Pahalgam attack: Viral list of victims with 15 Muslim names is fake

Days after the Pahalgam attack, in which at least 26 people lost their lives, some social media users claimed that the reports that terrorists had specifically targetted Hindus by asking their name and religion were mere propaganda, and at least 15 out of the 26 victims were Muslims.

Pakistani journalist Sadia Abbasi made claimed this in a tweet and cited India TV as her source. (Archived link)

A Facebook account named Kaimur Ki Awaz also shared the names of the 26 people who died in the Pahalgam terror attack in a post and claimed that 15 of them were Muslims.

Alt News also received requests to fact-check this claim on its WhatsApp helpline (7600011160).

The claim is viral on Facebook, Twitter, and other social media platforms.

Fact Check

There are a number of reasons why the list appears suspicious. Firstly, it does not contain the name of the slain Indian Navy officer, Vinay Narwal. The photo of Narwal’s wife, Himanshi, sitting next to the lifeless body of her husband on the Baisaran meadows sent shockwaves across the country within hours of the attack. Secondly, it also misses the name of Manjunath Rao from Karnataka, another victim of the attack. A video of Rao on a shikara ride with his wife had also gone viral after the attack.

When Alt News checked the list of the dead in the Pahalgam terror attack on India TV’s website, we found that there was no such list on the website where 15 out of 26 were Muslim names. The list containing the names of all the deceased is available on news websites like India TV and Indian Express. In all of them, there is only one Muslim name, and that is Syed Adil Hussain Shah.

Syed Adil Hussain Shah was the only local among the 26 people killed in this attack. Adil showed bravery and tried to snatch weapons from the terrorists to stop them, after which the terrorists shot him dead. Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah, who attended his last rites, said that Adil’s bravery and sacrifice would always be remembered.

Alt News verified the list of the deceased from several news reports and found that the list showing 15 Muslim names out of 26 in the viral posts is fake. Furthermore, the irony is that the only Muslim man who lost his life in the Pahalgam terror attack while snatching weapons from the terrorists, Syed Adil Hussain Shah, is not mentioned in the list in question.

The post Pahalgam attack: Viral list of victims with 15 Muslim names is fake appeared first on Alt News.

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