of the driver was Imtiaz Ali.
Both Facebook and Twitter were flooded with hundreds of messages alleging that the Amritsar tragedy was a “Train Jihad” carried out by a Muslim train driver.The messaging had a divisive agenda, the language was venomous and the tweets were framed with a clear objective to incite.
It started with a communal messaging, blaming the Muslim driver and suggesting it was a deliberate act. “Did anyone try to find out the religion of the train driver? Imtiaz Ali. Now you understand why the train did not stop and why the train was going at such a speed.” one twitter user tweeted.
Another tweet read “The name of the driver who killed over 250 was Imtiaz Khan. Rest you should be smart enough to know. This is not an accident but a planned mass murder.”
Handles followed by Prime Minister Modi also jumped on the bandwagon but later deleted their tweets.
However, according to a written statement of the driver to the Railway Administration, his name was Arvind Kumar. This has now been reported by several media organisations.
Spreading unfounded rumors about such a grave tragedy and giving it a communal twist was a malicious act. What is disturbing is that this rabble rousing was not limited to a few isolated tweets or Facebook posts. It appears to be an organised social media campaign with common copy-paste tweets. None of the tweets mentioned above have been deleted even after the name of the driver became public.
(Inputs from Alt News)
