Nuh Violence: Pakistan-based YouTube Channel Incited Hate, Spread Misinformation

Online video sharing and social media website YouTube took down Pakistan-based YouTube channel named Ahsan Mewati Pakistani after Indian authorities raised concerns regarding the channel’s role in inciting the recent communal violence in Haryana’s Nuh (formerly Mewat).

The channel which uploaded 273 videos since its inception and has 80,000 followers dedicated itself to spreading misinformation and promoting violence during the recent clashes in Nuh and fueled the unrest.

Zeeshan Mushtaq runs the channel and people familiar with the developments told News18 that Mushtaq was traced to Pakistan capital Islamabad. The people mentioned above also found that the IP address used by Mushtaq belonged to Pakistan Education & Research Network (PERN).

He travelled to Kot Mumin, near Sargodha in Pakistan’s Punjab province where he recorded some of his incendiary videos using a broadband network whose service provider was Telenor.

He then moved to Lahore where he shot some more videos after changing his service provider once more. A video recorded by him on August 1 was shot near the Bismillah Montessori School’s playground. The location is noteworthy because of its close proximity to the Punjab province chief minister’s secretariat.

The people mentioned above pointed out that Zeeshan was using two mobile phones and used seven email addresses. He also has three other social media accounts on YouTube, Facebook and Instagram.

Six people, including two home guards and a cleric, died in the communal clashes that erupted in Nuh when miscreants clashed earlier this week. A total of 202 people have been arrested so far and 80 taken into preventive detention and 102 FIRs registered in connection with the communal clashes.

The clashes later spread to Gurugram and its adjoining areas forcing the administration to shut schools and ask office-goers to work from home.

The investigation conducted by Haryana police revealed that the clashes were the doing of several disparate groups, a senior police officer was quoted as saying by news agency PTI.