Assam: Fake News Sent This Woman Scholar On The Run From Police

Sultana is known for her work among poor and disappointed Muslims living in Assam's 'burns'. 



NEW DELHI — Noor Jaman, the 55-year-old superintendent of a school in Sontoli town, Assam took a couple of moments to process the way that his 27-year-old little girl's photograph was being shot on the TV screen, while an unsettled grapple blamed her for being a "Pakistan-cherishing" "deshdrohi". It was Independence Day; Jaman exchanged channels, just to discover another photograph of his little girl Rehana Sultana, an exploration researcher at Gauhati University, on the edge of the screen. In the interim, a columnist enthusiastically suggested that she had joins with Pakistan, and was attempting to incite revolts in Assam. 

This was Sultana's most noticeably awful dread, a nearby associate of hers disclosed to HuffPost India. 

"At the point when her dad raced to her room in their home in Selesuti town in Assam's Kamrup region, yelling and shaking, she requested that he switch the TV off," the colleague said. He, nonetheless, was as yet ignorant that there was a police grumbling against her girl too. 

On 14 August 2019, a Guwahati-based news entry called InsideNE distributed a publication titled 'Gauhati University Girl Relates Eating Beef With 'Delight Of Pakistan'. The publication asserted that Sultana had posted the accompanying status on Facebook on 'Bakr-Eid', which fell on 12 August this year. 

"Today, we are additionally taking an interest in Pakistan's satisfaction by pigging out on hamburger! What I eat, relies upon the enthusiasm of my taste buds! Be that as it may, don't make yourselves the subject of debate essentially by discussing the unthinkable subject of 'hamburger'." 

This was evidently bogus. Sultana had posted the status two years prior in June 2017, after India lost a cricket match to Pakistan in the last of that year's ICC Champions Trophy. Individuals acquainted with the occurrence from two years back revealed to HuffPost India that Sultana had been posting about the match while she was viewing and when India's destruction appeared to be impending, she had even posted a status communicating how disillusioned she was and needed to turn off the TV and not keep watching the match. 

After India lost, she set up this status as a snide remark on the developing narrow mindedness around the eating of meat in numerous parts of India. 

A few moments later, she erased the post, and set up a long clarification and expression of remorse, after her companions disclosed to her that post could be taken outside of any relevant connection to the subject at hand. 

Regardless, the post caused issues down the road for her two years after the fact. In August 2019, assessments against Bengali-root Muslims in Assam had arrived at a fever pitch as the cutoff time for the National Register of Citizens developed close. So when InsideNE raked up Sultana's presently erased Facebook post, and faked its date and setting; the online interface's publication immediately turned into a web sensation. 

Hours after the fact, a sub-reviewer at the Jalukbari police headquarters in Assam kept in touch with his prevalent guaranteeing Sultana's post (which never again existed) "may upset the harmony and quietness, hurt strict notion and cause collective conflict". 

Before the day's over, a body of evidence was enlisted against Sultana under Section 153 of the Indian Penal Code for assaults on a race or religion and Section 67 of the IT Act for profanity. Legal counselors acquainted with Sultana's case disclosed to HuffPost India that the court trained the police to not arrest her. Be that as it may, her associates said the risk of up and coming capture hung over her for more than two months until she at long last got abandon October 23, 2019. 

An article on InsideNE cites the responsible for the Jalukbari police headquarters saying: "I for one went to her home to enquire about her whereabouts, however it appears as though she has blurred into the shadows; she is mysteriously gone. Be that as it may, endeavors are still on to find her. She will be captured once her area can be discovered." The article additionally cites Guwahati police magistrate Deepak Kumar saying Sultana would be captured soon. 

"In spite of the fact that the judges had taught the police to not arrest her, her family had said that 8-9 police officers and ladies had turned up at her town searching for her," Sultana's companion said. Sultana was not at home. 

Sultana declined to remark on this story. 

'Professional PAKISTAN POST' 

Sultana is a natural face in Guwahati; surely understood in lobbyist hovers for her work among poor and disappointed Muslims living in Assam's 'singes' (impermanent waterway islands). 

Over the previous year, she focussed quite a bit of her vitality on helping Assam's most underestimated occupants adapt to the NRC's byzantine application forms. In a prior meeting with HuffPost India, Sultana had said that poor people and uneducated occupants of scorches could neither adhere to most guidelines in structures and government archives, nor top off structures, visit government workplaces to source appropriate papers and report them. She and different activists helped them do that. 

She frequently utilized her Facebook account as a stage to bring issues to light, and solicitation for assets to help poor Bengali beginning Muslims. A couple of days before the publication was distributed she had been attempting to gather assets for poor Muslims who had been brought for the NRC's re-check process on very short takes note. She likewise gathered gifts and help material for NRC applications who had met with mishaps on their approach to Seva Kendras. 

Some genius NRC campaigners were incredulous of her work and oftentimes circled screen captures of the now-erased post (from two years prior) to dishonor her.

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