Leaving the security apparatus red-faced, Indian Home Minister Rajnath Singh Sunday called on Indians to “understand the reality” that the protest by students at JNU had the backing of Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, following a tweet by an unidentified individual impersonating the Lahore-based Lashkar-e-Taiba chief.
Intelligence and police sources, however, told The Indian Express they had no evidence that the tweet in question was issued by the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) chief or an individual connected to him.
On Saturday, a post on the “fake” account @Hafeez SaeedJUD — along with the name Hafeez Muhamad Saeed — invited JNU students to Pakistan, “to continue their Pro-Kashmiri, Anti-India Propaganda in our Universities”.
The call was rapidly disseminated across the Internet, mainly by pro-Hindutva activists who cited it as evidence of the students’ “treasonous conduct”.
Late on Sunday, Saeed posted on @HafizSaeedLive, an account that he is known to have used before: “Reality of all Indian allegations including 26/11 is evident from this fake twitter account scandal. Indeed a new low for Indian gov #JNU”.
Singh’s remarks in Allahabad came after the tweet by the “fake account”, which even had Delhi Police warning Twitter users against circulating its content. Police sources also said they were seeking further data from Twitter.
But experts soon raised the red flag, noting that it was not networked with other Jama’at accounts. The account, since suspended by Twitter on a request from police, also misspelled the English-language spelling Saeed has used for his name in the past.
