Skipper Virat Kohli had thrown his full support behind Mohammed Shami, after the fast bowler faces Islamophobic abuse on social media following India’s T20 World Cup cricket defeat against Pakistan. But, the issue is far from over as many tweeple associated with Hindutva abused Kohli and his family and even issued a rape threat to the captain’s 10-month-old daughter on social media.
Kohli, his partner actor Anushka Sharma and their 10-month-old daughter were abused on social media platform Twitter by many self-proclaimed Hindu nationalists, under the hashtag #ChupRehBhadweViratKohli.
Maktoob confirmed that a user, issued a rape threat to the infant, and also shared photos of her online.
“Twitter I’d is of RW (right-wing) guy from South India. As soon as his tweet screenshot went viral, he changed profile pic and bio and is now pretending to be Pakistani,” according to Fact-Checker and Co-founder of Alt News, Mohammed Zubair.
In another tweet, Zubair said the Twitter account @Criccrazygirl is a right-wing troll from Hyderabad.
Several fact-checkers debunked the claims of Hindutva profiles including right-wing portal OpIndia that the account that has openly threatened Kohli’s daughter is of a Pakistani.
On Friday, Kohli was particularly angry over the abuse aimed at Shami.
“Attacking someone over their religion is the most pathetic thing that a human being can do. They have no understanding of how much effort we put on the field. They have no understanding of the fact that someone like Shami has won India matches in the last few years,” he said.
From the moment Pakistan completed a 10-wicket victory against India, pacer Shami, a Muslim member of India’s playing-XI, was subjected to terrible anti-Muslim abuse on social media. The match finished in the 18th over bowled by Shami as Pakistan chased down a target of 152 runs with relative ease at the Dubai International Stadium.
Many Hindu nationalist Twitter users targeted the skipper after he spoke out in defence of the only Muslim player in the squad.
