South Asian Human Rights Watch is a Twitter account purported to raise human rights issues. It has 120951 followers so far. In his bio, he writes that ‘we dream of a tomorrow where women, children, minorities and human rights in general are under a common custody of human civilization.’
Source: Twitter
Seeing the timeline of the account, it is known that it is targeting India under the guise of human rights. The account claims to operate from London. But the reality is that this is a Pakistani account. Which also posts fake and misleading content to spread its propaganda against India. DFRAC is going to reveal this whole conspiracy in detail in its report.
Pakistani account
@SAHR_Watch’s old username was Isra (@hawyysachiiii). Which was operating in the name of a Pakistani girl. Whose user id is 1147203611178483712.
Old Account
Source: Archive
Several tweets done by @SAHR_Watch under his old username Isra (@hawyysachiiii). All these tweets were recovered by DFRAC. Which can be seen below.
Tweets from old @SAHR_Watch account
Source: Archive
The conversation with the Pakistani account was also recovered by DFRAC in tweets by @SAHR_Watch under his old username Isra (@hawysachiiii).
Source: Archive
Source: Archive
Source: Archive
Several tweets by @SAHR_Watch under his old username Isra (@hawyysachiiii) have not been deleted. which still exists. All these tweets can be seen below.
Apart from this, @SAHR_Watch also interacted with his old user name Isra (@hawysachiiii) by tagging and mentioning several Pakistani accounts.
Although Pakistani users are also missing the account named Isra (@hawyysachiiii) on Twitter.
Not only this, the alleged account of Isra (@hawyysachiiii) on Instagram was also shared on Twitter by her fans.
Source: Twitter
Source: Instagram
This account has also been found posting fake and misleading posts to spread its agenda against India. Earlier, DFRAC has exposed many such Pakistani accounts. Which is part of a bigger network against India. They are running a campaign of propaganda against India by hiding their identity. In which there is also an account called Saffron Diaries. This account was earlier running under the name of Rahid Hamid (@Rahidhamid1) from Pakistan. DFRAC analyzes this in its report Saffron Diaries: Verified Pakistani Think Tank Spews anti-India Hateful Propaganda on Twitter.
Fake and misleading post
1. Hindu fanatics did mob lynching of Christian youth in India? Read – Fact Check
South Asian Human Rights Watch shared a video. It can be seen in the video that a young man is being beaten fiercely in the middle of the road. The users sharing this video are claiming that the youth of Christian community is being mob lynched by Hindu fanatic organizations.
Source: Twitter
Sharing the video, “South Asian Human Rights Watch” wrote, “The growing trend of mob lynching in India is caught on camera as a Hindu mob brutally attacks a Christian. There are growing concerns over sectarian violence and religious intolerance, the international community must take note of the situation.”
Fact check
To fact-check the viral video, the DFRAC team first converted the video into multiple frames and then reverse-searched it. We found a report published on 23 December 2022 by ‘TV-9 Bharatvarsh’ in this context. It has been told in this report that there was an attempt to mob lynching a Dalit youth in Vadodara district of Gujarat.
It has been told in the report that the Dalit youth was sitting with a woman, after which angry people thrashed him fiercely. Police has also arrested 5 people involved in this incident.
Source: TV9 Hindi
In the context of this video, we found a tweet by Jignesh Mevani, Congress MLA and social worker from Gujarat. In this tweet, Jignesh is also criticizing the state government by alleging the attempt of lynching of a Dalit youth.
Source: Twitter
At the same time, the incident of lynching of Dalit youth in Vadodara, Gujarat has also been reported in many other media reports.
Source: Editor Ji
Source: The Indian Express
Conclusion
It is clear from the fact check of DFRAC that the video going viral is from the year 2022 and there is no communal angle to this incident. Hence the claim made by social media users is false.
2. Fake news spread by South Asian Human Rights Watch on Dalit atrocities
The plight of Dalit communities in India remains a cause for concern, as incidents of caste-based discrimination and violence continue to occur with alarming frequency, according to a video posted by South Asian Human Rights Watch.
Fact-check:
To ascertain the authenticity of the viral video, the DFRAC team first converted the video into several key frames. Then reverse image search them on the internet. During this, we came across a three-year-old report of Dainik Bhaskar newspaper, which was published under the headline, “Man made to drink water and urine in his shoes for having an affair with a married woman in Rajasthan, five arrested”.
It has been told in this report that in Sumerpur of Pali district of Rajasthan, some people abducted a young man from Bharunda village and tied him to a tree overnight at an agricultural well in Suparna (Sardarpura) village near Sirohi. During the fight, the young man was fed urine in a liquor bottle and water in his shoes. They were angry with the accused for having a love affair with a married woman of the same caste. When the victim’s parents reached the spot the next morning, the accused also recovered Rs 5,000 from them as a penalty.
The report further states that the administration swung into action as soon as the video of the incident went viral on social media. Additional Chief Secretary Rajiv Swaroop and Director General of Police Bhupendra Yadav had summoned the report of the incident from the Superintendent of Police, Sirohi.
The incident was also covered by other media houses.
This video had already gone viral in 2020.
Tweet Archive Link
Tweet Archive Link
At the same time, we also found a tweet of the Rajasthan Police in this regard, according to which – in the video going viral on social media, atrocities have been claimed with Dalits, whereas this claim is completely wrong, because both the parties belong to the same community. This video is of the year 2020, the accused have also been arrested in the case.
Conclusion:
The claim by South Asian Human Rights Watch is false as the video is from the year 2020 and the incident is about two sides of the same community.
Tweet in support of Pakistan
There were many tweets in support of Pakistan from this account as well. This tweet is related to Pakistan’s Independence Day, Muhammad Ali Jinnah’s birthday etc.
Source: Twitter
Source: Twitter
Source: Twitter
Source: Twitter
The wordcloud below indicates the most frequently used words in @SAHR_Watch’s tweets. The tweet prominently used “India” followed by the words “human rights”, “violence”, “police”, “women”, “Dalits”, etc.
The graph below shows the engagement of the account. It can be seen from the graph that this account was inactive after October 2022. The account resumed tweeting in April after 5 months of inactivity.
The graph below shows the types of hashtags used by this account.
Pakistan has waged a cyber war against India. In which he is using the account with more followers and reach against India. By making an issue of violence against Muslims and Dalits through these fake accounts, he is calling India guilty of human rights violations.
