Indian Gunman Incident Stokes Conspiracy Over Anti-CAA Protest Shooting

Indian police identified the gunman as a 17-year-old teenager after he began firing at protestors near the Jamia Millia Islamia (JMI) university in New Delhi. | Source: Reuters/Danish Siddiqui

• The protests against India’s controversial Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) have been losing steam due to rising instances of violence and religious extremism.
• But the protests garnered attention after a shooter opened fire at the protesters.
• The series of events leading up to the shooting and the shooting itself has many people alleging the shooting was a false flag operation.

After the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) was introduced by the Narendra Modi-led NDA government, protests have been taking place all over India. The area of Shaheen Bagh in India’s capital New Delhi has been the epicenter of the protests.

The mainstream media has branded the protests as peaceful. But there have been multiple incidences of violence, vandalism, and Islamic fundamentalism witnessed at the protests across the country.

Apart from the violence, the protests have also been home to rising Islamic fundamentalism. For instance, the chief organizer of the demonstrations at Shaheen Bagh, Sharjeel Imam, was recently arrested by the Indian police for sedition after he expressed his desire to “cut off” the state of Assam from India.

Imam quickly rose to fame for his contributions to the protests. However, his downfall was even quicker after the Indian police revealed that he was a radicalized fundamentalist who wanted to turn India into an Islamic state [Times of India].

There have been multiple other incidences of rising religious fundamentalism at Shaheen Bagh.

Ever since the protests turned ugly, they have been losing steam across the nation. It seems like the protests have benefited Prime Minister Modi as, according to a recent survey [Abplive] of the capital, the majority was in support of the Citizenship Amendment Act .

Shaheen Bagh is Getting Attention Again

A man named Rambhakt Gopal, a supposed Hindu nationalist, tried to take matters in his own hands. He brandished a gun at the protesters near the Jamia Milia University and managed to fire one shot before the police came and took away his weapon.

After sweeping several instances of violence from the CAA-protesters under the rug, the mainstream media has unsurprisingly given stunning coverage to this shooting [India Today]. However, the timing of the shooting, the events preceding and succeeding it raised many questions, especially among Twitter users.

A large number of people had gathered at the site of the protest before the shooting occurred.  But when the shooter emerged from the crowd and brandished a gun at the protesters, no one was quite as spooked as one would expect.

India is not a gun-friendly nation. The gun laws are extremely stringent, and people are not used to seeing guns in the hand of an ordinary citizen. So in the rare cases that a firearm is brandished, people panic and run for cover.

However, in the case of this shooting, the journalists can be seen standing just a few meters away. Some were even moving towards the shooter while the police uncharacteristically stood their ground.

Moreover, it was pointed out that before the incident, the shooter was among the protesters. Then suddenly, all cameras pointed at him when he walked out with a gun.

This begs the question, if the Shaheen Bagh shooter really wanted to shoot the protesters why didn’t he do it when he was among them? And why was he walking towards the police?

Inconsistencies Lead to Suspicion of False Flag

The reaction of the people around the shooter isn’t the only thing that raised suspicion, though. The person on the receiving end of the bullet, had a red bottle strapped to his arm near the wound as he walked off after being shot.

Since there’s no actual picture of the wound, the red bottle has several Twitter users alleging that the injury was part of the false flag.

Besides, Rambhakt Gopal created his profile back in 2018. But he suddenly became active in January 2020, going on a posting spree about his Hindu-centric political affiliations.

Shadily, almost all of his posts were about his political and religious affiliations. His statuses right before the shooting, his posts and the pages he liked on Facebook, all occurred in January.

The Shaheen Bagh shooter also went ahead and disliked a few left-leaning pages when he was allegedly in police custody. But he missed out on a few.

It seems that the Shaheen Bagh protesters accomplished what they were seeking from the event, loads of media attention, and tons of public sympathy. But as the red flags keep propping up, it looks like the whole event can go awry for the protesters.

Disclaimer: The above should not be considered trading advice from CCN.com. The opinions expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect the views of CCN.com.