Accept it, no stones were pelted during Ummer Fayaz’s funeral

It was a lazy news day on Wednesday, with news channels covering the “exposé” and the infighting in the Aam Aadmi Party, until news of the murder of a soldier in Kashmir came in. Ummer Fayaz, a 23-year-old Lieutenant, was allegedly abducted by five to six men and assassinated by militants on Wednesday at Shopian in south Kashmir. The young soldier was reportedly abducted from his relative’s house and his body was found in Hermain area with bullet wounds.

Fayaz was a resident of Kulgam and was posted with 2 Rajputana Rifles at Akhnoor in Jammu. He had gone to Shopian to attend a family wedding and was unarmed when he was reportedly kidnapped. “The Army salutes the braveheart and stands by the bereaved family in this hour of tragedy”, an army official told PTI, adding, “we are committed to bring the perpetrators of this heinous act of terror to justice”.

Soon, the media began to report the loss of yet another soldier in Jammu and Kashmir area – this time in what seemed an absolutely unprovoked attack. As the media was busy broadcasting and reacting to the comments of politicians (read Akhilesh Yadav) on the murder, many news channels and digital news portals put out stories about alleged stone-pelting at Fayaz’s funeral, which was to have taken place that afternoon. India Today, CNN-News18, DNA, Zee News and InUth were among those that decided to report this news without any official confirmation on stone-pelting. Breaking news plates of India Today read “Stone pelting during Lt Ummer Fayaz’s funeral”, “Youths resort to stone pelting in Kulgam, J&K”, “Clashes erupt between stone pelters, police”.

Soon, headlines such as “SHOCKING! Stone-pelters didn’t even spare funeral procession of Army officer killed by terrorists in Kashmir”, “J&K: Stones pelted at funeral of Army officer Umar Fayaz who was killed by terrorists in Shopian” and “J&K: Stone pelters target Army officer Ummer Fayaz’s funeral procession, Centre assures justice” began doing the rounds on the internet. Politicians and journalists were quick to express their ire at the intolerance and insensitivity of the stone-pelters.

Thankfully though, one of the reporters from ground zero tweeted the following:

“The fact is that I was the only reporter on ground, there was no other reporter, the rest were managing the visuals and reporting from Srinagar,” Nazir Masoodi of NDTV told Newslaundry. Even as India Today continued to keep telecasting reports of stone-pelting without actually verifying it, its reporter stopped short of saying that stones were pelted at Fayaz’s body. Here is the transcript of what the reporter said:

“While this entire funeral was taking place, in fact, when the wreath laying was taking place, there was some sort of a panic in the area but that was caused because of, what we are given to understand, a loud noise which is believed to be a misfire and there were people who were angry because of that misfire. The army says the entire process of the wreath laying and the funeral went of peacefully. There’s a pall of gloom looming large over the village. We have sent the statement of the relatives of this army officer whose body was found in the middle of a square in Shopian. And all of them are saying that they don’t exactly know how he was abducted but police is saying that they are investigating.”

To give credit where due, some journalists who had condemned the stone-pelting that never actually happened began to apologise for spreading the unverified information.

Just to play Devil’s advocate, why should we take Masoodi at his word? Speaking to Newslaundry, Superintendent of Police of Kulgam, Shridhar Patil, who was present through the ceremony said that the news about stone-pelting at Fayaz’s funeral was indeed false. “I was there at the procession and at the salutation which was given at his village. Wreath-laying ceremony was also conducted in his village. It went on very peacefully,” Patil told Newslaundry. When asked whether there was any stone-pelting incident during the funeral, he reiterated, “no, no, it went on peacefully”. Newslaundry’s repeated attempts to reach the army PRO in Srinagar could not elicit a response.

Masoodi also confirmed from the SP who told him that stone-pelting may have happened elsewhere, but not at Fayaz’s funeral. “I don’t know where this came from that there was stone pelting on the body of the soldier,” Masoodi said. “Everyone was reporting from Srinagar and the same people were passing judgment of what has happened here. That was very ironical,” he added.

Soon after,  journalists began to retract their statements, thanks to Masoodi’s statement, India Today deleted all the tweets that suggested stone pelting to have happened at the ceremony. While they did air false information without corroboration, they did not tell their viewers that the earlier news of stone-pelting was false. However, other news articles about the alleged stone-pelting continue to exist on the internet.

So what really triggered the rumour? Masoodi said that during the ceremony, when the army was preparing to give Fayaz the gun salute, one of them misfired in the air which caused some commotion, much like what the India Today reporter had said. “There was a little commotion because during the gun salute, a shot was fired by mistake”, he told Newslaundry. “Ask the police, there was no stone pelting. I asked the SP, he told me there was no stone pelting”.

This was a classic case of rumour-mongering and running with an unsubstantiated story by the media without undertaking a basic process of fact-checking. Which is especially harmful keeping in mind that it may instigate violence and unrest in an already volatile environment. How difficult is it to ascertain the source of the news, or even confirm with the police? While many journalists who had bought into the rumour retracted the news after having confirmed that it was fake (hopefully), many news outlets continue to believe the rumour and mislead their readers and viewers. What makes the fake news worse is that the same people who are holding up Ummer Fayaz as a symbol of patriotism, are the ones who detracted from and helped sully his funeral. Only because they wanted to run with a story which showed that stone-pelters “didn’t even spare funeral procession of Army officer” in contrast to Burhan Wani’s funeral, which was attended by lakhs. A pity, since Fayaz’s funeral was reduced by much of the media to a TRP-grabbing news item, buoyed up by lies.

The author can be contacted on Twitter @shrutimenon10.