Manmohan, who was a snake charmer, was bit by one snake after which he was taken to a nearby hospital but he could not survive.
Manmohan was bit when he tried to put ‘tika’ on one of the snakes, the other crawled towards him and bit his foot.
After the incident, he checked his foot and seemed to be doing fine as he continued his activities. Manmohan was later rushed to a hospital where he was declared dead.
The 25-year-old used to catch snakes and treat their wounds for more than a decade. Manmohan also used to treat people in his village who suffered from snakebites.
A newly-married couple in India received five litres of petrol as a gift at their wedding reception.
As per reports, a Tamil comedian named Mayilsamy gave an unusual gift to the couple. The images of the wedding ceremony and the gift have gone viral on social media platforms.
Mayilsamy went up to the stage to congratulate the newly-wed couple. He gifted them with two plastic cans filled with petrol. This gift was assumed to be Mayilsamy’s jibe at the increasing fuel prices in the country.
Indian political party, the Indian National Congress workers fried a “Twitter Bird” to protest against the blocking of Rahul Gandhi’s Twitter account.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s account was suspended by Twitter earlier last week for allegedly posting a picture of the parents of a nine-year-old Dalit girl who was ‘raped and murdered’ in Delhi.
The micro-blogging website had also blocked several accounts of other Congress leaders for sharing the photograph.
Rahul Gandhi’s account along with other accounts was restored on Saturday (14 August).
“You Twitter, you’ve done a mistake by blocking Rahul Gandhi’s Twitter account, not promoting our tweets. So, we are frying this [Twitter Bird] and sending it to the headquarters in Gurgaon and Delhi,” said a Congress worker.
“Twitter, I hope you’ll enjoy your dish,” he added.
Absurd. In a parallel universe, #AndhraPradesh#Congress workers fry what they call a ‘Twitter bird’ as a protest against #RahulGandhi ‘s account being blocked.They not only fried it but also couriered it to #Twitter headquarters.The man in video is former MP Harsha Kumar’s son. pic.twitter.com/LtC4e268pN
A young man was shifted to a hospital after a fight over a WhatsApp display picture (DP) in India’s Hyderabad, Geo News reported.
According to the local police, a young man named Akram had posted a picture of Mohsin’s female cousin as his WhatsApp DP. Mohsin did not like it and warned Akram to remove the picture immediately.
Akram did not remove his display picture after which the two had an argument, which ended up in a serious fight. Akram and his companions then thrashed Mohsin.
According to the local police, when Mohsin tried to run away, Akram attacked Mohsin with a knife, injuring him severely.
Later, the police reached the spot and shifted the injured to the hospital for treatment, where Mohsin’s condition is said to be critical. Police have registered a case of attempted murder and initiated action.
On August 15, India’s 75th Independence Day, balloons with ‘I love Pakistan’ imprinted on them were found in the fields of Sandoa village in the Rupnagar district of India’s Punjab, ANI cited police as saying.
Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) of Rupnagar Dr Akhil Chaudhary said it can be “activities of some miscreants”, adding that a probe is underway regarding the matter.
“It looks like balloons came from a nearby place but we can’t rule out other angles. A probe has been initiated,” Chaudhary was quoted as saying.
Punjab: Balloons with Pakistani flag & 'I love Pakistan' imprinted on it found from agricultural field of Sandoya village in Rupnagar
It looks like balloons came from the nearby place but we can't rule out other angles. A probe has been initiated: SSP Rupnagar, Akhil Choudhary pic.twitter.com/UQYDXnsmx4
Earlier, Indian forces lodged an First Information Report (FIR) against Pakistani spy pigeon. The pigeon was allegedly carrying a “suspicious piece of paper tied to its legs” when it landed on the shoulder of an Indian army officer who was on guard duty about 500 meters from the border.
Last year in May, Indian forces were engaged in the same operation when a pigeon with a pink patch and tag on its leg was captured as a “suspected Pakistani spy.”
As Pakistan celebrated its 75th Independence Day, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi took to Twitter and made controversial statements degrading the sacrifices of the many people during the time of partition of the subcontinent.
Pakistan responded to Modi’s “shameful” tweets, saying that “distorting history and stoking communalism is the forte of the RSS-BJP regime”.
Modi took to Twitter and said, “In memory of the struggles and sacrifices of our people, August 14 will be observed as Partition Horrors Remembrance Day.”
Partition’s pains can never be forgotten. Millions of our sisters and brothers were displaced and many lost their lives due to mindless hate and violence. In memory of the struggles and sacrifices of our people, 14th August will be observed as Partition Horrors Remembrance Day.
“May [this day] keep reminding us of the need to remove the poison of social divisions, disharmony and further strengthen the spirit of oneness, social harmony, and human empowerment,” Modi added.
