Police traced Aqib Farooq Mir's shop on hearing the news only to find him clean (File photo)
When Aqib Farooq Mir saw the police at his doorstep on Wednesday, he was clueless about the alleged crime he was going to be interrogated for. The shopkeeper had been labelled as a "newly-recruited terrorist" on social media.
Mr Mir's pictures were doing the rounds of social media platforms for a few days. When the news struck the police, they immediately traced Mr Mir's shop in the city's outskirts, following which they interrogated the shopkeeper and his family in over the news. However, after checking his previous records, the police found him clean.
Mr Mir, who had no knowledge of the circulation of his pictures on Facebook and Whatsapp, was left stunned. So were his family members, who had received several calls from relatives regarding the incident.
"On verification, it turned out to be a mischief," a police official said adding it was found that Mir is a respectable citizen and is running a shop in Beehama area of Ganderbal. His family was in stress after the fake news of his joining a militant group appeared on social media," he added.
The police later found out that the pictures describing him as a new terrorist recruit on social media platforms were posted with intent to cause fear and alarm to the public.
A case was registered over the incident. The police also managed to catch hold of one of the miscreants, Manzoor Ahmad Ganie, who circulated Mir's photograph on a WhatsApp group.
"Strict action will be taken against the mischief- and rumour-mongers who are trying to disrupt the peaceful atmosphere in the valley," the police official later said.
(With PTI inputs)