Water crisis: Imran Khan seeks overseas Pakistanis' help
Islamabad, Sep 7 : Prime Minister Imran Khan on Friday sought assistance from overseas Pakistanis to help overcome the "biggest issue" of water crisis in the country by donating to the dams fund set up by the Supreme Court.
"The largest problem is the water issue in the country," Khan said in a televised address to the nation, adding that it was crucial for Pakistan to build dams as failure to do so could be detrimental to its future generations.
"Experts say if we do not make dams we will face a drought in seven years. We have to start making dams from today."
"I want to commend Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar (for starting the dams fund), but this was not his job," Khan said. "This was the job of civilian leaders who knew this was going to swell into a crisis but did nothing to thwart it."
Khan urged overseas Pakistanis to contribute to the dams fund. "If every overseas Pakistani contributes to this we will be able to construct the dams and our reserves will also improve," the Prime Minister said.
He appealed to Pakistanis in Europe and the US to contribute at least $1,000. "Pakistanis working in the Middle East and other countries can also contribute according to their capacity," Khan said, adding that the Prime Minister's fund for dam would be now part of Chief Justice's fund and both will be merged.
This was Khan's second address with the nation since assuming office. In his first address, he had outlined austerity measures and the need to tackle corruption to bring Pakistan on track.
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Gurugram Police arrest BJP Yuva Morcha member for spreading fake murder story on social media
New Delhi: Gurugram Police have arrested BJP Yuva Morcha member Hariom Mishra, for allegedly spreading a fabricated and communally sensitive story on social media about the murder of a college student in Gurugram.
Mishra who is also known as Shaurya Mishra had shared a collage of four photographs on his X handle earlier this month. He claimed that a 24-year-old college student, identified as Nikita Agarwal, had been murdered by her classmate Arif Khan in Gurugram. In the post, he alleged that the woman was blackmailed, forced into prostitution, gangraped, and eventually killed. He also claimed that Arif dumped her body in a forest. The claims were presented as being based on police sources.
The post went viral and garnering over 1.5 lakh views, and was amplified by several right-wing social media handles across X, Facebook and Instagram. A verification of the claims revealed that no such incident had taken place in Gurugram. A search of credible news reports showed no record of any such murder. The police said this news would have inevitably attracted media attention if it were true.
On December 11, Gurugram Police publicly refuted the claims through their official X handle. They stated that the information which was being circulated was completely false. The police warned that legal action would be taken against those spreading misinformation. Despite the warning, Mishra neither deleted the post nor issued any clarification.
Police in Gurugram confirmed Mishra's arrest on December 16. The police said a FIR was filed after he continued to spread false information about the alleged murder of a Hindu woman by Muslim man. Police said Mishra, a resident of Uttar Pradesh's Kaushambi district, is now being investigated.
Gurugram Police spokesperson Sandeep Singh told The Print that the accused had deliberately misrepresented facts and used objectionable content to spread hatred along religious lines. “Such posts can create serious disturbances in society, and the police take these matters very seriously,” he said.
A reverse image search conducted by fact-checkers at Alt News, revealed that the photographs used in the viral post were unrelated to the claims, while two of the images were traced to a Pinterest account belonging to influencer Maulik Chopra and another image was sourced from an Instagram post by influencer Shivam Thakur featuring a woman named Deepanshi Rawat. The fourth image was found on an unrelated Instagram page. The images depicted different individuals and had no connection to any crime.
Police said they are also investigating Mishra’s motive behind sharing the false and provocative content.
