Following the anti-CAA riots in Uttar Pradesh, the ‘liberal-secular’ media seems to have joined hands with Islamists and ultra-left wing propagandists. Soon after the riots in UP where policemen were subjected to stonepelting by the violent Muslim mob, various media houses and propagandists had spread that UP Police subjected those arrested in the anti-CAA riots were subjected to brutality and many were suffering from rectal bleeding.
The media had reported that students of the Saadat madrasa, who were picked up by police after an anti-CAA protest on 20 December, returned with bruises, fractured bones and even rectal bleeding. However, these reports have turned out to be false as victims have themselves refuted such allegations.
The Telegraph, the ultra-left wing rag, which has a rich history of pushing false propaganda, reported a story on December 29 in which it claimed that during the anti-CAA riots, the Uttar Pradesh police had detained and assaulted almost all 100-odd students from Saadat hostel-cum-orphanage in Muzaffarnagar town.
“The boys were denied access to the toilet at times, and some of them suffered rectal bleeding from the torture,” reported the ultra-left wing newspaper Telegraph.
It was followed by National Herald, the mouthpiece of the Congress party, which also published a report stating that the minor students of Madarsa were arrested and some were allegedly tortured which led to ‘rectal bleeding’.
Even British daily – The Guardian jumped into the bandwagon to peddle half-truth about the incident, which claimed that the police rounded the cleric and 35 of his students, 15 of whom were allegedly minors and orphans and took them to a nearby police barracks, where they were stripped of their clothes, beaten up. The report claims that the police shoved up rods into cleric’s anus, causing rectal bleeding.
As media published concocted stories on the Muzaffarnagar incident, the left-wing trolls, self-proclaimed journalists, members of Congress ecosystem also took to social media to further the false propaganda.
Ultra-left wing radical elements like Kavita Krishnan, who is known for her anti-India propaganda, continued to spread fake news against the UP Police. She claimed that Madarsa schoolboys were tortured by the UP police leading to rectal bleeding.
India, not long ago, was angry at rape.
Madarsa schoolboys of a UP, tortured by @UPPolice suffered rectal bleeding.
What do you think causes rectal bleeding?
If after this, you choose silence @priyankachopra @k_satyarthi, you lose the right to speak for kids. @UNICEF @NobelPrize pic.twitter.com/Y1Qjmg3eK4— Kavita Krishnan (@kavita_krishnan) January 1, 2020
Krishnan alleged that the madarsa children were raped by UP Police and hence they were suffering from rectal bleeding.
Zainab Sikander, another Islamist troll known for her fondness towards the Congress party, claimed that there was an incident of sexual harassment on Saadat hostel minors and demanded that the UP police who are found guilty of the charges should be sentenced to at least 20 years under POCSO act.
To the BJP-led GOI,
Since you should be proud of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (Amendment) Act that you passed in 2019, will you be giving AT LEAST 20 years of imprisonment to any of the cops found guilty of raping orphan boys from Saadat hostel cum orphanage? pic.twitter.com/VTEPd2iC93— Zainab Sikander (@zainabsikander) January 1, 2020
Junior Bollywood entertainer Swara Bhasker also made similar statements claiming that ‘alleged’ rape had happened in Muzaffarnagar and blamed UP police for the incident.
The alleged rape of children in Muzzafarnagar by @Uppolice cops- This Allegation NEEDS TO BE INVESTIGATED like NOW!!!!!!! @PMOIndia surely surely this needs your most urgent attention! Peeps We must raise our voices for this no matter what side of the CAA-NRC debate we are on! https://t.co/kJNS7hVXMH
— Swara Bhasker (@ReallySwara) January 2, 2020
Even Islamists troll were not far behind their ideological comrades in spreading fake news on social media regarding the Muzaffarnagar incident.
Kids suffering from rectal bleeding is r@pe. How long are we going to watch as another 2002 unfolds before us, are orphaned Muslims not Indians? Beating & sexually assaulting kids is what we have turned into? Speak up NOW https://t.co/qUvWaeYz0G
— محترمہ پربھا (@deepsealioness) January 1, 2020
“Some of the boys who were detained by police suffered ‘Rectal bleeding’ from the torture” https://t.co/9EBD1FUh07
— Md Asif Khan آصِف (@imMAK02) January 1, 2020
Amidst all these propaganda, a report by The Print has clarified that the minor boys of the Saadat hostel have themselves claimed that the reports of rectal bleeding are untrue. Irfan Haider, 21, who hails from Sitapur, told ThePrint that reports that some madarsa students “suffered rectal bleeding from the police torture” were false.
“This isn’t true. Neither the children nor maulana sahab suffered rectal bleeding. They were beaten brutally, which in itself was a horrible experience. We don’t need to make up any allegations,” Naved Alam, a relative and confidante of Hussaini, said to ThePrint.
Another relative, Mohammad Azam, said, “We have to show our faces to God after all. So there’s no point in lying. What happened was a big deal in itself.”
Abhishek Yadav, Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP), Muzaffarnagar, speaking to the Print, said that the allegations of rectal bleeding were based on “one person’s quote, who has political affiliations”. However, some students claimed that the police denied them water and alleged that they were asked to drink their urine.
The Uttar Pradesh saw unprecedented communal riots after Muslim mobs following the Friday prayers resorted to extreme violence against police officials during the anti-CAA protests. The Uttar Pradesh administration had to resort to lathi-charge to take control of the situation. The Muslim mobs also fired bullets in those ‘peaceful protests’ and pelted stones at the police officials.
In the aftermath of the passage of the Citizenship Amendment Act, riots, violence, arson and vandalism by Muslim mobs in the name of ‘protests’ against the enactment of the law have taken place across the country.