New Delhi: After they offered to help Kashmiris who were being harassed in some parts of the country in the aftermath of the Pulwama terror attack, several journalists have received threatening calls and messages, including explicit pictures, on Twitter and WhatsApp over the weekend.
Several Kashmiri students and residents were harassed and threatened and asked to leave their colleges or vacate their homes following the terror attack in which forty Central Reserve Police Force personnel were killed.
When journalist Barkha Dutt had tweeted on Sunday that her “doors are open to any Kashmiris” who need help or feel vulnerable, an “abusive mob” began sending her messages. She tweeted: “Deluged with WhatsApp [sic] messages since yesterday that are abusive and threatening. Seems an organized hate campaign against some of us. One sender confirms my mobile number being circulated in groups.”
Dutt also shared several phone numbers from which she received either abusive calls or messages. Tagging the Delhi Police and Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh in the tweets, she warned the abusers of an FIR. She also shared images of unsolicited images that were sent to her on WhatsApp. Dutt revealed on Tuesday that she had received abusive calls.
I had close to 1000 abusive messages and calls in a Cordinated and violent mob attack. These included a message to shoot me, a nude photo, many sexually abusive messages. I outed the men who did this. Twitter locked me till many of the details were taken down. I wroe this to them pic.twitter.com/XRyx9xbjcV
— barkha dutt (@BDUTT) February 19, 2019
Journalist Abhisar Sharma also revealed that he has received threats, abusive messages and calls. As reported by the Scroll, he said the Madhya Pradesh Police had traced two men who had sent him abusive messages, threatening him and his family with rape and murder.
I have filed a complaint against all this abuse after IT CELL PEOPLE MADE my number public again on their whats app groups. There r even threats to rape my family members . @DelhiPolice @Uppolice . But i doubt any action will be taken like always . pic.twitter.com/proSUyyWSN
— Abhisar Sharma (@abhisar_sharma) February 18, 2019
Advocate Prashant Bhushan in a tweet also claimed that the BJP’s IT cell and its members had revealed his mobile number, along with those of journalists Ravish Kumar and Barkha Dutt, to troll, abuse and threaten them. He tweeted: “BJP’s IT cell & it’s members have also revealed & shared my phone No along with Ravish’s, Barkha’s & some others with their trolls & WhatsApp groups to troll, abuse& threaten us. We have been receiving thousands of threatening messages & calls. This is the culture promoted by BJP.”
BJP's IT cell & it's members have also revealed & shared my phone No along with Ravish's, Barkha's & some others with their trolls & WhatsApp groups to troll, abuse& threaten us. We have been receiving thousands of threatening messages & calls. This is the culture promoted by BJP https://t.co/6X9xD2oefo
— Prashant Bhushan (@pbhushan1) February 18, 2019
When Journalist Swati Chaturvedi criticised Narendra Modi government in connection with the Pulwama terror attack she was also harassed on Twitter.