A collage of two pictures is being shared on social media with a claim that the person in a burqa who threw a petrol bomb at the CRPF camp in Sopore (J&K) is Rayees Ahmad Bhat. He was reportedly killed in an encounter. Let’s fact-check the claim made in the post.
Claim: The person in a burqa who threw a petrol bomb at the CRPF camp in Sopore (J&K) is Rayees Ahmad Bhat.
Fact: The person in a burqa who threw a petrol bomb at the CRPF camp in Sopore (J&K) is a woman, not a man. While Kashmir Zone Police have tweeted on 30 March 2022 that Rayees Ahmad Bhat was killed in an encounter, IGP Vijay Kumar told the media on 31 March 2022 that they arrested Haseena Akhtar who threw a petrol bomb at the CRPF camp. Hence the claim made in the post is MISLEADING.
The ID card photo was found to be tweeted by the Kashmir Zone Police on 30 March 2022. They tweeted the photo and wrote – “Killed terrorist (Rayees Ah Bhat) was earlier a journalist & was running online news portal ‘ValleyNews Service’ in Anantnag”. They did not say anywhere that Rayees Ahmad Bhat is the person in a burqa who threw a petrol bomb at the CRPF camp in Sopore. The news articles regarding the encounter of Rayees Ahmad Bhat can be read here, here, and here.
On 30 March 2022, several media agencies have reported that a bomb was hurled at CRPF bunker by a burqa-clad woman in Sopore. The same day, talking to ‘ANI’, IGP Kashmir Vijay Kumar said – “The woman who hurled a bomb at the CRPF bunker in Sopore yesterday has been identified. She will be arrested soon”. IGP Vijay Kumar told the media on 31 March 2022 that they arrested Haseena Akhtar who threw a petrol bomb at the CRPF camp. So, it was not Rayees Ahmad Bhat who threw the petrol bomb.
To sum it up, the burqa-clad person who threw a bomb at the CRPF camp in Sopore (J&K) is Haseena Akhtar, not Rayees Ahmad Bhat.
