Mangalore, Sep 15: Peace activists and family members of a Dubai-bound Muslim passenger, who had been briefly detained at Mangalore International Airport last weekend, have demanded unconditional apology from a section of media that terrorized the port city through their racist reportage.
Within a few hours after Abdul Khader, a resident of Muttagate in Uppala town of Kasargod district, was taken into custody at the airport for carrying a suspicious parcel' the print and electronic media in the region portrayed him as a notorious terrorist, who had links with terrorist outfits in middle east.
The irresponsible allegations against an innocent passenger have instigated a group of activists to launch a campaign against the liar media. Social media was flooded with angry remarks against the local media of Mangalore for publishing fabricated stories. Memes creating awareness against false propaganda by media also began to spread on WhatsApp and twitter. Vartha Bharathi, a Mangalore based Kannada daily went on to expose the lies spread by a few newspapers.
Apologize for your blunder!
“Abdul Khader is a not only a reputed man in his village but also a known personality among expatriate workers in Dubai, as he has been a manager of an institution for the last nine years there. He is known for his kindness among his friends and relatives. How can media accuse him of having links with terrorists in Syria?” asked Jalal, one of his friends.
“All the news papers, news channels and news portals which published exaggerated lies must unconditionally apologize if they want to restore their credibility,” he demanded.
M K Mohammed Haji, the father of Abdul Khader, says that he cannot tolerate such a heinous allegation against his son, who is respected by all. “When I came to know that my son was taken into custody at the airport for unknown reasons, I was shocked. I was confident that my son did not commit any crime. I really can't understand why media treated him like a terrorist. They must apologize,” he said.
An activist writes to the editor of a Mangalore based news portal demanding apology: “It is very unfortunate that, your news portal had published the news irresponsibly alleging the victim had connection with Syrian terrorist group referring some sources which was totally baseless allegation. We don't understand the haste of publishing such a heinous charge on an innocent person without checking the authenticity of the sources. Even Police department never mentioned such claims until their investigations are over and finally the victim proved to be innocent. We strongly condemn such an irresponsible act and demand apology for publishing such a wrong and baseless report,” he said.
Hair-raising terror stories!
Mangaloreans on Sunday woke up to a shocking news about the arrest of a “terrorist” who had links with Syrian terrorist outfits”. The seizure of “explosives” from his possession, which could be used to “trigger explosion in the aircraft” was the breaking news on several Kannada TV channels in the early hours of Sunday.
Such creative stories were not confined to TV channels, but local newspapers and news portals too contributed to disturb peace in the society. “There were reports that ammonium nitrate, battery and wires were found in his possession…As per sources, the accused is suspected to have links with a terrorist group of Syria…The accused himself had carved a hole on the inside of the tab to hide the liquid, sources said… Sources said that the security personnel had prior information about a possible blast at the airport and hence have beefed up the security…” these are mere excerpts from a horrible report posted on news portal. Prominent Kannada dailies of the region also had unleashed similar lies.
The reality
Abdul Khader, who spent a month long vacation with his family members, was supposed to board a Dubai-bound flight Saturday night. At the check-in, the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) personnel found a tablet PC and a small bottle of liquid inside a book in his baggage. When they took the tab out, its battery cover came out exposing the damaged part.
In fact the tab meant for repair and a small bottle of hydrogen peroxide to be used as sanitizer were inside a parcel handed over to Abdul Khader by one of his neighbours. “A woman from his neighbour had asked Abdul Khader to handover the parcel to her brother in Dubai. Unfortunately, he did not know that the parcel contained such things,” said a family member of the victim.
However, the name of the victim might have prompted the authorities to immediately handover him to police for further interrogation. The police subjected the detained passenger, his family members and neighbours for several hours of rigorous interrogation before announcing that he was innocent. The cops also sought help of the bomb detection and diffusion squad and the Forensic Science Laboratory officials to examine the confiscated parcel containing tab and liquid. The bomb diffusion squad came down from Bangalore on Sunday afternoon. At about 2 p.m., the team concluded that there were no explosive substances.
Also Read: Explosive drama at Mangalore Airport: It's just a tab, not bomb, officials declare!
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