On the afternoon of Monday, 13 August, an unidentified gunman opened fire on JNU student activist Umar Khalid outside the Constitution Club in New Delhi. Khalid escaped unharmed as his assailant led the scene.
Khalid was at the venue to attend an event titled 'Khauff Se Azaadi', organised by an organisation named 'United Against Hate'.
Even though many of Khalid’s fellow activists have condemned the attack, a number of trolls on Twitter and Facebook peddled theories on how the attack was ‘staged’ to gain sympathy in favour of the ‘Tukde Tukde gang’, a term used for those who they judge ‘anti-national’.
In what is undoubtedly classed as hate speech, others on social media publicly regretted that the assailant had missed his target, wishing that Khalid had in fact been shot dead.
This is not the first time that hate speech has gone brazen and unpunished on social media. When Gauri Lankesh was shot dead earlier this year, along with condolences and outrage, social media erupted with hate, with many openly celebrating her killing.
No action was taken against any of the culprits.
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)