Rumours of Najeeb joining ISIS still being circulated on social media

Najeeb Ahmed, a 27-year-old student of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), went missing following an alleged scuffle with some ABVP activists on October 15, 2016.

Following this, rumours surrounding Najeeb’s disappearance began surfacing. Despite the falsehood of such information, rumours of Najeeb joining ISIS has continued to circulate on social media, AltNews reported.

In its report, the fact-checking website stated that a number of pages including Chitkar- Meri Aawaz suno, awaz Bharat ki and Swarnim Hind Ka Swarnim Sapna have been sharing false information about Najeeb. While the former has over 250,000 followers, the latter has 260,000 followers.

Some of the posts that have been shared include statements like “वामी कामी गिरोह का दुलारा नजीब …JNU से डाइरेक्ट प्लेसमेंट हुआ है ISIS में” (Favourite of leftists, Najeeb gets direct placement in ISIS) and “#अम्मी_मैंने_ISIS_जॉइन_कर_ली, अब अल्लाह के लिए करूंगा जिहाद , JNU का नजीब बना आतंकी” (Mother, I have joined ISIS, now I will do jihad for Allah).

AltNews also pointed out that the Najeeb who had joined ISIS was a 23-year-old MTech student from VIT, Vellore, not Delhi’s JNU. In an earlier report, AltNews had also called out journalist Swapan Dasgupta and BJP general secretary Ram Madhav for spreading false information about the missing JNU student.