“It was the smell that was the worst. In this dusty camp on Pakistan’s border with Iran, which at one stage held more than 6,000 people, the stench of sweat, rubbish and human excrement hung in the air. There was no real housing, just five people to a ragged tent, and no bathrooms, towels or blankets.” – This is how the Guardian article starts, which riled up the Baloch CM. After 24 hours the Chief Minister Balochistan Jam Kamal accused British publication, The Guardian, for publishing a fake story about the quarantine camp at Taftan, claiming that the photos were actually from Quetta.
Guardian has published a totally fake story on Taftan. The reporters didn’t even bother to visit Taftan.
The Picture are of Quetta…as there are no pine trees in Taftan.
This is what fake, directed pics, manipulated and what to show and what not to show news does. pic.twitter.com/Xh3z2tIFzF
— Jam Kamal Khan (@jam_kamal) March 21, 2020
The second thing CM claimed was (before this tweet), that the conditions at the camps were not just good but actually better than all other provinces.
The reality is far from true
First the picture. Now I’m no expert with the Taftan landscape so I am not going to argue on the Pine Trees but the picture itself has been verified by the photographer.
— Naseer Ahmed (@Naseerahmed974) March 21, 2020
Now that being said, credit where it’s due – the caption infact does say it’s outskirts of Quetta and doesn’t really specify the exact location. But even if one picture was miscaptioned, it doesn’t change the fact that the situation at these quarantine camps isn’t less then disgusting. This concern has been widely shared by various international and national publications much before the guardian article.
Some pictures from the camps
These pictures and above mentioned articles have been discussing the poor, smelly and disgusting conditions for more then a week now. The Gaurdian Article just came 2 days ago. The Tastan camp reportedly lacks clean water, space and any kind of utility or living condition a decent human being might need. I’m not saying crises are easy to curb but straight up lying about it and calling it fake news isn’t going to change anything.