Indian Army Blinded Kashmiri Girl, Tortured & Killed Family: Fact Check

Story:

Indian Army Blinded this Kashmiri Girl, Tortured & Killed her Family. She ended up begging on streets of Srinagar.

Other Versions

Kashmiri girl who became blind after she was hit by pellet gun, her brothers, father & mother were mercilessly killed, her sister was raped by Indian Army now begging on street of Srinagar.
Where is Humanity?

Fact Check:

Certain messages doing rounds on Twitter claim to show Indian Army blinded a Kashmiri girl, hitting with pellet gun. They also say the army killed her brothers, father and mother mercilessly and raped her sister. Accompanying picture allegedly shows the blinded Kashmiri girl begging on the streets of Srinagar. No, the claims are not at all true – they originated from a parody account.

Origin of Story, Indian Army Blinded Kashmiri Girl

On 4th August 2019, Twitter account TheZaiduLeaks posted the message in question and picture of girl with hashtags #KashmirUnderThreat #OperationKashmir and #IndiaUsingClusterBombs. It also questioned where humanity is. Next day, Academician Madhu Purnima Kishwar retweeted the post of Zaidu questioning its authenticity, making it popular further.

This looks too filmy to be true. Would like @FactCheckIndia
to confirm if this is real victim. What are Zakat Funds used for if not for poor and vulnerable? https://t.co/5Q8JkqGABl
— MadhuPurnima Kishwar (@madhukishwar) August 5, 2019

Message from Parody Account

Once the story became popular on Twitter, other users quickly pointed Zaidu is a parody account. The profile description of Zaidu also clearly states, “All Tweets are for fun 100% fake imaginary, resemblance to any person dead or alive is purely coincidental…”

As far as the accompanying picture is concerned, it does not show any Kashmiri girl blinded by Indian Army. It is in fact a scene from the popular television series Game of Thrones. Moreover, the girl is English actress Maisie Williams, who played the character of Arya Stark in the HBO fantasy television series Game of Thrones.

English actress Maisie Williams playing Arya Stark in Game of Thrones TV series

On 10th of August again, the parody account Zaidu posted yet another fake message saying 10,000 Kashmiris are protesting regardless of curfew, and Indian police is treating them brutally. The post carried an unrelated picture from a Zombie Television series The Walking Dead, episode ‘First Time Again‘.

10,000 Kashmiris protesting regardless of curfew and the Indian police used tear gas and pallet guns brutally. But Darling, their faith can tear apart dessert and rivers in two and half , can reduce huge mountains to rye.#Srinagar #KashmirWantsFreedom #kashmirBleeds pic.twitter.com/9BUF7BTwFH
— Zaidu?? (@TheZaiduLeaks) August 10, 2019

The parody account Zaidu is in fact operating from Rawalpindi, Pakistan and the Academician Madhu Purnima Kishwar from New Delhi, India. The fake, parody message gained popularity amidst curfew imposed in some parts of Jammu and Kashmir after revoking special status and bifurcating it into two Union Territories. Subsequently, social media has witnessed some fake news stories around it. Some readers also shared such parody/prank messages without verifying their authenticity.