Indian fact-check outlet busts propaganda against Pakistan by own media

After an image of a padlocked grave went viral last week, it was swiftly picked and disseminated by conventional and social media citing its origins in Pakistan with an ex-Muslim Harris Sultan claiming the grave was locked after parents in Pakistan wanted to save their dead daughters from rape and necrophilia.

Several media outlets in India were quick to turn the fake news into a story with the image plastered across almost every Indian news website.

Soon after the story went viral, Alt News — an independent fact-checking website — busted the fake news by running a fact check on the viral image following which it found that it was, in fact, not from Pakistan but from a graveyard in India's Hyderabad city.

Asian News International (ANI), an Indian news agency, tweeted the image with the same claims in their story titled "Pakistani parents lock daughters’ graves to avoid rape" quoting a Pakistani website's editorial while crediting Twitter for the image.

The story was picked by other 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 mentioned 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 nearby 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 which 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 it's fact-check, Alt News wrote that the "padlock had nothing to do with necrophilia or Pakistan."

The image was initially shared on social media by Sultan, who is also an author known for his controversial takes on Islam, with a caption slamming Pakistani society.

Sultan's tweet was generously used by all the Indian media outlets without verifying the claims made by him.