Kasab’s Faridkot .. Indian media Vs Pakistan media

FARIDKOT found prominent place in Indian media as the place of origin of the lone gunman arrested by Indian commandos. When Indian media, quoting police, claimed that Ajmal Ameer Kasab was from Faridkot in Pakistan, he Pakistani media countered accusing the former of avoiding mentioning that there was also a town with the same name in the Indian state of Punjab.

In Pakistan, villages named Faridkot— one each in Khanewal, Pakpattan and Okara — attracted the attention of intelligence agencies and Indian media to ‘prove’ that the terrorist was a Pakistani. Faridkot in Khanewal, also known as Chak No 90/10-R, is a hamlet on the Jahanian Road, located 53 km from Multan with a population of nearly 35,00. This village has one primary school and two mosques, one managed by Barelvis and the other by Shias.

Pakistani media claimed that, the Indian media was not even sure whether the alleged attacker is named Ajmal Amir Kamal, Muhammad Ajmal, Muhammad Amin Kasab, Azam Amir Kasav or Azam Amir Kasab. One of the news paper in Pakistan quoted some villagers in Faridkot of Khanewal saying that there were four people named Ajmal in the village, surprisingly the one whose name also included Kamal had died 15 years ago. Villager Haqnawaz, told that Kamal was son of Muhammad Shafi. Another man named Ajmal had shifted to Ahmedpur East several years ago. The third Ajmal worked in a tea processing factory and the fourth one was a labourer, he said.

Later on many stories came up in Pakistani newspapers claiming that The Faridkot of terror accused was not in their soil. From other two villages named Faridkot, villagers were quoted claiming that there was no person by the name of Amin or Azam and did not know what ‘Kasab’ or ‘Kasav’ meant. He said people of the village were peaceful and no one from Faridkot had visited India. Khanewal police raided Faridkot twice over the past two days to gather details about the alleged terrorist. “We thoroughly checked the village record when Indian media started saying someone from this village was involved in the (Mumbai) attack. The hype is misplaced,” said District Police Officer Kamran Khan. He said police had done the checking on their own, without any instruction from the government.

Existence of another village named Faridkot is near Pakpattan was also reported. It has a population of 2,000 with farmers in majority. Another Faridkot was reported is a remote village in Deepalpur tehsil in Okara district.