'Shobha yatra' will be taken out in Mewat on Aug 28, no need of administration's permission: VHP
New Delhi, Aug 26: Weeks after its procession came under attack and was stopped in Haryana's Nuh, the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) on Saturday said a "shobha yatra" would be taken out in the area on August 28 and asserted there was no need to obtain permission from the administration for such religious events.
The organisation, however, said it would inform the administration about the procession and was open to discussion on its form and size as "we do not want to cast a shadow on a G20 event", scheduled in Nuh in the first week of September.
The Haryana government on Saturday ordered the suspension of mobile Internet and bulk SMS services in Nuh district till August 28 in view of the call for the procession.
Six people, including two home guards and a cleric, were killed in the communal clashes that erupted in Nuh and its adjoining areas when the VHP procession was attacked by a mob on July 31.
Addressing a press conference here on Saturday, VHP joint general secretary Surendra Jain said the yatra would be taken out by the Sarva Hindu Samaj of Mewat, not the VHP.
"Sarva Hindu Samaj has decided to take out and complete the yatra.... We also do not want to cast a shadow on G20 event in any way. We are ready to discuss with the administration about the size and form of the yatra to be taken out on August 28," he said.
He also appealed to people of other areas of Haryana to take out similar yatras in their respective localities and not join the one in Mewat.
"We have given a call to people to ensure that no one from outside Mewat come and join the yatra there on August 28," he said.
VHP working president Alok Kumar will join the yatra along with others from the organisation, he said.
Swami Jitendranand Saraswati, who is the president of Sant Samiti, and other "revered" sants and seers will lead the yatra, he added.
"A decision has been taken that Sarva Hindu Samaj of Mewat will take out Jalabhishek Yatra on August 28 as scheduled. There is no need to obtain a prior permission of administration for taking out such a religious yatra," Jain told reporters here.
"Does anybody take permission for Kanwar Yatra or Muharram procession....administration is only informed about such events. Accordingly, the administration will just be informed about the Jalabhishek Yatra," he added.
The Nuh authorities had recently denied permission to hold the religious procession on August 28.
Jain hoped that the yatra will remain "peaceful", claiming that Muslims of the area have offered to cooperate.
Addressing the press conference, khap panchayat leader Arun Jeldar claimed that leaders of both Hindu and Muslim communities met on August 18 to discuss the matter and offered their cooperation in completing the yatra peacefully.
"At the meeting, they also said that what happened the other day should not have happened. They also said such things should never happen and offered their cooperation in taking out a peaceful yatra. They even offered to shower flower on the yatra route," Jeldar told reporters.
In view of the yatra call, Director General of Police Shatrujeet Kapur presided over a meeting with senior officers of bordering states through video-conferencing on Saturday and called for a coordinated effort to effectively deal with the situation.
In the meeting, attended by senior police officers of Punjab, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and the Union Territory of Chandigarh, Kapur said the administration has denied permission for the yatra due to a meeting of the G20 Sherpa Group, scheduled to be held in Nuh during September 3-7, and to maintain law and order in the aftermath of the July 31 violence.
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Pro-Pakistan handles sharing old photos of air crashes: PIB FactCheck
New Delhi, May 7 (PTI): India on Wednesday dismissed claims on Pakistan social media about 'Operation Sindoor', saying the neighbouring country has unleashed a "full-blown disinformation offensive" with "lies" and digital theatrics to control the narrative.
A series of posts by the Press Information Bureau's Fact-Checking Unit said pro-Pakistan social media handles were sharing old photos of crashes of IAF aircraft and claiming they were shot down by Pakistan during Operation Sindoor on Wednesday.
"Beware of old images shared by pro-Pakistan handles in the present context," PIB FactCheck said in a post on X.
"The video being shared is from February 2025 and depicts the crash of an Indian Air Force (IAF) Mirage 2000 aircraft near Shivpuri, Gwalior, which occurred during a routine training mission," it said, referring to social media posts by pro-Pakistan handles about a fighter jet clash.
"Following India's decisive strike under 'Operation Sindoor', Pakistan has unleashed a full-blown disinformation offensive -- a desperate attempt to shift the focus and control the narrative with a barrage of lies and digital theatrics," officials said.
They said that pro-Pakistan social media handles and even influential political figures are deliberately spreading fake news, fabricating stories of miraculous military victories and heroic retaliation that simply do not exist.
"Their goal is clear -- to flood the information space with falsehoods so quickly and overwhelmingly that it becomes difficult to separate fact from fiction. This is not just misinformation; it is a calculated, coordinated campaign designed to distort reality, mislead the public, and manipulate perceptions across the region," they said.
One viral post falsely claimed that the Pakistan Army had shot down an Indian Rafale jet near Bahawalpur.
The PIB Fact Check team found that the image was from a MiG-21 crash in Moga, Punjab, in 2021 and entirely unrelated to current events.
Pakistan's Defence Minister Khawaja Asif also made a baseless claim that Indian soldiers were captured during the recent military strikes, a statement that was later debunked and retracted, officials said.
Pakistani accounts sharing video of a crash, claiming #Pakistan has shot down another Indian fighter plane.#PIBFactCheck
— PIB Fact Check (@PIBFactCheck) May 7, 2025
✔️The video being shared is from February 2025 and depicts the crash of an Indian Air Force (IAF) Mirage 2000 aircraft near Shivpuri, Gwalior, which… pic.twitter.com/IJEcJqlFKg
