Viral Picture Of Padlock On Grave Not From Pak: A Fact Check

A fact-check has indicated that an agency report about parents putting padlocks on graves of their daughters in Pakistan to save them from a rising spate of necrophilia was incorrect. Many news sites, including NDTV, ran the report of news agency ANI that has been fact-checked by AltNews. NDTV had sent a mail to ANI late this evening. A response is awaited.

The report of ANI was based on Daily Times article, and a viral tweet by Harris Sultan, an ex-Muslim atheist activist and the author of the book "The Curse of God, why I left Islam".

In the tweet, he had shared photos of a padlocked grave and accused Pakistan of creating a "sexually frustrated society", where "people are now putting padlocks on the graves of their daughters to prevent them from getting raped".

AltNews fact checker Mohammed Zubair tweeted that the photograph in question, showing a green painted  grille, was from Hyderabad. The reason grilles are used is to stop people from burying bodies over the old graves without permission, he tweeted quoting locals.

The grave was that of an old woman, whose son had installed the grille. It was also meant to stop people from stepping on the grave since it was near a doorway, he tweeted.

Alt News contacted a social worker named Abdul Jaleel who is a resident of Hyderabad. On being requested by us, he visited the spot and provided us with photographs of the grave in question. pic.twitter.com/I6DYRWj8vU

— Mohammed Zubair (@zoo_bear) April 30, 2023

This issue was discussed among the Masjid committee members for eight days. Explaining the reason behind the grille, he added, "A lot of people come here and bury bodies over the old graves without permission....

— Mohammed Zubair (@zoo_bear) April 30, 2023

Alt News also spoke to a local resident whose house is near the mosque. He informed us that the grave belonged to an aged woman who had passed away in her seventies. Her son constructed the grille over the grave about 40 days after she had been buried.

— Mohammed Zubair (@zoo_bear) April 30, 2023

After the fact-check by AltNews, Harris Sultan said he was deleting his earlier tweet.

Thank you, @zoo_bear, for getting to the bottom of this. While this is not an excuse and I must apologize for the source of my initial information, which was from @SanamBalochfans.

The reason why it was believable is that necrophilia has become a serious issue in Pakistan. It is… https://t.co/1yEm5nSlB5 pic.twitter.com/euL6mei3Np

— Harris Sultan (@TheHarrisSultan) April 30, 2023

The ANI report mentioned that women's bodies were said to have been unearthed and desecrated on several occasions. A necrophilia case was reported in Pakistan in 2011 when a grave keeper named Muhammad Rizwan from North Nazimabad, Karachi was arrested after he confessed to raping 48 female corpses.

from NDTV News- Special https://ift.tt/mn0hFfj