SRINAGAR: Imagine a trauma a family undergoes when miscreants spread rumors that their daughter has been tested positive.
A respectable family from Baramulla had to scurry for cover and literally, go door to door to explain that their daughter has not been tested positive in a last-ditch effort to escape social ostracization.
The family’s only fault is that their daughter is studying in Iran and presently under quarantine in Rajasthan. On Sunday, rumors spread in Baramulla that she has returned home and tested positive. Chaos and confusion reigned supreme as people started pressing the panic button.
Despite family clarifying that their daughter is in Rajasthan, people were in no mood to listen. Even miscreants took to social media to amplify the panic in an apparent bid to ensure the ostracisation of the family.
“I request the concerned authorities to disclose the name of the patient who is diagnosed with Covid 19 in Baramulla because there are rumors that it is my daughter. My daughter is in quarantine at Rajasthan since she was evacuated from Iran. She is fine. We are following all the rules. Please stop spreading rumors and show some courtesy in this hour of disaster”, pleaded the father of the girl.
Talking to The Kashmir Monitor over the phone from Rajasthan, a girl( name witheld) has been in quarantine since March 18.
“My 14 days mandatory quarantine period is ending on April 1. Alhamdulillah, I am doing fine. I have not returned home. I got calls from my family saying they are receiving calls that I have returned home and tested positive. Reality is that I am in Rajasthan since I came from Shiraz Iran”, she said.
She was initially tested which came back negative. “There are no symptoms. I have been put in quarantine as a precautionary measure. My second test will be conducted when my quarantine period will be over. After that the government will take me home”, she said.
Senior Superintendent of Police, Baramulla, Abdul Qayoom told The Kashmir Monitor that nobody has lodged any complaint so far. “If the family approaches us, we will register a case and take legal action”, he said.
