New Delhi: Even as the Uttar Pradesh police and administration tried to contain communally-targeted mob violence that broke out in Bahraich during Durga idol immersion procession, a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA stoked another communal fire on social media as he shared a list of Muslim journalists, casting doubts over their impartial coverage of the incident.

One person, a Hindu youth identified as Gopal Mishra, was killed due to a bullet injury and several others were injured in the communal violence in the Maharajganj area of Bahraich’s Mahasi tehsil on the evening of October 13.

Amid these developments, BJP MLA from Deoria, Shalabh Mani Tripathi, who is the former media advisor to chief minister Yogi Adityanath, posted on X, “Just read the names of the journalists sending news from Bahraich, you will understand how unbiased and true the news is. A group of YouTubers is also engaged. The whole system is engaged in saving the rioters and in spreading lies.”

With his post, Tripathi, who was himself a television journalist before he joined the BJP, attached a list of 13 journalists – all of them Muslims – along with the media group they are associated with. The list included journalists linked to NDTV, PTI, India TV, ANI, News 24, Bhaskar TV and Bharat Samachar. While many other journalists, including those from the Hindu community, are reporting on the events from the district, Tripathi only named journalists from the Muslim community in his post.

The finer details of the incident and its exact sequence are still unclear, but based on information gathered so far, it seems to have started when........

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