NEW DELHI: Budget airline GoAir had revoked the termination of a Muslim trainee pilot after a Twitter campaign wrongly targeted him for abusing Hindu deities.
Asif Iqbal Khan, a trainee pilot, was fired on June 4 by the airline after a person named Asif Khan with the Twitter handle ‘@MohdAsif35534489’ posted an objectionable tweet about Sita and Hinduism.
Screenshots of tweets from the said Twitter account went viral and soon after #ArrestAsifKhan and #boycottGoAir started trending.
On the night of June 4, the airlines posted another tweet stating the immediate termination of the trainee pilot’s employment without any verification and investigation into the alleged social media posts.
However, Asif claimed that he had been falsely accused. He also lodged a complaint the Saki Naka police.
To prove his point Asif Khan took to his actual Twitter account that is still available while the Twitter account wrote derogatory messages has been suspended.
He took to Facebook and wrote.
“My name is Asif Iqbal Khan resident of Mumbai and employee of GoAir working as a Trainee First Officer. I struggled really hard to get this job. Believe it or not but I struggled 6 Yrs to get this respected job in a respected airline and got this job in December last year 2019. My first Dream Job. But suddenly everything came crashing down yesterday with a call,” he said.
Following the clarification and police complaint filed by Asif Khan and the backlash on social media, GoAir verified the details of his posts and has revoked termination order.
Asif Khan is now stands suspended till the cyber cell investigation into the matter is completed.
It is pertinent to note that Asif Khan was trolled for the alleged objectionable posts amidst sacking of a number of Indian expats in Gulf countries, Canada, New Zealand for posting Islamophobic comments on social media.