May the #PartitionHorrorsRemembranceDay keep reminding us of the need to remove the poison of social divisions, disharmony and further strengthen the spirit of oneness, social harmony and human empowerment.
In a statement, Foreign Office (FO) spokesperson Zahid Hafeez Chaudhri dubbed Modi’s move “a political and publicity stunt”, and said that “no modern state is so much in contradiction with itself as the Indian state — the so-called ‘largest democracy’.”
As for Indian Prime Minister’s tweet about the events of 1947, no modern state is so much in contradiction with itself as the Indian state – the so-called “largest democracy”. 1/3 pic.twitter.com/S9iNxLAjhm
— Ministry of Foreign Affairs – Pakistan (@ForeignOfficePk) August 14, 2021
“It is shameful that the practitioners of ‘Hindutva’ ideology, and purveyors of hate and violence, would so hypocritically and one-sidedly invoke the tragic events and mass migration that occurred in the wake of Independence in 1947,” said the statement.
It is shameful that the practitioners of “Hindutva” ideology, and purveyors of hate and violence, would so hypocritically and one-sidedly invoke the tragic events and mass migration that occurred in the wake of Independence in 1947. 2/3
— Ministry of Foreign Affairs – Pakistan (@ForeignOfficePk) August 14, 2021
The Foreign Office further added, “Distorting history and stoking communalism is the forte of RSS-BJP regime. Far from healing old wounds, they would go to any extent to sow further dissensions for electoral gains. We are sure that people of goodwill in India would completely reject this political stunt.”
Distorting history and stoking communalism is the forte of RSS-BJP regime. Far from healing old wounds, they would go to any extent to sow further dissensions for electoral gains. We are sure that people of goodwill in India would completely reject this political stunt. 3/3
— Ministry of Foreign Affairs – Pakistan (@ForeignOfficePk) August 14, 2021
The government’s Digital Media Wing (DMW) recently released a report titled, ‘Anti-State Trends: Deep Analytics Report’. The Current analysed the report, which was discussed on Geo News programme ‘Aaj Shahzeb Khanzada Kay Sath’ on Thursday night. The Current found glaring errors in the report.
Mentioning The Current’s research, Shahzeb Khanzada stated the facts mentioned in our report. “From The Current’s analysis, the 134-page report has 85 pages that have screenshots of tweets, which means that 63.4 per cent of the report is based on screenshots of people who are using a certain hashtag that the government has identified as being anti-state. The number of tweets that are in these 85 pages amounts to 666 tweets out of which 142 tweets are from three accounts, which means that 21.3 per cent of the tweets used in this study came from three people.”
“After further analysis of the three accounts, The Current discovered that all three accounts had a combined following of less than 11,000,” mentioned Shahzeb.
حکومت کی طرف سے ٹویٹر ٹرینڈز پرمبنی رپورٹ میں کس طرح ڈیٹالیا گیا۔ دیکھیے
The report was released Wednesday evening around 5:30PM and a few hours later a disclaimer was added to the report. According to journalist Fereeha Idrees, the disclaimer was added after she raised the issue with the DMW for being highlighted in the report as a ‘replies with the most followers’ account.
Shahzeb Khanzada also mentioned that The Current reached out to TweepsMap, which was the primary analysis app used by the government for this report. The maps and information all have the Tweepsmap link on the maps and all charts in the report. We asked the CEO of TweepsMap Samir Al-Battran if they considered the analysis of the report to be authentic since it used their app service. Samir told us, “The government of Pakistan is not authorised to use our service. We will investigate how they got access to our analysis and get back to you on this.”
Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Fawad Chaudhry refuted these claims on Shahzeb Khanzada’s programme.
“Were the Twitter trends data compiled without research? Was the press conference held without reading the final draft? Was the patriotism of our own citizens deliberately questioned? How did you determine which tweet is anti and pro-state?,” asked Shahzeb.
“The data could have been complied on a single page as well. We analysed the data for the past two years, around 150 trends were made, and we checked how India and Afghanistan glorified those trends. Around 37 lac tweets were done on the very trends. We spent around 1,000 hours going through those tweets,” said Fawad Chaudhry.
کیا بس ٹویٹر ٹرینڈز کا ڈیٹا اکھٹا کر کے بغیر تحقیق کیے رپورٹ بنا دی گئی؟ کیا بغیر پڑھے ہی پریس کانفرنس کردی گئی؟ کیا جان بوجھ کر اپنے ہی شہریوں کی حب الوطنی پر سوال اٹھا دیے گئے؟ دیکھیے 1/2
Shahzeb reiterated the fact that the report should have included how India and Afghanistan were involved in generating, promoting, and glorifying the very trends and sentiment analysis of the tweets should have been checked.
