Twitter profile claiming to be official account of ‘Gilgit-Baltistan, Ladakh(U.T.), India’ is fake

May 13, 2020 Rhea Binoy

Spread the truth:

Claim: “New Twitter handle of Gilgit-Baltistan, Ladakh, UT, India: @GB_Ladakh_India ”

A Twitter profile has come up, claiming to be the Official Twitter account of Gilgit-Baltistan, Ladakh. People across various social media platforms are sharing the screenshots of the profile. The account has over 34.2K followers and shows as joined in May 2020.

FACEBOOK

A lot of people have been sharing the screenshots

TWITTER

The screenshots of the profile of the Twitter handle, have been spreading on Twitter very extensively,

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Our generation is very lucky to witness the removal of Art 370 and now including Gilgit-Baltistan(POK) in UT of Lakakh.
After including Gilgit-Baltistan in weather report GOI created the tweeter handle of Office of Gilgit-Baltistan Ladakh (U.T.),India@GB_Ladakh_India
GreatMove. pic.twitter.com/DCoG4SHDt6

— Abhijit Patil (@Abhijit01000905) May 12, 2020

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The posts are being shared on Twitter extensively,

Truth

The Department of Information & Public relations, Leh Ladakh in the early hours of May 13, 2020 asked people to be aware of the imposter accounts.

They wrote, “The Union Territory of Ladakh has two official Twitter handles ie.“DIPR Leh Ladakh, @DIPR_Leh” & “Information Department Kargil, @InformationDep4” & only these two Twitter handles are used by the administration of Ladakh to disseminate data & to make all important announcements.“

The Union Territory of Ladakh has two official Twitter handles ie.“DIPR Leh Ladakh, @DIPR_Leh” & “Information Department Kargil, @InformationDep4” & only these two Twitter handles are used by the administration of Ladakh to disseminate data & to make all important announcements. pic.twitter.com/ESxRlTpP6Z

— DIPR Leh Ladakh (@DIPR_Leh) May 12, 2020

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The Spokesperson, Ministry of Home Affairs, also asked the people to be aware of the imposters and clarified that there is no official account of Govt. of UT of Ladakh. The spokesperson wrote, “Kindly follow @DIPR_Leh & @InformationDep4 for official updates on UT of Ladakh. There is NO other official account of Govt. of UT of Ladakh. BEWARE OF IMPOSTERS.”

Kindly follow @DIPR_Leh & @InformationDep4 for official updates on UT of Ladakh.

There is NO other official account of Govt. of UT of Ladakh. BEWARE OF IMPOSTERS. @PMOIndia @HMOIndia https://t.co/LR6MdiED9M

— Spokesperson, Ministry of Home Affairs (@PIBHomeAffairs) May 13, 2020

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To make things more clear, the Press Information Bureau’s Fact-check team put out a tweet, stating that the Twitter handle of the Gilgit-Baltistan, Ladakh, UT, India is fake and that the UT of Ladakh has only 2 official Twitter handles ie @DIPR_Leh & @InformationDep4.

They wrote,“#PIBFactCheck: It is a #Fake handle. Union Territory of Ladakh has only 2 official Twitter handles ie @DIPR_Leh & @InformationDep4. Follow them for official updates.”

Claim: A twitter handle @GB_Ladakh_India claims to be official account of "Gilgit-Baltistan, Ladakh, UT, India"#PIBFactCheck: It is a #Fake handle. Union Territory of Ladakh has only 2 official Twitter handles ie @DIPR_Leh & @InformationDep4.
Follow them for official updates pic.twitter.com/sKzK6xvpIC

— PIB Fact Check (@PIBFactCheck) May 13, 2020

Since the fact-check by PIB, the Twitter handle of ‘Gilgit-Baltistan, Ladakh(U.T.), India’ has removed ‘Official’ from their bio.

The Twitter profile has come after the government’s decision to include the PoK areas Gilgit-Baltistan and Muzaffarabad in the weather reports which are broadcasted by DD, and AIR. The news report can be read here.