Facebook ‘journalist’ puts deceased’s family in trouble
DROSH: A government official-turned Facebook journalist on Tuesday circulated an unauthenticated news about the death of a woman from coronavirus creating panic among people of different villages besides tormenting the grieving family of the deceased.
The Facebook journalist, who is said to be working in a government office in Chitral, claimed: “Chitral’s first death from coronavirus. Deceased belonged to Shishikoh and was buried at Khairabad: Resue 1122 sources.”
However, Rescue 1122 denied that its staff had shared any news about the patient with anyone.
But the unauthenticated news spread to many people.
The woman originally belonged to Shishikoh and was married at Birir. But her family lives in Khairabad. She was admitted to the DHQ hospital Chitral with the complaint of food poison where she died on Tuesday.
While Rescue 1122 was transporting the body to Drosh and TMA officials at Drosh were ready for the burial as per the SOP the local people at Khairabad learnt that she had died of coronavirus and refused to allow her burial in their graveyard and said as the woman belonged to Birir the body should be taken to her ancestral place.
In this chaos, the dead body was shifted to the THQ hospital Drosh but there too panic was created due to the “breaking news in social media. After midnight, the body was taken to Birir for burial.
All this happened due to an unauthenticated news posted on Facebook. It not only put the relatives of the deceased woman in distress but also created panic among the general public.
It is learned that the woman was brought to the THQ hospital Drosh two days back with the complaint of food poisoning but on Tuesday she was shifted to the DHQ hospital Chitral where she died.
Public circles have demanded the district administration should take action against such elements who disseminate unsubstantiated news and create panic among the citizens.