” I think you did not read the mechanism and neither did you try to understand the work done in the report,” replied the minister.
“The positive and negative sentiment does not matter, what matters is that people participated in the trend. India did all this because it wanted to portray to the international spheres that there is chaos within Pakistan,” added Fawad.
Former Interior Minister Rehman Malik also thanked Shahzeb for highlighting how his anti-India tweet was also part of the DMW report. “I hope someone from the Govt will apologise to me tomorrow.”
The Uttar Pradesh (UP) Police have filed a First Information Report (FIR) against a group ‘ Kranti Sena’ in Muzaffarnagar who conducted checks at a market to ensure that no Muslim man applies Mehndi on the hands of Hindu women ahead of Hariyali Teej, an event celebrated during the holy month of Shravana on August 10, reports The Indian Express.
In a viral video, members of the party are seen asking shopkeepers whether they have arrangements for applying henna. The video then cuts to the Kranti Sena General Secretary Manoj Saini, who says, “We have checked several shops and appealed to the owners to not employ Muslims as they indulge in ‘love jihad’ and trap our women while applying mehndi.”
In UP’s Muzaffarnagar, Kranti Sena, a right wing outfit went on a checking drive to ensure no Muslim applies “Mehandi” to women on Teej. pic.twitter.com/nSOMeWG9bN
After the video went viral, the police filed an FIR against the group. While talking to The Indian Express Aprit Vijayvargia, SP City Muzaffarnagar said, “It was brought to our notice after a video was uploaded on social media. Security has been heavily deployed in public places since there are many festivals. There is no law and order situation.”
Shopkeepers in the area said that they did not quite understand what the group wanted from them. “How can we not employ people on the basis of religion?” one of them asked.
According to The Quint, the FIR is against 51 members of the Kranti Sena, 11 named and 40 unnamed.
A report released by the Digital Media Wing (DMW) of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting titled, ‘Anti-State Trends: Deep Analytics Report’ is deeply misleading and based on assumptions instead of facts, The Current has discovered after analysing the report.
Glaring errors and almost comical additions, the report makes a correlation between analysing hashtags on Twitter to determine if someone is anti-state and is responsible for starting trends against Pakistan.
Before analysing the report, The Current researched and spoke with analysts who are well-versed with digital analysis. There is no record of any report on hashtag analysis to determine trends at a government level in any country at any time. Pakistan is the only country that has created a report based on hashtag analysis. Worldwide, hashtag analysis is considered to be deeply unreliable since it cannot understand what is written in the tweet – it is just able to see what is being discussed.
WHAT IS THE REPORT?
The report is a compilation of hashtags that created trends that the government deems anti-state. The report shows information collected about hashtag trends and then lists pages of screenshots that show different Twitter handles sharing tweets that have the ‘anti-state’ hashtag. They do not differentiate between users and also label ‘influencers’ – people with a following who have tweeted or retweeted/replied to the hashtag.
In effect, the report seems to declare all the users in the report as anti-state, until one prominent journalist got them to add a disclaimer last night.
HOW WAS THE INFORMATION COLLECTED?
Since the whole report is based on hashtag analysis, it will be considered to be unreliable data collection and cannot be considering as a legitimate report in any institution.
When The Current reached out to General Manager of the Digital Media Wing (DMW), Imran Ghazali, he responded to the question of faulty analysis of hashtags by saying, “The purpose of this report was to ascertain factual data and to analyze social media trends that were anti-state, Data was collected after analysing Pakistan Twitter Panel from June 2019- August 2021. Those hashtags were marked for data collection where the content of tweets were planned and propagated through a network to spread anti-state trends.”
According to a source in the government, the information used is public. “Publicly released data is accurate. It’s no rocket science, anybody with a credit card can get this data. Hence made public.”
From The Current’s analysis, the data was collected by using a web application called, ‘Tweeps Map’, which is open to the public.
From our findings, the 134-page report has 85 pages that have screenshots of tweets, which means that 63.4 per cent of the report is based on screenshots of people who are using a certain hashtag that the government has identified as being anti-state. The number of tweets that are in these 85 pages amount to 666 tweets out of which 142 tweets are from three accounts, which means that 21.3 per cent of the tweets used in this study came from three people.
After further analysis of the three accounts, The Current discovered that all three accounts had a combined following of less than 11,000.
We discovered that the hashtag #SanctionPakistan was ‘analysed’ for 41 days, Pakhtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM) hashtags were clubbed together as “PTM Trends Tantamount to National Security” (the report doesn’t list which hashtags were used within this topic) and were ‘analysed’ for 22 months, #AbAwamSmashNahiHogi was ‘analysed’ for one day, and #StateKilledUsmanKakar, #IsraeliJetinPakistan, ‘JUIF Anti State Trend’, was ‘analysed’ but no time duration is given.
