AFP report, Sept 7, 2023 at 22: 20 hrsHundreds of articles praising Bangladeshi government policies apparently by independent experts have appeared in national and international media but the authors have questionable credentials, fake photos, and may not even exist, an AFP investigation has found. Commentators say it is evidence of a sustained campaign of disinformation by unknown actors ahead of elections due by the end of January but appears to be intended to benefit the…
Posts tagged as “fake”
AFP report, Sept 7, 2023 at 22: 20 hrsHundreds of articles praising Bangladeshi government policies apparently by independent experts have appeared in national and international media but the authors have questionable credentials, fake photos, and may not even exist, an AFP investigation has found. Commentators say it is evidence of a sustained campaign of disinformation by unknown actors ahead of elections due by the end of January but appears to be intended to benefit the…
by Anil Giri in The Kathmandu Post, Aug 20, 2023Despite seemingly strong reservations of Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Home Affairs Narayan Kaji Shrestha, a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday transferred five assistant inspector generals (AIGs) of Nepal Police including the one who was leading the investigation on the fake Bhutanese refugee scam. Nepal Police headquarters also sent another proposal to the home ministry on the transfer of six senior superintendents of police (SSPs) who…
By Prithvi Man Shrestha in The Kathmandu Post, June 17, 2023The Kathmandu District Court on Friday sent 16 people including former ministers Top Bahadur Rayamajhi and Bal Krishna Khand to jail after a hearing in a fake Bhutanese refugee scam. A single bench of judge Prem Prasad Neupane passed the order after the end of a detention hearing that continued for around two weeks. Deepak Dahal, information officer at the Kathmandu District Court, told the…
By Prithvi Man Shrestha in The Kathmandu Post, May 25, 2023The District Attorney Office Kathmandu on Wednesday filed criminal cases at the District Court Kathmandu against 30 individuals including former deputy prime minister Top Bahadur Rayamajhi and former home minister Bal Krishna Khand, accusing their involvement in the fake Bhutanese refugee scam. The attorney office said they have been charged with four types of crimes—treason, organised crime, fraud and forgery. “We have sought additional punishment…
By Prithivi Man Shrestha in The Kathmandu Post, May 15, 2023The public outrage sparked by the news of creation of fake Bhutanese refugees to send them to the United States is growing. There are daily protests on the streets. The Parliament is in uproar. Top political leaders seem to be scrambling to try to contain the scam’s fallout. The Post’s Prithvi Man Shrestha talked to Surya Nath Upadhyay, former chief commissioner of the Commission for…
report in The Express Tribune, Jan 16, 2023Federal Minister for Information Technology and Telecommunication Syed Aminul Haque on Friday said that Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has blocked 6,418 Uniform Resource Locators (URLs) involved in spreading fake news. In a written reply to the question of Senator Bahramand Khan Tangi, he said that the URLs had been blocked following the complaints lodged by stakeholders, including organisations, general public and proactive search pertaining to spreading of fake…
Edit in Daily Times, Dec 13, 2022Just a week after Karachi East Zone Police had made the headlines for all the wrong reasons, another overambitious police officer (this time, in Kasur) was ready to script out a fake encounter so that his newly-minted SHO belt could boast of a shiny notch. Thankfully this time, a viral audio recording of his designs to trap a proclaimed offender and “shoot him dead” in so-called retaliation found its…