Pakistani political commentator Zaid Hamid shared a photograph of a woman being dragged by men dressed in Khaki and claimed that they are “RSS gangsters” in the garb of Indian army men, kidnapping Kashmiri women to use them as sex slaves.
Imran Khan, take a deep look….isnt she your daughter ? Are you not responsible for her?
RSS gangsters, dressed in Indian army uniforms, kidnapping Kashmiri women for use as sex slaves…..
Isnt this time to at least threaten Modi to stop this madness ?
You will be asked!!! pic.twitter.com/UZc4Q0FGbr— Zaid Hamid (@ZaidZamanHamid) August 13, 2019
The photograph has been floating on social media with similar claims since 2016, posted by several Pakistani Twitter accounts.
Indian State terrorism in #Kashmir. Cruelty at its peak. pic.twitter.com/jlomtgi1rN
— Ijaz Ul Haq (@ijazulhaq) September 1, 2016
Photograph not from Kashmir
A Google reverse-image search led us to a blogpost which carried the same picture but of a better quality.
In the above photo, the person manhandling the woman has an emblem on his uniform with ‘police’ written on it. The men were therefore not dressed as army men but cops. We searched for police emblems of different Indian states and compared them with the one seen in the photograph and found that the emblem was of the Andhra Pradesh police.
A comparison between J&K police emblem and the emblem used by AP police shows clear dissimilarities between the two.
A further search on Twitter revealed that the image was tweeted by the official handle of the CPI(M) on July 26, 2016. The party claimed that Andhra Pradesh police had come down heavily upon SFI students protesting against the closing down of social welfare hostels in the state.
Brutal Police assault on SFI protest against closing down of social welfare hostels in Andhra Pradesh. pic.twitter.com/5On6ou5rqC
— CPI (M) (@cpimspeak) July 26, 2016
According to a July 20, 2016 report in The Hans India, SFI had organised protests “demanding enhancement of mess and cosmetic charges and reopen the closed social welfare hostels.” The government had reportedly shut down over 500 hostels in the state.
In conclusion, an image from Andhra Pradesh shot in 2016 was shared by Pakistani political commentator Zaid Hamid as brutality against Kashmiri women by RSS members dressed in Indian army fatigue. Hamid had earlier tweeted a video from Sri Lanka as atrocities on Muslims in India.
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