WHY AND WHEN WAS THE ‘DISCLAIMER’ ADDED?
The report was released Wednesday evening around 5:30PM and a few hours later a disclaimer was added to the report. According to journalist Fereeha Idrees, the disclaimer was added after she raised the issue with the DMW for being highlighted in the report as a ‘replies with the most followers’ account.
“I have always raised my voice against any propaganda against our state but the way the report was compiled, it made me look as one of the culprits and suddenly social media was rife with messages calling me anti-state,” Fereeha told The Current, “When I made the query, I was given the following explanation.”
The explanation given to Fereeha by the DMW stated, “All the accounts in the report doesn’t mean they took part in the anti-state activity…It shows the whole journey of the trends/hashtags, so in this case Fareeha Idrees replied/rebutted on the Israeli related trend and that’s why it mentions ‘Replies with most mentions’ in the report.”
After the DMW response, Fereeha demanded that they add a disclaimer to the report. A disclaimer was added which stated, “If an account is listed in a report – it doesn’t always imply that the content of the tweet is Anti-State. Some accounts have engaged/replied with an anti-state hashtag to rebut. But since they used the hashtag their accounts got listed in the report.”
Imran Ghazali admitted to adding the disclaimer after Fereeha raised an objection about the fairness of the report.
The Current asked Ghazali about how they have divided the report to show which people mentioned were anti-state and which ones were considered pro-state. Ghazali refused to directly answer the question and stated, “We have not given any number for pro-state or anti-state accounts but showed below the hashtags we highlighted the accounts which contributed to a certain hashtag – tweets, top contributors, replies etc.”
When we pressed him to answer the question about how the people selected were separated into anti-state and pro-state, he said, “If an account is listed in a report – it doesn’t always imply that the content of the tweet is Anti-State. Some accounts have engaged/replied with an anti-state hashtag to rebut. But since they used the hashtag their accounts got listed in the report.”
The implication of his answers show that the report does not – and cannot- differentiate people’s points of view on a tweet, which means that someone who has posted a ‘pro-state’ tweet condemning the hashtag will also be added into the list of someone who is considered anti-state.
WAS THE GOVERNMENT ALLOWED TO USE THE APP ‘TWEEPSMAP’?
The Current reached out to TweepsMap, which was the primary analysis app used by the government for this report. The maps and information all have the Tweepsmap link on the maps and all charts in the report. We asked the CEO of TweepsMap Samir Al-Battran if they considered the analysis of the report to be authentic since it used their app service. Samir told us, “The government of Pakistan is not authorised to use our service. We will investigate how they got access to our analysis and get back to you on this.”
We asked him for further details, asking if an individual used their service for analysis for a government funded report, would that be against their rules, to which Samir replied and said, “…Government agencies go through a vetting process before we allow them to use our service. We were never in communication with the government of Pakistan…Yes, [using the app without informing us what it is for] would be a misrepresentation and is definitely against our rules.”
The Current asked Ghazali if they used the application and if they had authorisation to which he said, “We used different tools/APIs including our internal tools to analyse data”. We asked him since TweepsMap is the only one that is being listed in the report, if they had gotten a subscription for the government of Pakistan to which we got no response.
WHAT ELSE IS IN THE REPORT?
We analysed the tweets used in the 85 screenshots present in the report and found some comical discrepancies. One retweet had the #SajalAly hashtag along with the ‘anti-state’ hashtag ‘#AccountabilityofZarbeAzb’. We went through the Twitter account to find that the tweet mentioned in the report was a meme of Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan.
A tweet by former Interior Minister Rehman Malik is included in the #SanctionPakistan list in which he is criticising Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the US.
The tweet Rehman Malik retweeted
The report also includes references to “a group of Wikipedia Admins most of whom are based in India,” giving state level credibility to an online encyclopedia that can be edited by anyone. With glaring spelling mistakes and analysis based on unauthorised data, the summary of the Digital Media Wing Deep Analysis report has been summed up by one senior data analyst based in Singapore, “That just goes to show… they don’t understand how it works.”
The Chupke Chupke star paid a tribute to the veteran Bollywood actor Madhuri Dixit by performing on her two iconic songs in her dance reels. Ayeza recreated Madhuri’s looks from Aaja Nachle (2007) and Aik Do Teen (1988).
Pyaray Afzal star Ayeza Khan playing a TikToker in her big-budget drama Laapata costarring Ali Rehman Khan, Sarah Khan and Gohar Rasheed.
Her character Geeti makes musical and dance oriented videos including songs from some Bollywood chartbusters of late Sridevi. She will also be donning Kajol”s avatar from Kuch Kuch Hota Hai.
